Isle skies’ light show
generates wide buzz

Cameras capture a
"mysterious streak"
over Hawaii Dec. 17

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes was not an astronomer, but his maxim could have come in handy during a lively Internet discussion about a "mysterious streak" of light captured by cameras on Haleakala and Mauna Kea last Dec. 17.

A photograph of the object was featured on the Night Sky Live Web site Tuesday with a call for a possible explanation. The responses came by the dozens, including those from conspiracy buffs.

But this is a serious discussion site, and some of its members were perturbed by the UFO explanations that crowded their discussions after they were profiled by a well-known Internet site.

The Night Sky Live team said it might have disregarded the streak as unconfirmed if it had not been recorded on two islands. The streak was captured by continuous cameras with fisheye lenses on Maui and the Big Island.

Night Sky Live is a collaborative project that operates 10 fisheye cameras around the world to watch the entire sky every night.

University of Hawaii astronomer Robert Jedicke said it possibly was a satellite that has not been recorded in the heavens-above Web site. "I'm pretty sure that there are military satellites that are not recorded in that Web site."

And so, as Holmes did in his adventures, Night Sky members did their homework, including the analysis of critical information posted by a South Kona resident who saw the "white blob."

"Being a frequent stargazer, my initial response was, 'What ... is that?' I have never seen an object like it before. Its size was approximately twice, maybe a little more, than the full moon diameter," he wrote.

The most probable answer: fuel dumped by an AMC-16 Atlas 5 rocket hauling a TV satellite into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

"This fuel dump was unexpectedly bright -- one of the brightest yet recorded," the site's moderator said before closing the topic.