any idear's what it was?

[Timbo32]

A couple of hours ago around 12.30-1am, i was looking north, around 345-360 degree's az and 45-55 degree's alt.

And from a darkish patch of sky a star from nowhere started to brighten right up! it was brighter than all the stars around it and then it dissapeared. i saw it with my eye's and not through a telescope. can anybody explain what i saw or has anybody else seen this? Thanks Tim:)

[Paul M]

Most likely an iridium flare.

Basically a glint of sunlight being reflected off the solar panels of one of the numerous Iridium satellites.

Such flares are routinely forecast.

There are a number of websites available which provide timings and charts showing the track of the flare across the sky.

[Pete Presland]

some like here is a good place to look http://www.heavens-above.com/

[ronin]

You wouldn't be an hour out on the time would you ?

Used Barnstable+Minehead locations.

Cannot locate an Iridium flare for your area at the time, and even less for the direction.

There was one at 23:38 in the direction you give but nothing else - one at 00:11 but the other direction, WSW.

There are other satellites that flare, so may have been one of them.

Small update: Calsky doesn't give any flares other then Iridium ones for your area last night.

[DirkSteele]

Using a rough location for you (North Devon), you witnessed Iridium Satellite 3 flare. The time and location in the sky seem to match quite well. Depending how close to the centre line you were determines the maximum brightness of the flare. If you were directly under the path it would have been as bright as magnitude -7.8.

More info on Iridium Flares can be found here. http://www.heavens-above.com/iridiumhelp.asp

I usually check before every observing session whether any interesting satellite events will occur, but I think the best ones are when you are caught unawares and just happen to be looking up!

Clear Skies,

[ronin]

DS, according to H-A Iridium3 went off at 03:16am not 00:30 - 1:00am.

It is the lack of anything at, or even close to, the time given that puzzles me.

Calsky says there were only iridium flares and no others for the 24 hour period.

[DirkSteele]

That is odd. When I ran it on my computer at home it was in the right time slot, now using my office computer the time corresponds to what you see. Wonder if my time settings are correct at home on Heavens Above.

There are other Satellite flares so perhaps not part of the Iridium network.

[ronin]

For some reason I am sure that H-A has done the same to me a couple of times. At one view a flare is defined later it simply does not exist although ones around it are present. Like you I then start to question the data I supplied, or anything else.

This time I wasn't 100% sure that the site took care of GMT/BST, however in the location set up it says it does handle that. Why did I start doubting that?

[Timbo32]

tbh with you i gave a rough estimate because i didnt look at the time but i've just asked the Mrs! and she said it was must av been between 1am and 2am because she came out at 1am and she said when she got into bed it was 2am! and i was told off cos i didnt go till 4am! lol anyways back to the point! iridium flares yes barnstaple is near me 20miles or so, i can be sure of the direction because i had my compass with me! thanks for the input peps and thanks for the link too! its a mystery??!! Tim

[jgs001]

I'd suggest checking on Calsky.com for the Iridium Flare, if it wasn't that one... HA does not report on all the of Iridium network... I think there's a few test bed and standby platforms up there, that Calsky predicts but aren't on HA. It certainly sounds like a flare though... Did you see it appear to travel North or Southwards as it flared up ?

[Timbo32]

hi jgs001, thanks i'll check it out, no the light i seen diddnt move it started out dim and got brighter untill a point (brighter than all the stars in the area i discribed earlier) then faded out to nothing but no movement!!

Tim

[Ronnie67]

Hey Timbbo I saw the exact flair also, it was around 1am mark, I was on my way to an observation point at the time and noticed it for a brief moment before it disappeared I though it was a lantern because every now and again they get sent up

[DirkSteele]

Possibility that it was a meteor entering the atmosphere head on as you saw not lateral movement. They don't trail across the sky and just flare up for a second or two before vanishing. I saw one on Saturday evening when I was laying the garden watching for satellites flying over.

[Timbo32]

Well i've never saw an iridium flare before or a meteor coming straight ahead leaving no trail! so i can't say for sure which it was, if any? so we are no closer to finding out! so i'm going out on a limb and concluding it was Aliens! lol

thank you all for your input Tim

[DirkSteele]

Well the Iridium Satellite network are all in a low earth orbit which means they appear to move fairly rapidly across the sky, so if you saw no movement during the "flare" event it would seem quite likely that it was not an Iridium Flare.