?Iridium Flare? Help

[AstroWalrus]

Hi everyone, I have just come in from a very cold evening stargazing and would like to know if anyone else saw a very bright star-like object near Orion moving north at around 21:20 GMT (25/12/10).

It had a distinct orange colour, was far brighter than anything else in the sky at the time and seemed to move north, become brighter, pause for around 30 seconds and then move east and gradually fade away.

I managed to get a video wwhich I may post later and looked through my telescope at it but couldn't make out any distinctive shape.

And if it helps my approxiamate co-ordinates are 52*N 4*W

Thanks, any help is appreciated

[black5f]

I had a similar experience in the summer while waiting for the ISS, 2 very bright objects, the colour of a sunset about 15 minutes apart, same path as each other. Trolled through satalite orbits and found nothing? My first thoughts were high flying aircraft with the sunlight glinting off them (it was about 2 hours after sunset). Too fast for aircraft though (about the same angular speed as ISS), too bright I think (venus intensity) and not on the flight path that is directly over my house. So it remains a mystery, rocket boosters we don't know about maybe. Anyway, very spectacular!

[Staffy]

My money's on chinese lanterns. Saw loads of them last night as I was chipping icicles off the end of my nose and playing with my new scope.

[Dave S]

I agree seen lots of the orange bu**ers this past couple of days.

Dave...

[glowjet]

Could have been the tail light on Father Christmases slay, if not UFO.

[Dave S]

Or rudolphs nose.

Dave...

[Capricorn]

Heavens Abive indicates a flare at 18:00ish on the 25th.

Nothing for 21:00ish although it may have been an iridium satellite but not what is classed as a flare.

Cannot see anything for the ISS but they do not give the previous days passes. Just wondering if the ISS moved in/out of the sun. It was around.

There are a lot of satellites up there. So it could easily have been one, just not one that is easily identified.

[Peter Drew]

I've seen many Chinese lanterns, they've always been orange, I've also seen many Iridium "flares", they've always been silvery white. My money's on it being a Chinese lantern. .

[AstroWalrus]

Thanks everyone. I think it probably was a chinese lantern looking back at the footage, thanks for the help

[black5f]

Exposed as lanterns, good candidates. Somthing I'd forgotton abut, about 35 years ago me and my friends used to make huge hotair ballons out of tissue we got from a local shoe factory. We used to wait till the harvest and after the fields had been burnt, then let them go. They were about 6 feet in diameter and visable for miles!