What Did I See In The Sky?

[CaptainApollo]

Hello everyone! While enjoying a nice evening, I went outside to see if the moon was out yet. To my great amazement, I saw some kind of large-ish reddish, almost flaming object, streaking across the sky. I got a very bad picture, and I was wondering what it could be! You can see it in the top of the picture, it was moving pretty fast and disappeared before I could take a good shot, and this was taken with zoom! If anyone knows or has a guess please say so! : )

[ColKlonk]

Nice trees..

You didn't use the camera viewfinder, I take it.

Well, at the risk of placing yourself under observation... it's a cloud, or a weather balloon.

Do you live near an airbase - That there is a small cloud there, and you say it was traveling at 'high speed'.. there would have been a longer vapour trail, maybe horizon to horizon.

Nah.. just trees and a cloud

[NovaSilisko]

My guess: Jet contrail illuminated by the brilliant orange light of sunset at its altitude. It's a very striking phenomena - sometimes local atmospheric conditions will leave only a short span of contrail, which makes a short dash of flaming orange in the sky without an apparent source. And, sometimes, they disappear almost as soon as they're formed, which could create what you observed.

[CaptainApollo]

Haha, thanks. And no, I was using the LCD screen. Very interesting, a cloud. And no, I don't live near one, and I'm not sure, it wasn't that small. It had a long trail, it just looks like that because of the bad shot!

It could be, although it was a bit shorter than the average jet trail. If it was, then it is, it was very nice. If it was very short, then it could've been that! I think it was probably just that! : )

[Nibb31]

It could be some sort of meteorite.

Where do you live?

[ThatGuyWithALongUsername]

Wrong.

Aliens.

[dryer_lint]

I concur. Aliens. [/sarcasm]

I'm not an expert by any means, but this does sound like a meteorite... how fast was it moving? Did it cross the sky or just fade out quickly?

[Kryten]

How recent was this, and where was it? There's an old Molniya upper stage due to re-enter later today, and one being a day or so early wouldn't be unprecedented-these things are very hard to predict.

[CaptainApollo]

I live in Western Canada. And it could be a meteor, that would be very cool! I'm not sure exactly how fast, but pretty fast; it was gone almost as soon as I grabbed my camera, that's why the shot is so poor. It seemed to fade out a little, and disappeared over the hills. I would've been able to see it more and tell you more details if the hills had not been there! Kryten, Western Canada. I didn't know about this, this is very interesting. They do sometimes re-enter before time, and it was very recent. I started the thread 10 minutes or so after I saw it.

[Fel]

I have to agree with others... if it was a meteorite you should see a small dark speck at the front, which is clearly absent. It obviously is a cloaked alien ship.

(In truth, the sky looks perfect for the "pink clouds" effect)

http://www.freenaturepictures.com/assets/images/lores/orangecloud.jpg

Edited June 22, 2015 by Fel

[lajoswinkler]

"streaking across the sky" - yeah, I really don't think that's what you saw. Streaking means it was moving fast. You saw a sunset illuminated contrail.

[Kryten]

Kryten, Western Canada.

Definitely not that then, orbit path is nowhere near.

[CaptainApollo]

Yes, I thought so. Thanks for the replies everyone!

[CelticCossack51]

Some sort of military aircraft? I guess the military had Harry Potter has their head scientist. Or it's most likely some space debris.

[CaptainApollo]

Good guess, perhaps it could.

[Dartguy]

Here's the answer, I bet: http://www.spaceweather.com/

A fuel dump by the ESA rocket that launched that day.

[noisygate]

either a meteorite or an alien ship