Fire in the Sky

Unusual Sight Captured on Camera

Alexia Johnston
The Timaru Herald
Tue, 19 Jun 2012 22:15 UTC

© Gary Brooker
Rare Sight: Oamaru man Gary Brooker, near Moeraki at the time, captured this image of a bright object in the sky on June 3.

A bright blaze shooting across the night sky has been caught on camera by Oamaru man Gary Brooker.

Mr Brooker was driving north along State Highway 1, near Moeraki, when he spotted the bright trail at 6pm on June 3.

''I was coming home along the main road and I spotted it going down so I stopped and took a photo.

''I didn't think it was a plane because the vapour trail would have been white, but this was burning.''

He said there was an obvious object leading the trail, which he believed was a piece of ''junk''.

''I wouldn't have a clue (how fast it was going). I was doing 100km on the main highway, but I had enough time to put my foot on the brake, stop and take a photo and then it was gone.

''Somebody said it could have been out near Australia. It could have been miles and miles away, but it was so bright.''

It was the first time Mr Brooker had witnessed such an event. He has since shared his discovery with other people, including a friend who has researched the sighting online.

And it turns out Mr Brooker was not the only one who witnessed the rare event over New Zealand.

Another sighting, believed to be the same object, was recorded on the internet, along with another photo, Mr Brooker said.

Reader Comments

tonybalony · 2012-06-20T12:00:45Z

Not Unusual at all

Having been an outdoor photographers for many years...and having observed many things it's obvious to me what this is.

Airline jet contrail.

First look at background sky: typical dusk sky.

Look at clouds at lower right: typical coloration for clouds at dusk.

Look at the contrail carefully...you can see distinct double line. It is likely there's 2 on each side, but the resolution of the camera is not enough to pick up on the paired engines but enough for the separation between the 2 pairs.

Why the orange contrail? Being at even higher altitude than the clouds it is still getting light from the sun which at that altitude is in the process of setting, hence the orange color.

Bearscare · 2012-06-22T04:17:56Z

The altitude of clouds does not determine the redness of them at dusk. The reason the sky and clouds appear red is because as the sun rises and sets, there is a ticker layer of atmosphere for the light rays to travel through. Red is on the end of the spectrum with longer and more powerful wavelengths. Blues and greens have shorter and weaker wave lengths and therefore get absorbed by the increase in the amount of atmosphere. People that study film tend to develop an understanding of the physics of light. If that's a plane, it's surely been crafted out of a ball of fire.

Mal7 · 2012-06-23T04:01:48Z

Re: Double line comment by Tonybaloney

Maybe if the meteor broke into two pieces, it would leave a double trail. There was a daytime meteor fireball over Texas in April 2012, which has a similar appearance. The youtube video is here:
[Link]
The frames around the 58 second period show a "double line" trail.

tonybalony · 2012-06-23T09:30:51Z

@Bearscare

You misunderstand what is meant by the altitude of the clouds being the reason. It is because at a higher altitude the effect of the setting sun happens later than for clouds at a lower altitude. When mentioning about experience in photography it was given as the reason for knowing this observation. I habitually for years have observed the sky, because I am a photographer I am continuously looking at the sky and have made many observations.

You can prove this yourself. Go outside during the summer and observe for 3 months every evening ( like I do for my daily walks ) and observe the time 1 hour to after sunset of the sky. You will find on many days that there are layers of different cloud formations at different altitudes. You will also notice that during this time period that the "underbellies" of these different cloud layers take turns being the different colors of red, orange, pinks etc. The ones at lower altitudes start first followed by the next higher clouds and lastly the highest clouds turning their colors while the lower clouds remain dull grey blues since they are now at this point out of the suns direct line of sight.

Many evenings you won't see this, but many times you will. You will also, if living near major airport like myself see a jet airliner as in the picture above; and you will know its a jet airliner because if your eyesight is good ( meaning 20/20 - better than the resolution of the above camera image ) it will be obvious to you it is a jet.

tonybalony · 2012-06-23T10:24:38Z

@ MaI7

The link you provided is showing a Jet as well...

...if you think just because NASA says its a fireball as stated in the news item....read this;

[Link]
..here is another jet contrail

[Link]

Mal7 · 2012-06-24T07:37:32Z

@ tonybalony

I think you may be right. Not that it matters much, but I think it would be more likely to be a two engined than four engine plane though simply because of the location in southern New Zealand. The main four engined planes (Boeing 747s) fly out of Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland on the international routes, and would not likely be flying as far south as Oamaru. There are international flights from Queenstown and Dunedin airports flying to Australia also, but these are two engined planes not Boeing 747s.

I would be interested to know what you think of the following link if you have time. It is a segment from one of the main tv news programmes in New Zealand, hosted by John Campbell. It shows footage of a fireball / contrail type of event in New Zealand April 2012, which was seen by observers from south of Christchurch to north of Wellington. Some of the shots look similar to a contrail, albeit with a very bright light at one end (e.g. 3:30) (sun's reflection of object into camera lens?). The shot of the trail showing at around 3:00 in the video is very curvy, which I presume is most likely from the trail being blown around by winds in the atmosphere, rather than an actual twisty and curvy path of the object (since such a curvy path would be unusual for both a meteor or a plane).

[Link]

tonybalony · 2012-06-24T13:34:51Z

@ MaI7

Hi...Imho..that is definitely a fireball in the link you provided.

Bearscare · 2012-06-28T03:21:55Z

@tony B

I suppose that's true to an extent. Unfortunatly I'm working up near the Yukon territory border right now, and I won't get to see the sun rise or set for a few months anyways. It's kind of depressing actually. I hate that it's always light out.

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