Strange Sight !

[Mike]

Last night I went out into the garden at around half past midnight and had a look at the sky. After about 5 minutes I went back inside and as I was about to close the door I looked up towards a part of the sky to the right of Delphinus. Suddenly there was a flash like a star had suddenly brightened and it faded fairly quickly, but not as quick as it appeared. It wasn't a satellite flare as it was totally stationary and the light from it was a pinpoint and very white. Any ideas?

[spendrey]

Maybe it was a meteor viewed head on?

[Mike]

Yeah I thought that myself. It was just the quality and colour of it looked more like a star.

[Rick]

Did you get a chance to look at or image the position through a scope after the event?

The time-scale seems a bit short for an event of stellar magnitude, but nobody's yet measured the very beginning of a supernova, so it's not clear exactly how bright the initial explosion really is in relation to the subsequent tailing off.

A head-on meteor is a possibility. Is there a known shower whith the radiant at that position at present?

A satellite flare still seems the most likely, but if the motion wasn't perceptible then it'd have to have been something suitably reflective in a high orbit. However, something high enough would not be moving fast enough for the motion to be noticable in just a few seconds.

[Mike]

I didn't have any equipment set up at all, it was purely using the naked eye. I also didn't set anthing up afterwards as I couldn't say for sure where it originated.

The quality and colour of the light was totally different from anything seen from flares. It was a piercing crisp white light. It faded slower than it appeared and although it dissapeared fairly quickly it was slow enough that some kind of movement should have been noticeable I would have though. Also, it was VERY very bright. Much much brighter than any flare I have ever seen and brighter than any opther celestial object I have ever seen. It almost looked like a Hollywood special effect!!

p.s. No I don't believe in flying saucers!

[Whitters]

An initial bright flash followed by a slow decline sounds very much like a meteor/fireball but head on. Did you duck I would have.

You know the time, if you can remember the rough direction then you should be able to get a rough location, good enough to work out which constellation it was.

How bright was it, Brighter than Venus? did you notice any shadows? The brightest meteor I have ever seen I first saw whilst looking at the ground a bright flash like a flash bulb going off, it cast very strong shadows. Then when I looked up the ionized trail was still visible for several seconds after, i'm talking up to 20 seconds or more.

[ This Message was edited by: Whitters on 2004-06-15 08:31 ]

[Mike]

It was far far brighter than Venus. I imagine it would have been bright enough to cast shadows but I didn't look. It didn't last 20 seconds, perhaps 10.