strange star?

[algol]

ok guys so last night roughly around a quarter to eleven at night i was shuttin up shop and bringing my equipment in as i was up early day after, just taken bits and bobs in and was coming back out for the mount.

i wistfully looked up towards lyra after again failing to find the ring neb and was stopped dead in my tracks.

to the right of vega about halfway to arcturus maybe around the herc/corona region i saw a bright blue/white star.

this promptly faded away after a second or two yet it hadn't moved in that split second, no cloud in the area either and as far as i know there are no stars in herc that bright.

if i had to estimate i'd say it was around first mag, easily brighter than regulus in leo.

any ideas guys as it has me stumped.

[James]

It could have been a meteor heading straight for you. Lucky it burned up if so...

[algol]

ah, cheers for that james, nice way to drift off to sleep tonight lol.

so helpful and friendly you guys

[GazOC]

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/21mar_nakedeye.htm

Unlikely but you never know....

[algol]

bit of a while ago now though mate, and also it seemed brighter like i said it was easily brighter than regulus.

[GazOC]

I meant a newer, brighter GRB...

[algol]

ah i see what you mean, how long would one last? i mean it's very unlikely but i defo saw what i saw, just trying to get my head round it.

[Astroman]

A GRB can last from milliseconds to a few minutes. The optical afterglow, if any, can be seen for days or weeks, depending on what caused it. The naked-eye visibility of GRB080319B lasted less than an hour. Iirc, it reached mag 5.3 for a bit, so I'd be able to see it from here, but just barely, and only until it faded below mag 6-an hour or less window.

I haven't had any GRB alerts today, so It may have been a meteor as described.

[barkis]

No chance of it being an iridium flare I suppose.? I guess the movement would be obvious though.

Ron.

[algol]

strangest thing i ever did see guys, anyway thanks for the suggestions etc. just wanted to hang it out there and see what you came up with.

be cool to think i seen a grb but, no news on that front so prob an incoming meteor

[scotastro]

Algol

A very odd event. I saw something similar in Lyra too about 2 months back. The "star" was near Vega and nearly as bright. A view in binoculars showed it was a very very slow moving satellite. On occasions it's not just Iridiums that can brighten dramatically. If the "normal" brightness of a satellite is lower than +4.5 mag is will not appear on Heavens Above listing.

Lyra would have been quite low in the sky when you were looking so the object could have faded due to hazy. Of course, it could be one of those pesky aliens non astronomers see all the time

As an aside - the Ring Neb is a very small object. It is located almost exactly half way between the two bottom stars of the Lyra rectangle. In a 130mm scope at low power it probably looks like a faint out of focus star while the actual stars should all be points of light.

Scotastro

[Talitha]

It could have been sunlight glinting from a piece of orbital debris, too.. there's loads of it up there.

[Casus belli]

I saw something at that time too Algol. I spotted it close to Denebola at the tail of Leo heading towards Ursa Major, it was moving but very slowly. I checked on heavens above but couldn't find anything.

I saw plenty satelites last night and it didn't move nearly as fast as the usual satelite. Not a meteor either.

I'm pretty sure it was space debris.

I wonder if we saw the same thing? The difference in our latitude and longitude might account for why you saw it near Vega and I saw it near Denabola. The parallax involved would mean it wasn't a far off object.

[Astroman]

We've seen flares from geosynchronus satellites before during star parties here at S.H.O. It may have been one of those, too. I'm not too familiar with the location of geosynch sat's at your latitude, but it's another possibility.

Offhand, I'd think they'd be low on your horizon.

[algol]

thanks for the replies guys, i dunno what it was but it defo wasn't et and his mates saying hello