MY MOST UNUSUAL OBSERVATION!
 
 
 
 

If memory serves me correctly, my most unusual observation occurred on the night of October
17, 1986. I did keep some notes on this strange spectacle, but don’t have them on hand any
more. Mars had put on a good show that year, and I decided to take a look at it once again. It
was a Friday evening, about 8 or 9 o’clock, and I had my 6" f/10 Newtonian reflector set up in
the driveway. My observation of Mars was quite routine that evening, but something happened
that made me forget all about the red planet!

As I tired of looking at the small red orb in the eyepiece, I glanced about for something else to
look at before breaking down the telescope for the night. Since the Moon was full, nothing
much looked promising, but I decided to take a look at the full Moon. I don’t know why I wanted
to do this, since there isn’t much to see during this part of the Lunar orbit. I swung the ‘scope
to have a look anyway, and to my amazement, I noticed a very, very tiny black dot traveling
across the face of the Moon. I was incredulous, thinking that I had seen an artificial satellite
transit the Moon’s face. The object was almost at the limit of my vision, crossing centrally, and
seemed to take 20 seconds or so to exit. As I was standing at the ‘scope congratulating myself,
I looked into the eyepiece once again. ANOTHER very small black object had just entered the
Moon’s face and was marching across.

This time, I realized that there just couldn’t be TWO satellite transits so close together, so I
carefully looked at the sight and tried to imagine what I was seeing…. My chagrin was finally
eased when a trio of these extremely small dots entered the Lunar disk, and began their pass
in front of the Moon. They were traveling together in a clump, and I came to realize what they
actually were.

 I was undoubtedly witnessing a transit of small helium filled balloons. It was early in the
evening on a Friday night in October. Probably somewhere there was a High School football
game in progress, and a festive release of these balloons had taken place. The balloons would
have been very high, and quite unobservable… except when passing before the bright face of
the Moon. That is my conjecture, and I am satisfied with it. It was a very interesting evening to
say the least!
 
 

Bob Frybarger (Secretary)
AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS OF JACKSON
910 Edgewood Street
Jackson, MI 49202-3804
(517) 784-9061
BFRYBARGER@AMERITECH.NET         Back to home                 Back to top of Page