Just Saw Somthing Most Unusual.

Just been outside and looking up at the perfectly clear sky. What i thought was a normal star ( and could have well been ), suddenly went as bright as a white searchlight. It stayed like that for around 20 seconds, and then faded back to how a normal star would appear.

I thought it was probably an iridium flare, but there was no movement. It just maintained it's original position. I stood lookng up at it for around another 10 minutes, but it just remained in the same position.

Has anyone ever seen anything similar ? Curious to what it could have been. Probably some simple explanation.

a reply to: alldaylong

Yep. Seen exactly the same quite a few times.

There was a thread on here ages ago about exactly the same thing. With the info in that thread and what I've seen, there is a slightly perceptible movement in the light, when I say slightly I mean if you're not really paying attention you won't see it. IIRC there was a photo taken, long exposure, that demonstrates the movement.

What you saw is very real and very weird.

a reply to: alldaylong

What time did it happen ?

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: alldaylong

What time did it happen ?

Around 9.20 pm.

Literally came indoors and posted after i saw it.

Could it have been a star on the brink of going supernova?

a reply to: alldaylong

hi, saw the same thing in 2011. was looking out of the window and thought i'm seeing venus, but then realized i'm facing east and not west and the thing was getting brighter. went fetching the camera and it was gone when i came back

I Have seen something similar, a light suddenly brightening, then fading away completely, no trails, or theatricals in the aftermath, in fact nothing. I did conclude it to be a meteor though, one, who's trajectory was straight toward me...there was no particular star in the same part of the sky I was looking at, at the time.

On the subject of Iridium flares, they are supposed to be ended at this time?

I have seen this happen ! Bighorn Canyon near Lovell, Wyoming. Last August 2020. About 3:00 am laying there looking up at the Stars. Full Moon night. Saw several Satellite's whiz by. Then one Star I was not looking directly at but was in my Center field of Vision Flared bright and returned to it's original brightness. It didn't appear to move. My first thought was a spinning Satellite caught a reflection off the Sun as a more reflective surface angled sunward. However the Star stayed in place. I have seen this happen twice before in Texas.

I saw something interesting the other night around 3:30am -4am ..

I was on a smoke break from work and was just staring off into the sky as I always looking up..

out of nowhere in the blackness a light faded in real bright and faded out .... I couldn't see it or anything.

I was taken back .. I foolheartedly laughed and said, "Do it again!" and it did it again. I did not see it again after that.

originally posted by: LeoStarchildI foolheartedly laughed and said, "Do it again!" and it did it again. I did not see it again after that.

Yeah they do that These things can read your thoughts and act accordingly. It's a bit like an emetion based language system they use and if you can tap into it your well on the way to further contact

a reply to: alldaylong

Looking at it logically your encounter does sound like you gained the attention of a white type ufo orb. Just glancing at a so called star can get them into action. For whatever reason they do it the moving to searchlight brightness is a very commonly seen activity by them and the 20 second duration is about spot on.

Certainly worth checking out the sky tonight indeed ADL even during the day as it's always good to remember these orbs are around us all the time and can appear any time in front of you, just remember these orbs especially the white type (especially those in basketball size) are extremely timid and do take some coaxing down. A torch will help, three flashes is what they understand as a 'hey white type ufo orbs move towards me' and you need the second between each flash of the three flash sequence.

Would love to know your mindset during your sighting. Especially if you were in a really positive / almost uplifted one world togetherness type mood set during the sighting.

a reply to: alldaylong

could have been a huge solar flare

Could have been water vapor in the air diffusing some of the light from a normal star.
The light brightening would be the norm .
Be my guess.

originally posted by: LeoStarchild

I was on a smoke break from work and was just staring off into the sky as I always looking up..

For those folk who've always wanted to see a UFO but never have, I suggest taking up smoking.

How many sighting stories start out, "I was outside having a smoke and..."

Of course I don't really recommend smoking, but I have seen a few interesting things while outside having a smoke.

To include, more than once and in the same direction, the variation described where a point of light that looked like a star flared intensely and then faded to nothing. There is a flight path in that direction so I've never included it in the two sightings that I did find somewhat remarkable & curious.

a reply to: alldaylong

Too early for the Meteor that was seen before ten last night then.

Stationary Meteor. A meteor that is travelling head-on towards the observer and thus appears as a flash of light at a point in the sky.
www.theastronomer.org...#:~:text=Stationary%20Meteor.,a%20point%20in%20the%20sky.

There was an ISS sighting opportunity in your area last night too but that was earlier and unlikely to appear stationary , guess the mystery remains.

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: alldaylong

Too early for the Meteor that was seen before ten last night then.

Stationary Meteor. A meteor that is travelling head-on towards the observer and thus appears as a flash of light at a point in the sky.
www.theastronomer.org...#:~:text=Stationary%20Meteor.,a%20point%20in%20the%20sky.

There was an ISS sighting opportunity in your area last night too but that was earlier and unlikely to appear stationary , guess the mystery remains.

The meteor over Gloucestershire was about 30 mins after what i saw, so you are correct on the timing. Gloucestershire borders Warwickshire where i live, so very close proximity.

I have enclosed a link which maybe of interest. It refers to last nights meteor, but also something strange reported in the sky over Cheltenham an hour before the meteor., and about 30 mins before what i observed. Cheltenham is about 35 miles away from my location.

www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk...

a reply to: alldaylong

Maybe you saw a fragment of the meteor burn up.

Just a suggestion.

Thank you for posting.

Strange things in the sky was the reason I came here in the first place.

Hot tubs are good for looking up too and better for you than smoking.

I remember looking out the window early saturday morning (27th) and I thought it was the moon. It was like a spotlight. Mind you I was suffering with the after effects of several glasses of Dead Mans Fingers rum.

a reply to: alldaylong

The "strange" phenomena in the sky before the fireball looks like a moon-lit contrail from an aircraft. Also note the blue lens flare/ghosting.

When you say what you saw "suddenly went as bright as a white searchlight", can you be a bit more specific? Was it bright/less bright in comparison with the Moon? Brighter than Venus?

I believe you can safely cross meteor off the list, as it's extremely rare for a meteor to be visible for 20 or more seconds. For those meteors that are visible for extended periods (5 sec or more is unusual) obvious movement (angular velocity) is inevitable. The longest lived meteors are only long lived because they enter the atmosphere at low angles.

Meteors that head directly toward an observer (AKA "point meteors"), at least when observed high in the sky, will generally have velocities between about 10-74 Km/s (also true for meteors in general). Meteors usually become visible between about 110 Km (very fast meteors) and 80-90 Km (slow meteors) above Earth's surface. Thus a point meteor can only last between around 1.5-8 seconds before impacting (in the case of very large objects) in the most extreme cases, so it can be effectively ruled out.

At extreme (near 90 degree) angles, a meteoroid experiences the most intense and disruptive forces possible, often causing them to disintegrate violently in a bright flash (as we saw with the Gloucester fireball, which suffered at least two disintegration events along it's path), so the absence of this in your report also points to it not being a meteor.

Although you say it was not moving, your description does sound to me like a satellite flare. Perhaps 20 seconds is an unusually lengthy flare, but they do happen, and some satellites are relatively slow moving (or even "geo stationary"), so that would be my prime suspect here.

For future reference, it could help to solve a mystery like this if you got images/footage (I know it's not always possible), or at least could say where the event happened in respect of the stars. You can track satellites and space junk (a major cause of flashes in the sky) using software like Sellarium.