Straight up in the night sky at around 7pm there was what appeared to be a comet. Not just some faint blur in the midst of the night sky, but a clear bright center with a typical cone trailing to the Eastern part of the sky. Less than thirty minutes later it was much fainter but still visible in this part of the city.

 What was it?! It moved quickly (at least for a night sky object) so I don’t think it could have been too far away from our atmosphere. Perhaps a small near Earth comet? I did a cursory search for what it might be on the Internet but found no mention. Ed (http://flintstonestargazing.com/), who called me to take a gander at it, hopes to get a snapshot of it when he returns home. I hope someone gets some good photos of it and shares it with the rest of us – better yet, tell us what it is/was.

Update: just found this: on Slashdot

Better Update: http://spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av015/

ACTUAL VIDEO: SpaceWeather

Evidently it was a super secret government spy thingy… oooh what fun! Okay, maybe they just kept it quiet for security reasons.

Cool photos of the kind of event we saw can be found here:

http://www.allaboutastro.com/Delta4.html

http://spaceweather.com/submissions/map.php?cat=spacecraft_satellies&limit=10