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Tonyosis

Tonyosis

By Tonyosis
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Tonyosis

Tonyosis

Posted
Posted

Hello from Paradise, California. If no one minds, I would like to share something of uncertainty. As I am somewhat knowledgeable and experienced in astronomy and astrophysics, I have experienced something that I cannot fully explain. Essentially, what I saw during one late night camping in Mammoth, California a few years ago, was a pinpoint flash of light. I was fortunate enough to be gazing into the night sky in the right direction at the right time. The flash of light appeared from nothing, and swiftly grew from a dim spec to a fair amount of brightness, and then disappeared. I would say that the event occurred within a second. The first thing that I thought was that I had witnessed a meteor at it's zenith (or mine, depending on how one looks at it). What are the odds of this? So, over the years since I witnessed this, I have been asking myself what else it could have been? Could I have seen some sort of nova? Or other stellar explosion? Any one with some insight into this rare phenom I would be happy to hear from.

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Nigel G

Nigel G

Posted
Posted

Hello and welcome from cloudy UK.

Maybe a satalite's solar panels turning to catch the sun ?

I was watching a faint satalite track across the sky many years ago when it very quickly became very bright and then vanished within a second.

Cheers

Nige.

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Dave In Vermont

Dave In Vermont

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I agree the most likely candidate is a satellite rotating and a reflective-panel catching the Sunlight. Happens all the time. Some of these are predictable - the Iridium satellites are famous for this. You can freak-out your friends by telling them when & where to look: FLASH! Convince 'em the Saucer-People have come for them! :D

Maybe they'll stop eating all your chips.....

There's several satellite-tracking software-programs available (free) which will tell you what's up there at any given time - including the ISS - International Space Station - which is a giant! My favorite tracker is Previsat, it's from France and quite detailed. I'll toss you (and all) a link:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/previsat/

SourceForge - the download-site above - has many other useful (free) programs to look at as well.

Have fun -

Dave

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Cornelius Varley

Cornelius Varley

Posted
Posted

Hello and welcome to SGL. What you saw was most likely the sun reflecting off the solar panels of a satellite. The Iridium constellation of satellites are the best known for this phenomena are quite spectacular and are known as Iridium Flares and are predictable. The website Heavens above has a listing of visible flares for your location. The website also lists a 10 day prediction of passes of the ISS and other satellites.

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ronl

ronl

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Posted

Hello and welcome to the community, hope you enjoy your time here in S G L,

what you saw happens every night of the year, you were just looking in the right place

at the right time, but as said above, you can download many apps now, and see them

all the time, hope to see you around the forums.

Clear Sky's.

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