question I saw something the other night and I was wondering if anyone has an idea of what it was?

[lestergibson]

I've been out of the scene for a few years but I intend to get the telescope out again this winter. To prep for it, I've refreshing my brain on the constellations. The other night, I was watching a satellite in the western sky when I saw bright flash at maybe 50-60 degrees that lasted around a second. It happened maybe 5 seconds after the satellite had passed and was a 'different' king of light.... very white and much bigger than the satellite. I'm curious. Any ideas?

[Leo S]

At around a second, that's more of a flare than a flash. My first thought would be satellite/space junk flare. Artificial objects in orbit can produce anything between a long flare or a quick glint, and there is a lot up there. My cameras capture glints like these all the time, and flares too, but I usually don't bother editing/posing them as they are so common.

The other option is a flash from a bright meteor/fireball - there are many around at the moment. The Taurids for example are bright and often produce flashes (as well as flares) like this one one of the cameras caught the other night, so it's probably just as likely. My two cameras are catching one or two exploding meteors per night at the moment!

Some of them can be very bright like this example (see attachment) caught by UKMON cameras the same night as the last link/clip I posted.

What time was it? Deep in the night it's not possible to see satellite flares/glints at this time of year in most of the sky.

Edited November 6, 2022 by Leo S
added link and question

[AndyThilo]

I think I saw this, it was around 6:30pm or so on Friday? I think... The flare moved south to north.