solar transit?

I was looking at the Sun last evening at about 7:30 pm central time with my Lunt 60mm telescope and I noticed a transit across the surface. The shadow was round, very well defined and it took a few seconds to pass from one side to the other. The size of the disk was comparable with the size of a sun spot. I thought at that time it must have been Mercury or Venus but when I checked today I found there were no transits on that date.

Anyone has any idea what could have been? I never saw a solar transit before, but it looked like in the pictures

Thanks,
Radu

What you're describing as moving so fast that it only took "a few seconds" to cross from one side of the sun to the other suggests that it was one of earth's artificial satellites whose path coincidentally passed between you and the sun just as you were observing the sun with your solar telescope. If so, NASA could probably identify it.

Radu,

If you provide your location, I can look for satellites transiting the Sun. Most satellites, at least those in low Earth orbit (like the ISS), take less than a second to cross the Sun.

Another possibility is a balloon. I've seen round objects cross the Moon from time to time, and decided they were small helium balloons that had escaped their captors.

Clear skies, Alan

If it were 7:30 pm central, and a satellite transited, it would have been over in less than a second or so. And it would not have been very large at all. At that time of day, man-made satellites are very very far away from the observer. They are thus very small.

The only man-made object big enough to have a shape would be the shuttle (which is not up) and the ISS, and that would be more rectangular than round. It's shape would have a structure, and not be described as round.

Transits of Mercury and Venus take on the order of many minutes.

So, I'm guessing balloon.

>>>>>but it looked like in the pictures
What pictures? Pictures of ISS or pictures of Mercury/Venus transiting?

Alex

Don`t know what it was, but defenitely not Mercury or Venus. Maybe you just confirmed the exictence of the planet Vulcan, which some astronomers thought had an orbit inside Mercury in late 1800 8)
Einsteins relative theory ruled that planet out however
Seriousely, might have been an eartbound satelite, as others posters suggests.

Anyway must have been exciting to observe!

/Magnus

Thanks for all replies. My location is 45, -93 taken from Google Maps. I don't remember exactly the time, it was 7:30pm +/- 30min...

Starry Night Pro showed a Chinese satellite that passed very close (within one or two diameters) but that had a rectangular shape.

I've seen many Jupiter transits and that shadow looked like that, perfectly circular and well defined. It took 2-3 seconds to go across the upper half of the sun right to left as I was seeing it through the telescope.

Maybe it was a balloon as some of you mentioned. I did not think of that

Regards,
Radu

I have seen the exact same thing with my Lunt 60mm. The object was round. For me it went across in less than a second. I figured it was a satellite.

Andreas