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X Bar Ranch Report
By: Mitchell Barry, '23
Date: July 17, 2020
My dad and I had another great night at the X Bar Ranch! We saw and imaged our first naked eye comet, our first (and second) supernovas, and quite fortunately, we had some of the best seeing ever! With the 20 inch feeling very well collimated, and with Jupiter and Saturn being near opposition, the opportunity begged for pictures. Unfortunately, as soon as I mounted my phone to the 5mm eyepiece and attached it to the 20 inch (yes, the seeing was that good), a fairly constant gentle breeze decided to try make imaging almost impossible. Nevertheless, after what felt like hours of keeping Jupiter centered in the eyepiece, I managed to get one photo that almost demonstrates how clear it was. Not only were we able to see the red spot, but we could see the fine whitish ring around the red spot, subtle details in the bands, and smaller storms that I have only seen in photos before! Saturn was every bit as difficult as Jupiter, but again, I managed to snap a photo that was worth keeping. I don’t think I will try to stack them since the breeze would force me to scrap pretty much all of the photos I took with very few exceptions.
Date: July 18, 2020
I have video of what might be the strangest, craziest, most amazing thing I have ever seen. There was a large, slow, blue fireball that lit up the ground for a full minute while observing at the X Bar Ranch. It was already fragmented when we first saw it. The current prevailing theory was that it was a satellite reentry.
I recorded 3 separate videos because I couldn't tell if I was recording. I was too busy gawking at the mystery that entered the atmosphere. I will post the videos here. What was it? Specifics (as well as I can recall them):
- Duration: >1 minute
- Time: 2:03 AM, July 28, 2020
- Approximate length of tail: 35-40 degrees
- Approximate peak total magnitude: -14
- Tail color: Blue/very cool white
- Approximate origin: Southwest
- Approximate heading: Northwest
- Last seen facing: northwest
- Sighted from: Field behind X Bar Ranch Live Oak Lodge
- Sound: silent before, during, and after
My sighting was a year-old Russian Soyuz second stage booster burning up on reentry. The rocket re-entered the earth's atmosphere and started its breakup over Coahuila, Mexico and headed north through the atmosphere over the Permian Basin.
Download a short MOV here.