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A rocket “comet” in the Maledivean skies

A rocket "comet" in the Maledivean skies

A rocket "comet" in the Maledivean skies

A rocket “comet” in the Maledivean skies

A rocket “comet” in the Maledivean skies – detail

While staring in the starry sky, with the Milky Way, Jupiter, Saturn and also Venus with Mercury over Maledivean island Soneva Fushi, a big surprise occurs on 12 April, 2019. From nowhere a big diffuse slowly moving object appears in Aquarius constellation, getting wider and wider, and looking like a big comet in the sky. It takes minutes until it’s too big and faint while the dawn makes it disappear from my sight completely. What was that? Well, according to informations of satellites this would be most probably part of flight sequence of Arabsat-6A satellite on its way on geosynchronous orbit after it had launched onboard of rocket Falcon Heavy (prhaps stage 2 of the rocket). The image shows about 8-minutes long exposure of the phenomenon while the object was expanding in the sky (moved from right to left). I have never seen something like that before, such an unique and spectacular show in the sky! Used Canon 6D Baader IR modified, Samyang 12 mm, f3.5, 6×80 seconds multiexposure on Vixen Polarie mount (wide view) and Sigma 50 mm, f2.2 (detail).