Something that puzzled me.

[moonomaly]

Last night as i lay in bed i was looking out of the window at the only star in the sky i could see. It was above the silhouette of the rooftop of the house opposite my back garden (i live in the country in the UK).

I noticed that, if i moved my head just a few inches to the right, the star disappeared. It also disappeared if i moved my head down.

After a little experimentation i found the limits of where it was observable from, which was quite a small area.

I opened the window to make sure it wasn't some kind of aberration of the glass, it wasn't, there were no slim tree branches obscuring it or anything.

Why would a star become invisible to the eye just by moving the head a little?

It wasn't cloud cover, since the 'viewing cone' stayed the same over the period of a half an hour as i was trying to puzzle this out.

I used the skyview app to try and identify the star and the name looked like a reveresed 'r' and then Phe.

I then fell asleep but woke up a couple of hours later and the star hadn't moved. I woke up again just before dawn and the star still hadn't moved.

Will get the scope on it tonight.

 

[8spokes]

don't eat cheese before bed ?

 

 

[moonomaly]

1 minute ago, 8spokes said:

don't eat cheese before bed ?

 

 

lol t'was no dream! I got up to get my camera but it was too faint to show up on the screen. I'm puzzled because it couldn't have been a star since it didn't move but there's nothing that high above the houses that could have a light on it.

[johnfosteruk]

Phe is Phoenix, a southern constellation which is always below our horizon in the U.K.  Also If it hadn't moved over a few hours it wasn't a celestial body. 

[moonomaly]

Thanks John, looks like i have a small mystery on my hands, not seen the light before.

[johnfosteruk]

Don't take this personally but had you had a drink? If so there's no mystery ?? 

[Davey-T]

Probably a wormhole, they may be coming for you, wouldn't attract attention to yourself by looking at them 

Dave

[westmarch]

Hi,

sounds like a reflection from a ground source - anything shiny and high up like a stainless steel chimney cowl can reflect light from lamp posts or security lights that are otherwise invisible to your line of sight.

Or it could be a secret agent signalling to someone.....

[domstar]

To paraphrase Stewart Francis-

I was walking in the park wondering  why the frisbee seemed to be getting bigger the closer it got.

And then it hit me.

[Daz69]

Sounds like a reflection from something inside your own room, which you may not see from your bed directly, but via the window may appear because the angles are different? 

Why haven't you got blinds or curtains? Saves all of that insomnia watching lol  

[Nyctimene]

Seems to me, that this "star" has nothing to do with the celestial sphere, otherwise it would have  had moved within an hour or more (--or is your bedroom window facing north and you have been repeatedly  looking at Polaris--??). I'm not sure what your scope will show you - keep us informed!

Stephan

[Warped Drive]

I don't know what the light or star you saw was, it could be any one of  a hundred things but as to why you could only see it when you moved your head slightly in the bed is most likely, ( depending on which side you were lying ), due to the fact that the eye closest to the pillow, left or right could not actually see the object as the top of the roof on the house that it was above obscured it from that eye's vision and as you moved your head or eyes around you were finding the blind spot in the eye that could see it. I've had similar experiences with the LEDs on tele's and clocks in a bedroom.

[Sachman]

Similar thing happened to me - last night I lay on my bed looking at all the stars. After a while I thought - where the heck is my roof!?

[furrysocks2]

14 hours ago, moonomaly said:

Will get the scope on it tonight.

Clouds? Little green men??

[moonomaly]

Some very funny and interesting comments

It wasn't there last night, and there's nothing above the roof to reflect, i'm in a small village in South Leicestershire, and i don't drink during the week (currently fighting my beer belly you see!).

I made sure it wasn't an internal reflection, went up to the window which only opens partially in a vertical swing, but it wasn't a reflection as it didn't move when i moved the window.

I'm only in that room when my gf snores (like i imagine a Rhino snores!) but i will do nightly checks.

 

Happy Friday