By Ash Ellis
Our first sky watch, and our first event, of 2021 was held at a lookout spot above the Anglezarke Reservoir overlooking Chorley and the surrounding Lancashire countryside.
The threat of bad weather kept a number of attendees away last minute but those that came enjoyed a calm, dry, and fairly warm evening accompanied by a barrage of midges as the sun was setting, but they soon all disappeared and we were left in peace to enjoy the night sky.
A newbie to sky watching, Amanda, with this being her very first time, soon spotted an unusual light seemingly stationary away towards the southwest. After looking through binoculars navigation lights could be seen and a quick look on FlightRadar confirmed it was an aircraft approaching Liverpool John Lennon airport. It was on a head-on flight path to us so it appeared to be stationary when viewed from a distance, an effect which is regularly reported as an unusual light in the sky, especially when it suddenly disappears (or lands).
One of the members had brought along a military-grade infrared monocular, which gave us pretty impressive views of stars and other sky objects we couldn’t otherwise see with the naked eye. Amanda who was viewing the sky with the monocular, again alerted us to a light in the sky moving directly above us, which we could all see. It appeared to look and behave just like one of the many thousands of satellites orbiting the Earth but it suddenly changed direction very fluidly and travelled out of view at 90 degrees to it’s original flight path. All of us seen this happen.
Another incident we have yet to explain, was first seen by Abigail, and was a light off in the distance directly West and not far above the horizon. This light moved southwards before disappearing and then reappearing further South. At first we thought it could be headlights on a hill in the distance but looking on Google Earth and at the same location in daytime, there was no hill and the highest road was some distance below the light. There were no planes or other aircraft showing on any of the apps in that direction at the time, and it was too bright to have been a satellite or the ISS (which was due a pass during the night but it was too cloudy at the time of the pass to see).
The rest of the night was eventless, but we enjoyed good company, good chats, and some good hot drinks from the boot of Abi’s car!
