Bright flash in ursa major?

[Tess]

Hi all im new so hopein this post is in the right place.

On sat the 21st may i saw a huge flash of bright light from what i think is megrez in ursa major ..

can someone please tell what it was and did any one else see it ?

thank u

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I did not see it, but can you give a few more details? Did you see the star itself flash or was there a bright flash close to it? Did it appear to move or was it stationary?

[Tess]

Hello micheal i saw it with my naked eye the whole star lite up for what only seemed like a couple of seconds or so, like a quick flash , the whole star glowed all round , made it look biggger , brighter then the neighbouring stars ... any ideas ? This was on sat 21st may 2011 approx time between 10:00 and 11:00 pm..

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Hello micheal i saw it with my naked eye the whole star lite up for what only seemed like a couple of seconds or so, like a quick flash , the whole star glowed all round , made it look biggger , brighter then the neighbouring stars ... any ideas ? This was on sat 21st may 2011 approx time between 10:00 and 11:00 pm..

Sounds very odd. Intrinsic flares of stars do occur, though these are usually associated with red dwarfs (and take several minutes). As Megrez is type A3V, it is a white main sequence star considerably brighter than the sun, making it an unlikely candidate for a flare star.

A very unlikely occurrence could be a point meteor (I have seen two in my 32 years of observing), which is a meteor which is coming strait at the observer. Though possible, it would be very, very unlikely for a point meteor to coincide in position with a bright star.

[Jacopo]

Sounds like a satellite.

Was it moving?

j|!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Could be a reflection off a satellite, indeed, but the flash would need to coincide with the position of the star.

[Spikey]

Tess if you could possibly supply the exact time you saw the flash then Stellarium or Heavens above might be able to identify if it was a satellite flare.

cheers

[JB80]

A very unlikely occurrence could be a point meteor (I have seen two in my 32 years of observing), which is a meteor which is coming strait at the observer. Though possible, it would be very, very unlikely for a point meteor to coincide in position with a bright star.

Cool, did you duck out the way?

All I could find that is possibly related is a old question from 2007, it went unanswered.

Bright Flash in Ursa Major - Forums - Astronomy.com - Online Community, Forums, Media Galleries, Blogs

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Cool, did you duck out the way?

All I could find that is possibly related is a old question from 2007, it went unanswered.

Bright Flash in Ursa Major - Forums - Astronomy.com - Online Community, Forums, Media Galleries, Blogs

I had no time to duck

The first was a Bootid, observed on January 4, 1979, at about 3:30 AM from (freezing: -27 C) Paterswolde in the Netherlands. I was observing the swarm with a friend and a single light flashed up briefly right in the radiant.

The second was a Geminid: a light flashed on and off right in the radiant of the swarm (in December 1980 as I recall), even though I was not observing the swarm at the time. Pure luck. Either that or some deity was taking aim at me