Strange lights?

[Walshie79]

Am a bit puzzled by 2 points of light I have just seen. I noticed them when I went outside about 2.20: They were in Pisces just east of the "Circlet": They were 2 points of equal brightness about as bright as Altair (when I first saw them) and slightly less than a full moon width apart. Rather than moving across the sky as planes or satellites do they just seemed to stay there, maintaining their brightness for about 1-2 minutes before seemingly receding, I saw them fade down to about mag 4-5.

I've seen Iridium flares, the ISS and other satellites, they didn't look like any of these. Definitely not meteors either, they actually seemed to recede into the distance rather than moving across the sky. And why were there two of them? Very strange. 

[Roz92]

Hi there, i have just signed up a couple of minutes ago to reply to your post. My boyfriend and myself have been seeing these strange lights for a few years at night that move very quickly, do sharp and quick movements side to side, in circles and go back on themselves then seem to slowly disappear into the distance. So although it doesn't sound exactly the same, it sounds similar. He just asked me to go outside at 2:05am when he let out our dog and noticed these lights again. There were two also, similar appearance, shape and size to the surrounding stars. One heading from the above our heads down south, the other on its left heading the opposite direction. We are so puzzled and have been looking these things up on google and youtube but no one seems to have a valid explanation?! It definitely wasn't a satellite from seeing some previous, these moved very differently as if they were being controlled... I am slightly spooked but also in awe

[Walshie79]

Hi Roz,

Never seen what you describe but interesting you saw two lights tonight as well. What seemed strange to me was that they didn't really move, just fade and recede, and above all that there were two of them. Satellites arc across the sky, and Ive never seen two close together like that. Where are you? 

 

 

[SilverAstro]

10 hours ago, Walshie79 said:

They were in Pisces just east of the "Circlet": 

Satellites arc across the sky,

Two is a problem I guess ! Otherwise I would wonder about Geostationary satellite flares, the circlet is on the equator where GS lurk and they dont arc across the sky. They do flare and have been described as "appearing and receding" but I have not watched them myself so I dont know about timings and geometry etc. but something for you to investigate perhaps ?

You dont say if the two were simultaneous (though I think you imply that ?) or separate in time , the former would be a problem ( 1 satellite not being wide enough ! and would two close by be in the right geometry? ) Two separate events could be generated by 1 sat. though (they drift relative to the stars) ??

Just a few thoughts off top of my head !

 

 

[Walshie79]

45 minutes ago, SilverAstro said:

Two is a problem I guess ! Otherwise I would wonder about Geostationary satellite flares, the circlet is on the equator where GS lurk and they dont arc across the sky. They do flare and have been described as "appearing and receding" but I have not watched them myself so I dont know about timings and geometry etc. but something for you to investigate perhaps ?

You dont say if the two were simultaneous (though I think you imply that ?) or separate in time , the former would be a problem ( 1 satellite not being wide enough ! and would two close by be in the right geometry? ) Two separate events could be generated by 1 sat. though (they drift relative to the stars) ??

Just a few thoughts off top of my head !

I shall look into Geostationary satellites, though my first thought is that if they were overhead on the equator they would have to be pretty high up to be visible 40° high from nearly 53° north. Would they actually appear on the celestial equator from other points on Earth anyway? They were not due south but more SSE. They were perfectly simultaneous, at first I took them for stars before suddenly realising there are no stars that bright in that area, and nowhere are there 2 bright ones so close. 

Just looking at some info on GS satellites, it seems they are high up but their magnitude tends to be about 9-14, occasionally brightening to about 5. These were about mag. 1, much too bright unless it was some unusual kind of flare up (but again, why two of them together?). Very intriguing, will keep searching..

 

[Roz92]

I am in Edinburgh (midlothian) and we have seen them often! One of our friends up the road thought we sounded a little nuts but when he went out for a cigarette a while later he told us he had seen them too! If anyone has the chance to come by edinburgh im pretty sure you will see them!  I'm so unsure of what we witnessed or what it could be as I am obviously a newbie to these forums and all the technical words etc and have no idea other than stars and satellites what the other possibilities really are... The distance between the ones we saw was quite large but in the same direction (if that makes any sense?). It's just the way they move that puzzles us and makes us think its something out there.. 

[michaelmorris]

My guess is aircraft.  If the lights are in pairs but definitely not physically attached, then military aircraft flying in formation would seem a reasonable supposition.

[Dave In Vermont]

I agree with Michael. Also aircraft can appear stationary and actually moving quite quickly at the same time. This optical trickery is the result of parallax - similar to how you dip a straight stick into a pool of water, and it appears to be bent foreward.

Hope this helps,

Dave

[Tim]

On 31/07/2016 at 01:41, Roz92 said:

I am in Edinburgh (midlothian) and we have seen them often!

You should video them.....

There are also those horrible little Chinese lanterns that people light and send up. I have seen these perform all of the manoeuvres above and then some! They get to quite some altitude sometimes

[Roz92]

Unfortunately I dont think I own any equipment that would pick them up as they're so far away  I will look into it further though and find out if any of my photographer friends would be willing to come out and help record them!