Could this have been simply a Satellite?

THIS IS NOT ACTUAL FOOTAGE.

I re-created this from my memory of what I saw about a decade ago while in Nova Scotia.

I was visiting some friends of a friend in a rural area of Nova Scotia in 2003. Myself and a buddy were outside having a smoke and as I was staring at the night sky I noticed a flash of a light blink on and off very quickly. A couple of seconds later it happened again, flashing on and off quickly, this time i could tell that it was moving and moving at a good rate of speed. I figured it to be curious but probably a satellite until it happened again and this time it had changed it's direction, seemingly it made a 90 degree turn without losing it's rate of speed.

Motioning to my friend to look where I was pointing it continued making seemingly 90 degree turns at a high rate of speed until finally not one but 5 lights this time, all in a row and very close together blinked on and off. I can't remember if it was still moving at this point or not

My buddy acted all excited when I did the "OMG five lights!!" thing but he claims not to have seen the lights....

And that was it, the light or lights didn't blink on again after that. The whole thing lasted about 30 seconds to maybe a minute or perhaps slightly longer.

I kept watching for about 10-15 mins before conceding that I may not see it again.

Anyone have any experience with satellites? Could this simply explain what I saw that night?

I have seen satellites move across the sky on numerous occasions and usually I notice them to have a constant light and to move in a straight line. Are there types of satellites that move erratically from place to place?

Satellite cannot make turns, they don't usually have own propulsion system. Maybe it was Chinese lantern or glowstick attached to balloon. They can make fast turns and blink.

Some satellites can blink though

This looks alot like what i was seeing at the end of summer. Every night i would see objects blinking randomly and moving sporadically. I havent seen them for a few months now.

Now that i think about it someone made a thread about that. Alot of people were witnessing them this summer. All i know is that i havent seen any in months.

reply to post by Thebel


I would 99% rule out balloons or lanterns...This thing seemed like it was really, really, really far away, way out over the ocean and very high above the horizon, hence I thought it was a satellite at first and not a plane.

I have seen satellites blink but I can't recall ever seeing them go completely dark. Do they though?

Anything is possible though, sometimes I think my mind made it up because my buddy couldn't see it but it's something I don't think Ill ever forget witnessing, whatever it was.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Seen something similar myself. Could have been a flasher (term for a tumbling satellite). But they cannot turn, at least not in a short distance...

I've seen something(s) very similar...starting in late August, last time was about one month ago. The flashing was much more rapid, more like a strobe, and rarely repeated more than two or three times, followed by movement of the object after it stayed illuminated. Always west-northwesterly (in W. Colorado), and accompanied by the same sort of right-angle movement. Again, I've not seen it since ~Thanksgiving, but I'll keep my glazzies peeled and if it pops up again I'll post to this thread post-haste.

Interestingly, the rate of flash shown in the animation is dead dabs for what the ISS looked like the last time I saw it pass over (flash account reflection from the object rotating in the early morning sun).

A satellite isn't going to make a 90 degree heading change within a single orbit. Hope this helps answer your question.

Well, due to a trick of the eye satellites can appear to make changes of course. This is referred to as the autokinetic effect. en.wikipedia.org... I image the effect could be much greater when you're looking at an object that is blinking in and out of visibility. You'd probably have to be especially susceptible to the illusion in order to perceive something as dramatic as what you depict in your video, but I wouldn't exclude the possibility.

It's also possible that you witnessed different satellites moving in different directions. You could easily mistake one for the other if both of them were blinking on and off.

But the five lights blinking simultaneously? I don't think any typical satellite activity could explain that. It might be worth considering the RC aircraft, kite, or balloon hypothesis. Keep in mind you can't tell how far away a UFO is by eye. If this happened a decade ago, though, there's probably no way to investigate those possibilities.[

reply to post by Phayte


I've seen them... even made my own little animation that was very similar to yours, lol. It was on my old computer or I would post it. Anyway, the ones I saw were moving at high speeds. I don't know what they are, but it is very clear that something is going on because many people have seen them. There are many threads about them here on ATS and I know that THAT many people aren't just making it up. Wish someone could tell us what they are.

reply to post by Tearman


I completely agree.

Satellites can't actually make sharp turns, but it is possible to mistake multiple satellites for a single satellite under the right circumstances. Satellites are cris crossing the sky constantly, and very often they are only visible to the naked eye for brief periods of time, but that does not mean that they are not there, just that not enough light is being reflected back to your eye to see them.

As the angle between the observer, the satellite, and the sun is constantly changing, different parts (solar panel arrays for example) of the satellite (or junk) can glint as they catch the sun at the right angle. It's not unusual that these "flares" or "glints" can be a few hundred times brighter than the normal brightness of the object.

The recreation the OP posted would be consistent with this IMO...

Note how you do not actually see the "object" making a turn.

There is however the suggestion that a turn has been made, since the original satellite is below the threshold of visibility, and the next one becomes visible.

I have spent a lot of time trying to photograph meteors (over 14 years), and satellites (or their tracks) are visible in a significant portion of the many 10's of thousands of images I have taken. It's not unusual to have a single 10 or 12 second exposure with 2 or 3 different satellite tracks on it.

I've made a crude diagram based on the OPs animation to demonstrate what is going on:



The white dashes represent the times the satellite is visible, and the blue dots represent when it was below the threshold of visibility. Four satellites (A, B, C, and D) would be sufficient to create this effect (or "illusion" if you like). Satellite A is responsible for for flares A1 through to A4. Satellite B is responsible for for flares B1and B2, and so on.

Just as in the OPs animation, satellites often travel parallel to each other, and "iridiums" make a good example since they are bright and there are lots of them. Satellites also usually cross the sky going from either E>W/W>E or S>N/N>S ie at 90 degree angles to each other, which also fits the animation.

So, as you can see, it is possible for multiple satellites to appear to be a single satellite making a series of turns.

It's also quite easy to prove this with a decent camera/lens/tripod. Try it...

Thousands of people take photographs of the sky every year (my self included), yet no one has captured these "satellite like objects that make turns", and the reason is, that you can tell that it is a satellite because you can see the parts of the track that were not visible to the naked eye.