i think i saw the supernova explode with the naked eye is it possible

[chesty]

having just read the report of the astronomer in irelands find it shocked me as i had told my wife i had seen a strange and very bright flash of light in the sky that lasted maybe 1-2 seconds the other night (funny thing is cant rem if it was tues or weds think it was weds ). i actually said to her i think i may have seen a supernova but not sure if its possible, have researched where IC2166 is on stellarium and to my amazement it is exactly where i was looking anybody know if this is possible ?

[DirkSteele]

Unfortunately not possible. The brightness has been recorded as approx magnitude 15.8. Well beyond the capability of the human eye to see unaided. It is more likely that the flash you saw located in the same region of the sky was a more local phenomenon, such a small meteor that entered the atmosphere head on and hence just caused a localised flash rather than the usual trail we are used to seeing.

[callump]

Supernova brighten quickly, and then fade slowly - so even if you did see one naked eye, it would not 'flash' - it would just look like a 'new' star for a few weeks.

Callum

[chesty]

ah i see this is why i didnt post other day didnt want to make myself look silly lol , what i saw as i said lasted 1-2 seconds it was like a star getting switched on then off was roundish in shape and was as bright as venus is in the morn at the moment . it was the location of 1c2166 that really got me thinking as it was exactly where i was looking.

[DirkSteele]

There are never silly questions. A question is only easy if you know the answer.

With regards supernova, you should not think of them in the context of human scale explosions, where the flash lasts an almost immeasurably short time. A Type II Supernova for example can take as much as 10-15 days to reach peak brightness and then another 50-150 days to decay to 10% of peak brightness.

[MarkMayf]

You may have seen an iridium satellite flare. They can be very bright.

[Qualia]

There are never silly questions.

Nice one, Dirk, your sentiment is so true. Often the most profound and far-reaching questions we can ask are those that on the surface seem the most apparent and given.

Regarding the OP. My guess is that an Iridium Flare was spotted. The sunlight reflecting off one of the shiny iridium panels on a satellite. Kind of makes sense given the time Jupiter is rising in the very late night, early morning.

[DirkSteele]

You may have seen an iridium satellite flare. They can be very bright.

That was my initial thought as well, though as it would have been travelling across the sky, I think it would have been hard to confuse with a static position "supernova" which is why I suggested a possible head on meteor.

[Matt Scunthorpe]

You may have seen an iridium satellite flare. They can be very bright.

Are these the satellites that get incredibly bright then go back to being normal, but can still see them moving? Ive seen a few of these but never understood what they were.

[Stu]

That's right. The brightening is when the antenna dish lines up correctly with your location to reflect the sun directly towards you.

There is a line of maximum brightness, often around mag -8, and the brightness will fall off the further you are from this line.

www.heavens-above.com gives very good predictions of when to see them.

They tend to be very faint, then increase to maximum and back to faint over maybe ten seconds and you can often track them for some time after they have faded.

Well worth looking out for the brighter ones

Stu

[Stu]

This doesn't explain the op's description which appeared to be a stationary flash, not sure what that could be

Stu

[themos]

I've seen stationary flashes too, I expect everyone who's been looking at the sky for a year or so would come across them. They are probably meteors seen head-on.

[chesty]

I just want to make it clear I saw this at night the Venus bit was a reference to the brightness there was no movementt best way to describe it was not a flash but that it lit instantly then faded out after 1-2 seconds

[Stu]

Then I guess that does sound more like a head on meteor, definitely not an iridium flare anyway

Stu

[cstew]

There are never silly questions. A question is only easy if you know the answer.

If only every person had this kind of attitude! I asked a question on another forum recently, not astronomy related, and the people on there just ripped me to pieces and completely shot me down, funny thing was, this particular forum has a very prominent banner running along the top of every page stating how friendly this site is and how inflammatory and offensive behavior is not tolerated!

Anyways, sorry to go off topic!

I once saw a particularly bright and long lasting blue trail in the sky, was quite awe struck at the time, lasted around 4 seconds and was a brilliant blue colour. Never ceases to amaze me when I see something like that, even just seeing hundreds of stars through a telescope, in what appears to be an almost empty patch of sky.

[Stu]

One of the beauties of SGL, most people are patient and understanding, and just nice to each other. Makes life much more pleasant

Stu

[melsky]

I just want to make it clear I saw this at night the Venus bit was a reference to the brightness there was no movementt best way to describe it was not a flash but that it lit instantly then faded out after 1-2 seconds

This sounds to me like a tumbling / out of control satellite, more often than not when I'm out observing I see an odd flash out of the corner of my eye, if you stare at where the flash was sometimes (but not that often) you see another flash close by as the satellite again spins around and reflects the sun again. These can be very bright and very brief (less than half a second) depending on how fast the satellite is tumbling.

Here's a link to the Tumbling Iridium page of CalSky which I find far more informative than heaven above.

http://www.calsky.com/cs.cgi/Satellites/9?

Mel

[WickedTreat]

*bumps*

Hello, I just saw a "star explode" imagine seeing Venus with the naked eye and multiplying the brightness by 10x. Maybe more. I just went to have a smoke and saw it completely random over a hill. It lasted for another 20-ish seconds and then slowly dimming down to a not so visible "cloud", almost looks like vapor. It happened 30 minutes ago, 17.01.2020. (GMT+1) Unfortunately I don't have an image or video of it but I hope some astronomers saw it. The angle was on Northwest. I will try to take a long exposure photo of it. 

[WickedTreat]

29 minutes ago, WickedTreat said:

*bumps*

Hello, I just saw a "star explode" imagine seeing Venus with the naked eye and multiplying the brightness by 10x. Maybe more. I just went to have a smoke and saw it completely random over a hill. It lasted for another 20-ish seconds and then slowly dimming down to a not so visible "cloud", almost looks like vapor. It happened 30 minutes ago, 17.01.2020. (GMT+1) Unfortunately I don't have an image or video of it but I hope some astronomers saw it. The angle was on Northwest. I will try to take a long exposure photo of it. 

Edit, it was only a satellite falling down on earth. My bad. 

[Stu]

Whereabouts are you? What makes you say it was a satellite, that's not something that happens very often!

Welcome to the forum by the way 😁

[Chris]

Both an impressive thread bump and an impressive thing you saw. Even a falling satellite is a mightily impressive thing to have witnessed...if it indeed was that?

Welcome to SGL