bright light next to Vega

[ben bermuda]

just saw this enormous bright light next to Vega at 12; 28 Bermuda time  then it just vanished , 

any ideas what it could have been?

it wasn't satellite or a plane. it just vanished, 

no clouds in the sky , clear night,

it was possibly 3 times as bright and 5 as large as vega 

most strange ,, any other gazers see it?

[dweller25]

Did it form a triangle ?

[Paul M]

Almost certainly some kind of satellite glint/flare. So much up there now it's difficult to identify the culprits of such events. I gave up long ago and accept that they just "are".

There are a few terrestrial possibilities, hobby drones are everywhere now. They'd generally show some movement. Bright transient lights towards the horizon can be frequently caused by distant aircraft landing lights on a head on course. They can last for some minutes with little movement visibly without reference to a fixed object. I see that quite frequently towards my southeast, where we have Manchester International airport. Even though I know these things quite well, I still watch what happens, to confirm the most likely cause.  

A celestial cause is extremely unlikely. Our nearest supernova candidate in our lifetime, Betelgeuse, is well known and closely watched and these things aren't exactly "transient" in human terms.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

A remote possibility is a "point meteor", i.e. one that is coming straight at you. I have seen two of these in all my years of stargazing, though none as bright as you describe. Mine were around magnitude 1 to 2, I would guess.

[DirkSteele]

1 hour ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

A remote possibility is a "point meteor", i.e. one that is coming straight at you. I have seen two of these in all my years of stargazing, though none as bright as you describe. Mine were around magnitude 1 to 2, I would guess.

That was my thought too. I have seen a few over the years, one of which was brighter than mag 0 so similar to what you saw.

One question would be,, how long did the phenomenon last? More than a few seconds and we may need to consider alternatives.

[jjohnson3803]

IME, aircraft landing lights can look strange, depending on distance and geometry.  The red and green nav lights are often not visible to the naked eye if the plane is far enough away.  It can be a bit startling if they turn off the landing lights while you're watching them.

I've seen and read about not-quite-so-bright seemingly stationary orange lights fading out over a few seconds.  Those I attribute to space junk or satellites.

 

 

[DirkSteele]

I saw exactly the same phenomenon last night. There was high cloud so Arcturus was barely visible and Spica not there at all. About 20-25 degrees west of Spica a concentrated flash blasted through the cloud lasting no more than a second or two. Even through the cloud it was magnitude -2 by my estimate. Would have been very special in clear skies.

Had just stepped outside and I always find my gaze drawn upwards so lucky spot. Clouds clearly shortly thereafter over Spica hence the judgement on angular separation.