Condamine, Australia

In the evenings one can enjoy a little skywatching while relaxing with a cuppa. ABC radio quietly chat show natter in the background.

A couple of fast object traverse the sky with random flashes. Possibly space station or iridium satelite. Couple of "falling stars" and stars too numerous to imagine. Orions belt with it 3 bright norches and his sword held aloft. The creamy milky way smeared across a galaxy or two.

It is a humbling thought how vastly miniscule we frail creatures really are. My pondering ut short by an odd red light moving relatively slowly across the sky and then disappearing as suddenly as it appeared. Probably some sort of aircraft beacon. A bit later and it is there again only to dissappear.

I was curious since airlines don't behave like this. Then I recalled an app I had downloaded some time back. It's promise was to show where aeroplanes were by transponder data. Now was as good a time as any to try it out. I ran it up and oriented the map. Soon I was able to work out what aircraft it was.

Apparently it had taken off over 2 hours ago and the flight path was curious. I followed it for another hour appearing and disappearing randomly. I suspect but can not confirm some sort of night training. It identified as an Airbus travelling at some 800 plus kph. The pilots must have been getting just a little dizzy.Läs mer