What was that!

[CedrikG]

Hey folks !
I was out with my telescope enjoying the very clear sky tonight. As I stopped looking in the scope I noticed a ... VERY bright star, as bright, if not brighter than Venus appear at the horizon. I was amazed, and then it disappeared in front of my eyes, as fast as it appears. It was south of Procyon star.

Could it be caused by the sun flare we had in the last days ?

[D4N]

Could be an iridium flare?

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[LukeSkywatcher]

If you remember the time and direction in which you saw it, you can check out: 

http://heavens-above.com/IridiumFlares.aspx?lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unspecified&alt=0&tz=UCT

Just enter your location and time and date when you observed it and it should tell you what it was. The link above takes you right to the Iridium flare section as i think thats what you saw. By the sounds of it, it could have been a -8 flare which is pretty bright. Ive never seen one appear at the horizon though. 

[Crebles]

I once had a similar observation. For me, it turned out to be the end-on view of a fighter jet in the distance. I was seeing its thruster jet, and when it turned, the "star" disappeared.

I'm not saying that's the same as your observation, but might give you an alternative hypothesis to consider.

[CedrikG]

Great hypotheses, but I really think it was because of the solar flare we had in the last few days. I live in Quebec and in my area its possible sometimes to see aurora. We had aurora warning all week
I remember last summer there was a massive sun flare, I went in the forest and waited for the aurora. At some point I saw a star, at the horizon, become extremely bright just like yesterday, like twice as bright as Venus, I was completely shocked I had no idea what it was I thought WOW a supernova haha.
The star became a lot less bright, well like a normal star and then just after I saw an aurora light the sky.
I thought about it all night and my hypotheses is that as the sun particle hit the atmosphere, the atmosphere wave and that make the star flash even more.

[Stu]

Sounds very much like the landing light of a plane when facing directly towards you. I see this quite frequently, as soon as they turn away the light disappears, they are highly directional

[CedrikG]

Here is why I dont think about plane much. there are no airport around here, I live in a small city and theres no airport, not even close we have to drive 2 hour to get to the nearest airport, in Montreal.

[Stu]

Helicopter? Same scenario.

I'm not aware of any phenomena along the lines you mention regarding aurora so I still think that is unlikely.

[CedrikG]

I think you are right. I see nothing about star flashing before aurora.

[CedrikG]

Hahaha Sumorian, you were right. It did happen in front of my eyes. It was a plane. The illusion is very impressive.