Strange Flashes in the night sky ,what are they,and have you seen them?

I live in so. CA. and was out on our deck with my wife doing a little star gazing sat. night Aug. 2nd. Sometimes we try to count how many satellites we can spot. And then about 9:40, just around ones hand length north of venus, theres this briliant white flash in the sky as if someone with a giant camera from above had taken a picture. We both looked at each other in amazement. Of course I blurted out, what the #$*! was that? Did anyone else see this? We are both stumped. Im 52 and have ben a star enthuiast since childhood and have never seen anything like this before. Any answers?

I saw something similar over a course of a few nights in July, The first time was around 12ish Berlin time, A flash was comming from the south travelling north fast. A lot of commercial jets fly over my house so comparing that to this object it was faster. But the strange thing was it strobe flashed once then reappered further north then dissappered again and reappered but this time heading west at of a turn of 90 deg. This was no metorite Ive seen them many times over my house. Then one night late July I was sitting looking at the stars when directly north what seemed to be a star started to strobe green red a and white. Yes like a planes strobes but it stood still. I got my binoculars out and looked at it. There was no pattern to the blinking just random. I got a short vid of it just need to upload it. My zoom on my digital camera is rubbish . Anyone in North Eastern Germany see anything like this. ( Meklenburg Vorprommen area)?

Originally posted by JohnnyAnonymous
I recently did an investigation in Monterey California with ATS member ProjectPhyrePhly. His research group captures strange objects in the sky. There were a number of fires making night-viewing next to impossible, but I did get this one flash that came through the smoke.

I should add that there were no satellites or planes in the area and we confirmed this with data provided by NASA's J-Pass/J-Track. I've captured these before, they are all very brief and I used to wonder if these couldn't even be associated with gamma-ray bursts.

First and foremost, I have also used the NASA SAT Tracking Program, as well as some others. I am familiar with many of these programs and I will admit, it truly surprises you how often SATs are passing overhead. However, with all of that being said, I seriously doubt that these programs track Classified SATs.

Second, as one other poster stated, it is extremely unlikely that these programs track Space Junk, and Non-Manmade Objects (Such as what NORAD can do with a Combination of Radar, and various Terrestrial plus Orbital Based Sensors).

Third, there are MANY Natural Terrestrial and Exta-Terrestrial based Phenomena which defy explanation, as well as many which have not even been discovered as of yet.

Last but not Least, when viewing the Night-Sky with IR Night Vision, you are not only Amplifying light, you are also looking into Near Infrared Bands which are NOT visible to the Naked Eye. Doing so may allow you to view completely Natural Phenomena which are Not commonly Visible. You may even View something which remains little understood, and if extremely "fortunate" (however you view it), you may even discover an entirely Brand New, and as of yet undiscovered/un-researched Natural Phenomenon.

[edit on 8-9-2008 by TheAgentNineteen]

I am still seeing these flashes pretty much every night now, they are definately not heat lightning, we are in a cool front right now, the lights are now a regular occurance though.

I live in california & last night i saw multiple flashes from my bedroom window at about 1:00 AM. they looked just like lightning without the sound. in like 30 minutes, i saw about 20 of them

I gotta say, i've seen this kind of flashes last night and last few night.
just about mid night, once a day. I couldnt see very clear but when i was online and it was a flash outside the window....I was thinking mightbe lightning...until now, it is not only happen in my location.
also, after the flash, i couldnt hear any noise, so that means not lightning??
remind again, it was once flash per night.......

[edit on 15-8-2008 by roisu]

[edit on 15-8-2008 by roisu]

ok this is a good discussion.

I too have seen these flashes in the sky many times throughout my life always at night...

I've seen random flashes that only happen once or twice in the night sky, they often seem like the WHOLE SKY, my whole vision, lights up for a second and then is gone.

The first time i saw this I was young and with a friend out late at night. The sky began flashing very brightly... no rain, no clouds that i remember, just a blinking sky... It would happen in short bursts at first, of 10-15sec apart and then began happening slower at2-3min intervals. We watched this for about 20 min.


We eventually woke up my friends parents who told us it was nothing, its just a lightning storm...

It made me feel somewhat at ease and I took them for there word, I mean there adults right? They knew what they were talking about... And who knows maybe it was a lighting storm, im not too clear on if there were clouds or not.


But since Ive been an adult Ive seen a similar event on many occasions, in very strange situations with no clouds or rain and the sky will basically just "blink", ill lose all sight to a blinding light for a fraction of a second and then its gone.....

I've never seen it like i did when i was young where it lasted for a long period of time. but i have seen it on at least 6 more occasions where the sky just appears to flash with blinding light and then is gone..

What could it be?

One Spring cool morning, before sunrise about 5:30 Am in central Ontario Canada. I was driving south and saw to my surprise saw the southern horizon light up in a huge flash that lasted for about 2 seconds ? in 2001 or 2002.
I have never heard anyone report this or have any idea what happened.
Its was like what one would see if an asteroid had hit the Earth well south of the 49th Parallel....

Could be what my parents have seen. I made a topic, but no one except for a few people seemed interested at all.

What my parents saw was an EXTREMELY fast (you'd miss it if you blink) red light which looked like sparks. This was after midnight.

Really weird since we don't get these kinds of things where I live, was exciting :p.

Good to see there's more people seeing this stuff.

I live in S Central PA, and last night, I saw distinct purplish flashes in the clouds near my home. The first time I thought is was just spots on my eyes from glancing across the sky at a fast pace and passing a nearby streetlight in my line of sight. But the second flash appeared in an area with no streetlights and with no light pollution whatsoever... It mistifies me that these lights are so prevalent in the night sky and that no one reports them.

I've seen the flashes in Cape Cod, and the Phoenix night sky looks like

an old black and white movie flickering! And i've seen them on very clear nights.

Good post

reply to post by Kuro34

OK, so, we just saw it too. Camera flash. In the east sky. A 11:20 pm in Northern Michigan. What's up with that? We don't have any big theories...just curious!!

Have the flashes now stopped? I have been out every clear night for a look ,but apart from many sat sightings I have not seen any more flashes in the sky. To recap these are flashes comming from one part of the sky (the zenith and east a bit) they look like camera flashes that only light up a small area not the whole sky and come frome two or more places in the same area of sky.As though two objects were flashing each other. has anyone else seen these in the last couple of weeks,or have they now stopped?

If a meteor is coming straight at you you will only see a flash... the way you described it as seeing it out of the corner of your eye (where we are more sensitive to motion) and the fact that they lasted a brief time indicates to me you are seeing meteors straight on

Aug 12th was the height of the Perseid shower always a good show, but they are hitting the Earth daily... If you are looking directly into the constellation they 'appear' to come from they will be coming straight in...

Here is the main ones for 2008

Quadrantids January 4, morning Crescent, rises 4-5 a.m.
Lyrids night of April 21/22 almost Full
Eta Aquarids May 5, morning/evening New Moon
Perseids August 12, morning Sets around 2 a.m.
Orionids October 21, morning Rises around 1 a.m.
Leonids November 17, morning Rises late evening
Geminids December 13, evening Full Moon




[edit on 3-9-2008 by zorgon]

zorgon,

Point meteors are actually quite rare. There's a fair chance of seeing them on the peak night of a meteor shower if its a good year, but apart from that, it's highly unlikely that people are seeing them everywhere, and all the time. Also, as you said, they will only appear in a very small patch of sky, which the shower is named after, so it's relatively easy to identify point meteors.

On top of that, most point meteors tend to be slower than the flashes people are describing here. Camera flashes are instant. Point meteors tend to brighten quickly, and fade almost as quickly, but not usually "instantaneously".

Flashes are also produced by non-point meteors, and if the meteor is too dim to see initially, the only thing that may be seen is the flash, with no hint of the rest of the meteors path. This is more likely to account for some of the sightings people are describing here, but I still think the vast majority of the flashes are due to satellites (or junk) glinting.

I spent one and a half nights observing the Perseids under rural skies this August, and I saw nothing that could not be attributed to satellites or meteors, despite looking for these "mysterious" flashes.

[edit on 3-9-2008 by C.H.U.D.]

reply to post by Anonymous ATS


Outside Phila, Pa western suburb around 9:30 last night (9/7/08) heard sounded like thunder or fireworks . . . but was ongoing for 20 minutes . . . no stop . . . sounded like artillery fire or explosion of some massive complex . . . accompanied by flashes of light lighting up entire sky. Could have been very strange storm hovering over some area . . . but just as abruptlyl as it started, it stopped. No sirens to indicate accident of some sort (fire; explosion). Others in neighborhood heard it. Nothing on news this AM . . . nothing in papers about it. Anyone else see or hear this?

reply to post by mars1


Yeah seen them near to Stoke on Trent. Just assumed they were military flares, bizarre. Will take more notice after reading this.

reply to post by ufoorbhunter


I have seen this too! And i live in stoke-on-trent. I have never actually seen it properly, just thro my bedroom curtains. It is like the flash of a camera. Very quick poss about 3-4 QUICK flashes which seem to be white!

So weird i have been seeing thos now for the past 2 yrs prob most nights.

What the heck is it?

Lisagirl

I live in northern sweden, happened to me and my friend December sometime after christmas , no clouds on the sky, Minus 30 celcius.

First flash i thougth was my imagination, 2nd flash i looked at my friend and he looked back so i asked him if he saw the flash too, and he did.
30 seconds later a 3rd flash came, about 200 meters away from the 1 and 2nd one. No clouds, cold, still dont know what it is, the light was powerfull enough to light 500 meters +, it was alot lighter than the normal lights at the sidewalk. But we took a shortcut where there werent any lights during the flashes.

I've just started seeing really quite large (as in lighting up half of the sky) white flashes, lasting less than a second, which started off pretty much exactly once a minute, for about an hour, now they are more sporadic. They are bright white, like a camera flash, and look to be coming from somewhere around Exeter UK, I live like 15 miles south of Exeter and the flashes are easily visible through my curtain. I noticed the flashes at around 1ish am on the 30th Oct and have never noticed them before. I have no idea what they can be.