Flickering star right now 1045pm 9/25 NNE Michigan

Ive seen this same star for the last 3 nights. Seems to be in the persus constilation. Bright and flickering blue to red to white. Ilive in southeast michigan. It is NNE about 30 degrees above the horizon. Super bright and I know it is not a helicopter because it's been in the same spot for 3 nights now. Watched it for 20 min the first night thinking it was a ufo waiting to see it move. It's so super bright and I've never seen a star flicker to where you could see all these colors so much. Anyone else see it or have a clue that they've seen this previously? I am quite the night watcher and have never seen this before. Maybe Alcyone?

I've personally seen stars flicker so much I thought they were moving in tight circles or flashing strobes.

The distance/time between that star and us plays great optical tricks.

Do you have access to a star chart? I'm certain you could find one on the internet and that would help you pinpoint the area you're focusing on.

S + F, existence is amazing and mystifying. Happy stargazing OP

Might be Capella

a reply to: Yeahkeepwatchingme

I just edited using Google sky with the star that seems the closest to the area. Freaked me out the first night because I really thought it was a helicopter with the amount of color changes and it not moving. But 3 nights in a row now points to it being a star. Guess the world just amazes me once more with the amount of color shifts it was doing like a helicopter would do.

This sight has an easy to understand explanation of why stars change colors. It has to do with light refraction/air/density.
strobob.areavoices.com/2011/09/04/why-stars-twinkle-and-sputter-in-colo r/

a reply to: muse7

Capella is more north and a little lower to the horizon to this one. Alcyone seems like a little star cluster maybe its just the other stars flickering as well giving me this illusion.

a reply to: nugget1

I fully understand why it happens I've just never witnessed it to this degree. I swear it was the strobe lights off of a helicopter.

a reply to: IBossJekler

I've noticed the star you're talking about. Seen it the past couple of nights and have seen it before. Just a star, though. Almost looks like police lights. I seem to notice it more during the fall and winter months.

I seen those flickering stars also, very weird to look at but i also seen star looking alike objects moving cross the night sky, some guessed it was satellites but do they have same light and size than stars in our night sky? Also fewer times i seen same objects moving but flickering on and off the light, maybe plane? It surely didint look like plane and i seen planes going night and day enough to tell the difference.
Last summer i saw one of the weirdest vehicle floating right above me, had allot of colors going in pattern, made me think it was huge object tho and this summer i saw those sigar shaped object far away in clear evening sky, we tried to guess what it was, my friend was sure it was plane but i keep on looking at it and it soon as it hit the cloud it made gave very beautiful brightness "explode" kinda like if it was for moment full of mirrors..

a reply to: romilo

Yes, satellites look just like moving stars. Sometimes they appear to blink because they are spinning while reflecting light. Some times they flare up out of the middle of nowhere and give off a bright flash. It's called an iridium flare. These are mistaken for UFO's all the time. They are pretty cool to see, though.

The star Algol in the Perseus constellation is most likely what you're seeing if you are looking NE around this time from your location.

It's a variable binary star that's well known for it's brightness and flickering.


Edit to add: Also note that this particular star will change its brightness magnitudes (as well as flickering activity) depending on when its being eclipsed by its secondary star.

a reply to: CranialSponge

It does seem to be in the area of algol. Must be the seasons changing adding additional effects through our atmosphere.

Here i managed to get that video from this summer what i saw, its bad camera phone tho.. Also my first ever uploaded video to youtube, tried to figure out how to take my stupid voice out but could not make it happen, i just say its flickering now, because it first just flew cross the sky with same color on it but when it appear to hit that cloud it start flickering quite brightly which you can see bit in this short clip. Shortness of the video is i do not own extra card for more storage so that was the cap..

www.youtube.com...

a reply to: IBossJekler

Actually, I just looked up some info on Algol and it turns out that Algol is tripled in its brightness magnitude for the first few hours right after sundown this time of year.

So I think we found the answer.

Observers in the eastern half of North America who start watching it as soon as the sky grows dark can see the star’s brightness more than triple in a few hours. This eclipsing binary system runs through a cycle from minimum (magnitude 3.4) to maximum (magnitude 2.1) and back every 2.87 days.

Link

So it seems that every few days it's going to triple in magnitude for a while through the first part of the evening.

That would also explain why its been so bright these past few days.... If you continue to watch it over the next day or two, you'll see it dim back down again.

It's pretty cool when you think about it !

originally posted by: IBossJekler
It's so super bright and I've never seen a star flicker to where you could see all these colors so much. Anyone else see it or have a clue that they've seen this previously? I am quite the night watcher and have never seen this before. Maybe Alcyone?

You don't look up enough then, every winter in the UK and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere, Sirius displays the same effect.

Other bright stars as well here is an example Arcturus

It's called Scintillation, it's caused by the starlight passing through our turbulent atmosphere the lower the star is to the horizon the larger the effect.

a reply to: IBossJekler

I am in your area and I saw a brilliant twinkling star on the 24th at around 5-6 am. At that time, it was in the ESE direction. It was a great early morning for viewing the sky, crystal clear, not a cloud in sight.

I actually filmed it because it was twinkling so much and it was so bright. Such beautiful colors too!


I don't know why when I click on the youtube button to post a vid, nothing happens. I'll keep trying.

www.youtube.com...
Make sure to choose the HD setting.

a reply to: IBossJekler If you can, download the App Stellarium for your phone, open it and just point it at the star and the names are right there on the screen. I hate iphones and androids but ive used a friends to view and thought it was preet cool. I love space, although my mind is cluttered.

Well I saw this "star" or what ever it is tonight. It's still up in the western sky, flashing red, blue, white. My initial sighting was 8:40 eastern. It was at about ten o'clock high off the horizon. Being in the city, the horizon is an imaginary line :0 So that's just a guess. It's very prominent and the brightest "star" in my visible sky. Doesn't look like any start I've seen before. My phone app didn't have anything that I was able to point to to identify this star.

East coast people go out and take a look

People, install Stellarium and it will show you what's in the sky!

No more guessing, suspicions, fears of the impending doom, accusations of the conspiracy, etc.

It's important to state not only your location and direction of the star, but also what time you saw it. Stars rise and set just like the Sun and the Moon do, you know. A bright star you see in the evening after sunset will not be the same bright star someone else will see in the morning.

By the way, here's the Stellarium screenshot, set for Michigan, Sept 26, after sunset, with the star Capella being 30 degrees above the horizon.