An incredible lightshow appeared in the south, travelling west to east across the sky above Tasmania.

Video was captured by several readers of The Examiner, including Jess Hampson who got a stunningly clear video and photo of the astronomical event.

Tastrofest director and astrophysicist Brittany Trubody speculated it was a satellite or something man-made which was re-entering the atmosphere.

"What you're seeing essentially is celestial skid marks in the atmosphere," she told The Examiner.

"It is just not a common thing. It happens every day but usually when it happens at night we're inside and not looking at the sky so to see it is really exciting.

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"When there is a catastrophic failure of something on launch they try to aim it at the South Pacific so there is the least likelihood of it striking something.

"Most of the time it does actually burn up re-entry.

"When they de-orbit the Hubble telescope they are going to aim for the South Pacific.

"We happen to be on a really great trajectory to see these things.

"They're travelling about 7-8 kilometres per second and then atmosphere then puts the brakes on."

Launceston Planetarium manager Martin George said a Russian military satellite had been launched at 5.46pm Tasmanian time.

"I can't be sure that the debris that was seen was related to it," he said. "As far as I know, the launch was successful."

"The debris could have been a related rocket booster re-entering [the atmosphere]."

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