Jefferson County residents were among those who saw a strange image in the sky Tuesday night that is believed to have been the result of fuel dumped by a rocket.
Nancy Timmerman spotted the unusual spiral-shaped sight while she and her husband were walking their dog in their rural neighborhood west of Hillsboro at about 9:30 p.m.
“(I wondered) what is that? Is that a space station?” she said.
Timmerman said the object was fuzzy, kind of swirling and moving fast, adding that she was surprised she was able to capture a picture of it with her iPhone.
She said she and her husband never thought it was an alien spaceship, but they did wonder what it was.
“I live in an area where the sky is so clear we see all kinds of things,” Timmerman said.
“I saw on the web (that some said it could be) rocket fuel. It was a sight to see in person, a very cool experience.”
She posted the photo on Love My Missouri Backroads Facebook page and a local news station contacted her to see if it could use the photo she took.
Mark Jones, secretary of the St. Louis Astronomical Society, was among a few dozen spectators who gathered at the Jefferson College Observatory on Tuesday night for the peak of the Perseid meteor shower and saw the aftermath of what is believed to have been a rocket fuel dump. The Jefferson College Observatory, a partnership between the college and the St. Louis Astronomical Society, is located on Farm Road near the softball field on the northern part of the College’s Hillsboro campus.
Jones said the object in the sky was an unexpected and strange sight at first until he noted the spiral shape and recognized it as a rocket fuel dump. He’d never seen one in person before and snapped a few photos with his iPhone.
“I’ve seen mixed reports on whose rocket it was,” Jones said.
He said reports speculated it was either a rocket that launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida or one that launched in French Guiana. He also said that residents in Missouri and several other states, including ones in the northeast reported seeing the image.
Jones estimated about 30 people were gathered on the 1,800 square-foot observatory patio on blankets or in chairs.
“We saw a couple dozen meteors that night,” he said. “I heard a lot of oohs and aahs as they saw the meteors.”
While the meteor shower peaked on Tuesday night and early Wednesday, Jones said skywatchers can still a few for another week or so.
He said the Jefferson College Observatory will host its monthly Aim for the Stars event at sunset on Saturday, Aug. 16, weather permitting. It is free and open to all ages, adding that the sky won’t be completely dark until 9 p.m.
The Aim for the Stars events are held on the third Saturday of month at sunset, weather permitting.
The Observatory is used regularly by students enrolled in science and astronomy classes and by students in kindergarten through grade 12 working on educational projects. For more information, go to the Jefferson College Observatory Facebook page or go to jeffco.edu/observatory.
Jones said residents interested in astronomy are encouraged to visit the DobsonFest Telescope Fair at Stacy Park, 9750 Old Bonhomme Road, in Olivette, from 6-10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13, when people can learn how to use a telescope. The astronomy clubs in the St. Louis area sponsor the event and will exhibit and demonstrate a large variety of telescopes. For more information, visit tinyurl.com/bdfcs3rx