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Flashes of light in the night sky


Spaceguyspiff

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I've never posted here before but am now because I'm looking for answers to things I've observed in the night sky. Earlier tonight I was out looking at the stars, satellites and planes passing in the sky. While I was observing the sky, I noticed a plane flying high up in the atmosphere (normal blinking lights) but when it passed nearby a dimly light star, the star itself flashed (I believe possibly twice but had only seen it directly flash once). I've seen this happen before and am sure that it wasn't in fact the airplane's own lights as it was far enough from the celestial body to determine that it was indeed the star. This same star is still sitting in the night sky and my question is this: was it merely some sort of refraction despite being able to clearly see a space between the plane and the star's location in the sky?

 

Also, months ago I was waiting to be picked up for a days work at a corner by my house around 5-530am. While looking into the morning sky, in a space that seemed void of stars (obviously not truly void), I observed what appeared to be a stationary star/supernova/I don't know what the hell it was suddenly (this all happened within about .5 sec) emit a blue light. In other words, it was as if nothing was there and then a blue light quickly radiated a 'perfect' circle about 1/8-1/4 size of a full moon and then was gone. If it wasn't a meteor heading directly at my location from space and/or a supernova, I have no idea what else it may have been...

Has anyone else experienced similar things or can anyone help me to understand what I may have seen? As I said, the flashing light of a plane thing had happened several times before whereas the 'blue light special' was only once. 

Thank you for any and all answers!

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Agreed that the flash in the early morning was an Iridum satellite flares.  You can install a free app called Heaven's Above which will predict when and where you can see an Iridium flares based on your location.   As far as the star I can only guess it was twinkling and/or was behind some High Level clouds (20K ' and above) which may be difficult to see on a moonless night.

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I`ll bw In New Mexico to live in about two years Las Cruces Near The New Space Port , I`ll try and hitch a ride ASAP !

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15 hours ago, DONTEATUS said:

I`ll bw In New Mexico to live in about two years Las Cruces Near The New Space Port , I`ll try and hitch a ride ASAP !

Why? Las Cruces is a hell hole.

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You are not alone @Spaceguyspiff.

I have been noticing them for years now. And way too many times to be attributed to sight inline meteors. They actually have become my most seen UFO phenomena. And they have evolved over time - they began as fairly large orbs (size was like a peanut held at arms length) that would suddenly appear then, within a second, rotate to become dark. Imagine you are holding a small headlight aimed at your face when it suddenly comes on then rotates away in place. The effect was like watching a time lapse video of the waning Moon. These days it only ever appears as smaller, quick, bright flashes as you described. The apparent motion I used to observe has ended.

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Hey @Blacksabbath I've seen plenty of iridium flares and know that they usually happen before dawn and after dusk which often times am able to spot the satellite they originate from. With the sighting that I'm referencing (not the blue one), this was at roughly 11ish at night after a 6-7pm sunset. And with the blue flash I saw a while ago, it was a slightly darker quick flash that was a slightly darker blue than a beautiful daytime azure sky. 

Something else that I wasn't thinking about when I had written my previous post, there was one night when observing the night sky (late night/early morning) in which i saw similar flashes again but instead of being in a straight line, the light flashed 4 separate times but wasn't a in a straight line (white flashes). The closest figure I could attribute the flashes to was Ursula Major (only the spoon part). It wasn't a perfect square but rather some rhombus type figure and was as if there was this same orb/light/whatever it was, making four flashes. I'm sorry, i understand that may be confusing but yeah, I'm confused as hell myself. I'll post later about other occurrences I've noticed but shouldn't be posting now as I'm working and still have two jobs left to take care of haha. Thanks guys!

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3 hours ago, Sweetpumper said:

Why? Las Cruces is a hell hole.

At least it doesn't stink like Artesia. :P

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@AZDZ i can't say i observed the phenomena with the lighthouse type rotating light but I know the flashes have happened myriad of times in my observation. My wife thinks I'm crazy and doubts that I've actually seen what I've seen but then again, she isn't one to observe the heavens for very long whatsoever. There were a few nights in row where there was a front rolling in with a heavy and clear cloud front (each night) and j observed a few flashes occurring just outside of the cloud cover. I initially attributed it to possible weather satellites taking pictures but then thought about the fact that a flash from that of a camera at such a distance away would do absolutely nothing at nighttime (or any other part of the day for that matter)

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11 hours ago, Sweetpumper said:

Why? Las Cruces is a hell hole.

100,000 people Is why ! And Mountians in my Back Yard ! Chilie`s !

 

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All I would add is that a high flying aircraft can not only create a lot of turbulence, but also has a defined wake effect.  It also may be laying contrails, which will be virtually invisible at night until they pass in front of, say, a star..

Given the right conditions, the 'flash' could have been induced either by a refraction due to a high/low pressure or cold/hot temperature boundary 'wave' from the wake, or even a thin contrail of icy particles passing in front of the star.  As starlight is a thin single line of photons, such a disturbance can make it vanish for a brief moment and then re-appear. 

Oh, and there could have even been a serendipitous bird/bug, flying plastic bag, etc or even an unlit aircraft that briefly obscured the star..

Edited by ChrLzs
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