Strange Flashes at night

[Liv]

I saw another post similar to this on here and the replies seemed to be very believable and informative so I thought I’d ask here.

 
For the past week or so I have been sitting outside at night between 10pm and 12pm and just watching the stars come out. I haven’t been using my telescope because I didn’t feel like I would need it. The skies have been very clear and the stars beautiful but I’ve been noticing some strange happenings in the sky. I’m not saying ufos I’m just wondering what these may be, so let me explain further.

First my mother and I witnessed a singular light, white light flying through the sky. There were no navigation lights or sounds. Just a singular light flying by, we ruled out airplanes because it was two low to be one but was also way too fast to be a helicopter. I’ve seen them twice and they always seem incredibly high up and barely distinguishable from stars. They aren’t shooting stars because they fly completely differently. Another thing I have noticed are flashes, like stars that get bigger and then suddenly disappear, like a flash. And I mean completely disappear! Now I’m sure I’ve read of these things before in one of my astronomy books but I’m honestly not sure what they could be. They fly and react different to any aircraft or stars so I’m intrigued. They also appear as if they are stars and look like they fly or flash right next to real stars. 
 

Now I feel like I need to note that I know a lot about astronomy it has amazed me since childhood and I am a skeptic. My family has a long history of being in the airforce, mostly as engineers and creators of new technology so when it comes to lights in the sky we usually have a good answer, but no one could explain these sightings. I also live near an airfield so I don’t understand why (if these aircraft were from there) were flying so incredibly high up, so fast and so far away from the airfield, they seemed to come out of the night and fly off and back into the dark. It was also completely clear nights with little clouds during these sightings.

I’m asking here because I believe anyone who reads this will have a good answer for me and won’t immediately ridicule me for thinking I saw a UFO. Please let me know if there’s anything you think this could be or any questions you have! Thank you so much for reading and happy stargazing!

[Jiggy 67]

I would suggest that they are satellites reflecting the sun as the fly over which is why they appear to brighten and then disappear 

[Astro Noodles]

Hi Liv

Singular white lights flying in a direct line are usually either high flying aircraft catching the evening sun, or satellites. 

Sunset is at about 9:30 so the flashes are probably the sun reflecting off either aircraft or shiny satellite surfaces. There are a lot of satellites up there.

[scotty38]

Agree most likely satellites. Wait until you see Elon Musk's trains, that'll put you in a tailspin......

[Pixies]

Yep - especially at this time of year when the sun is barely below the horizon, you see many more satellites all through the night. In fact, if you spend any time looking up into a clear sky, it's hard NOT to see them. If you see the ISS, it can be the brightest thing in the night sky (bar Venus and the moon).

Some satellites will 'flare' and become very bright over a few seconds then fade away, as their various reflective panels focus reflected sunlight on small areas of the earth's surface. And tumbling satellites will appear to pulse as their reflective surfaces keep coming around.

 

The only thing that's ever puzzled me is a bright flare that increases in brightness over a few seconds, say, then blinks out - but it's stationary. I saw few last year in Lyra/Hercules. Perhaps these are flaring geostationary satellites? 

[Astro Noodles]

12 minutes ago, Pixies said:

Yep - especially at this time of year when the sun is barely below the horizon, you see many more satellites all through the night. In fact, if you spend any time looking up into a clear sky, it's hard NOT to see them. If you see the ISS, it can be the brightest thing in the night sky (bar Venus and the moon).

Some satellites will 'flare' and become very bright over a few seconds then fade away, as their various reflective panels focus reflected sunlight on small areas of the earth's surface. And tumbling satellites will appear to pulse as their reflective surfaces keep coming around.

 

The only thing that's ever puzzled me is a bright flare that increases in brightness over a few seconds, say, then blinks out - but it's stationary. I saw few last year in Lyra/Hercules. Perhaps these are flaring geostationary satellites? 

That's interesting because I saw the same thing in Hercules the other day. Green and increased in brightness over a couple of seconds then blinked out. I wondered if it was a meteorite coming in at a steep angle.

[PeterW]

Musk Starlink. I’ve been trying to see them since they were “darkened”. Using predictions from Heavens-above.com can be hit and miss nowadays. Sometimes a faint stream of dot moving across the sky. Once a very bright “string of pearls”. Sometimes nothing at the predicted time. Most interestingly a few times the satellites have followed the predicted path BUT only been visible for a short part of it and sometimes flared very obviously for a short time. I’ve also seen flaring ones out the corner of my eye when waiting for others. If you have better skies than me I can imaging you’ll see plenty. Catching them within a few days of a fresh launch is the most visually amazing.
 

Peter

[Waddensky]

Yes, both the moving lights and the flashes are most likely satellites. I can't remember a night that I didn't see them. If you enter your location on websites like Heavens Above, you can find out when they are visible with amazing accuracy.

[A_Nellsechs]

I see them all the time all year round. Never at the same time. I was told that it is spinning space debris from a rocket booster that had fuel and exploded. 

I have ruled that out as well as satellites , high altitude airplanes, weather balloons or Chinese Lanterns or meteors. They do not behave as such. . These move slow and will speed up or start fast and slow down, stop and be stationary for several minutes.  They also will move randomly or in a circle.  I have seen the same object move to the north....then far to the west and to the east Anything in orbit around our planet must be named, cataloged, orbit recorded and reported into a database. These are not. 

I am a huge debunker and will find the reasonable explanation for anything. For this I have no explanation (I know there are others alive and well in our universe.)  Over the last months these sightings have increased. I see Activity now after sunset....around midnight then around 2am 230 3 315 etc. I only saw them a few times a week. Now it is daily. With this UAP report coming out on June 25th 2021. I have no doubt that this is going to be exciting to know what our government has been keeping from us. I have no doubt that the other creatures of our universe are well aware of this and could be planning a huge reveal. I hope anyway.   

Be prepared to be blown away. I am excited. I do no believe they mean us harm and we have them to thank for our lives.  I am no nutball or a  conspiracy theorist. Just a normal guy.....with a strange name. (Yes....That is really my name)

[malc-c]

Do any of you remember the Iridium flares names after the satellites that used to cause the reflection...... 

The only thing that spooked me in the wee small hours one night a few years back was watching a bright light moving across the sky at a speed of a meteor, which then began regularly pulsing with the same intensity around three pulses a second, it then perform  sudden change of direction before vanishing.  No idea what it was, but it defied the laws of motion that I was taught at school !