April 13, 2023 at 1:04 p.m. CDT (1804 UT) from Alpine, TX
See the light blue blob in the photograph above? Even though it is partly cloudy, the light blue blob is decidedly different in color from the nearby patches of blue sky. Is this some unusual atmospheric phenomenon, or was there a daytime on orbit rocket burn (such as an apogee kick motor)? If the latter, I have not been able to find any evidence online of a rocket firing around 1804 UT on 13 Apr 2023.
Joan Oesper took this photo from the campus of Sul Ross State University in Alpine, TX at 1:04 p.m. CDT (1804 UT) on Thursday, April 13, 2023. The exact coordinates where the photograph was taken are 30° 21′ 54″ N, 103° 39′ 00″ W. She was facing an azimuth of approximately 161° (SSE) and the altitude of the blue blob was approximately 15° above the horizon.
Joan writes, “The people I saw it with said they’d been watching it and that it had moved eastward during the 5-10 minutes they were watching. It seemed to be behind the clouds.”
Has anyone seen something like this in the past? Was there an on-orbit daytime rocket firing at this time?