Anyone encounter this ?

No pic, no video, I just wonder what is it.

Last night I smoke outside, sky is clear, I can see lots of stars and faraway aeroplane, then suddenly...at the corner of my eyes, something blip, like brightest star, like a camera flash. I thought a star blinking, so which one ? I wait and wait, nothing, must be meteor, looked away.

Then I noticed that thing blip again. Ok, maybe its an aeroplane passing through cloud ? No sound, so I wait and watched the area, I can see faint stars on that area and it blip, once, just like previous two, and nothing. Definitely not commercial aeroplane, a satellite, I dont think its rones or helicopter. Then another blip, this time it moved away, after about 5 puff later, another blip, performing a stright line and then 45 degrees turn. After 2 more blip its gone.

I dont know the distance but approx commercial plane high. The light is like the brightest star. It does not blip continuously or in timely fashion. No sound, I can hear far away plane at that time, but not this one.

My assumption - a soundless drone taking picture, but at night, really ? But, this is not a drone area, I'm assured of that, there is nothing interesting here.

So any idea what it might be ? Due to the nature it behave, I'm more open to earthly based stuff, but what is it ?

Can a satellite blip and make 45 degrees turn ?
Is there any aeroplane that doesnt have beacon light but blip?
Do you really need to use camera flash on a secret plane ? Dead giveaway.

Btw In my area, even a crop duster might turn heads. So are drones really interested that much ?

reply to post by NullVoid


What was ya smoking

Walking last week and seen something that sounds the same as you at night as well, but as I got into town I seen it was a night club light flashing at the front door, 15min early I thought It was a UFO, not saying this is what you seen but lights in the night sky play with ya mind (well mine any ho).

Shame no pic.

reply to post by coolcatt


LOL! Love the reply......were you smoking anything? (curious). It's a joke, don't get all pissy.

reply to post by justreleased

do you mean .. is it a drone, using a flash, for flash photography ...

I have no idea how these dornes operate .. but in my simplistic mind .. they sound futuristic to me .. so surely would utilise some technology beyond the old flash photography from days gone by

perhaps the stars were talking to you ...

What the OP likely saw was an Iridium satellite flare.











More info at:

Sky and Telescope: Observing Iridium Flares

In skywatching circles, the Iridium satellites stand apart because their flat, shiny, door-size antenna arrays (three per spacecraft) periodically reflect sunlight toward the ground, causing brief (seconds-long) but brilliant flares that can momentarily reach an apparent magnitude of –8 — outshining the planet Venus. What's more, these flares are predictable, thanks to the satellites' publicly available orbital elements and to software and Web sites that satellite-watching aficionados have made available free of charge.

I saw an aircraft about 20 years ago, at night, appeared to be flying very high. It blinked, but the light was kind of fuzzy and not as bright as the brightest stars. It blinked approximately twice a second, and was moving at what looked to be a very fast rate of speed (hard to tell when you can't be certain of altitude). There were no running lights, just the fuzzy blink. I crossed 3/4 of the sky in about 15 seconds.

A couple of years later, I read about an aircraft that the Air Force was proposing that used external combustion in a pressure wave behind the aircraft, and I wondered if that is what I saw.

reply to post by NullVoid


Normally, I would say you saw a satellite. I'm a satellite watcher and it's fairly common to see the blips that look like camera flashes in the sky. HOWEVER, satellites are in orbit and do not make turns, so I think it's safe to rule out any kind of satellite. So, hard to say what it was.

I know very little about drones, but if I was going to test one out, I'd probably do it in an area where there weren't that many people to observe it. I don't think they would use flash photography, though. I'm sure night vision would be much more practical. It would take a flash of gigantic proportions to illuminate and area on the ground, from the sky. I'd say you've got you a mystery on your hands. Keep watching for it. Maybe you'll see it again.

reply to post by gemineye


Right I thought satellites did turn when they were in orbit. Maybe not all of them but I would have thought some. Man! Hollywood had me again. Is it just me or do all the satellites in movies when they show them their turning looking all cool and shiny.

butcherguy
I saw an aircraft about 20 years ago, at night, appeared to be flying very high. It blinked, but the light was kind of fuzzy and not as bright as the brightest stars. It blinked approximately twice a second, and was moving at what looked to be a very fast rate of speed (hard to tell when you can't be certain of altitude). There were no running lights, just the fuzzy blink. I crossed 3/4 of the sky in about 15 seconds.

A couple of years later, I read about an aircraft that the Air Force was proposing that used external combustion in a pressure wave behind the aircraft, and I wondered if that is what I saw.

The aircraft you heard about was called the Aurora and supposedly was a testbed for the recently unveiled SR-72 which supposedly doesn't exist yet.

coolcatt
reply to post by gemineye

 

Right I thought satellites did turn when they were in orbit. Maybe not all of them but I would have thought some. Man! Hollywood had me again. Is it just me or do all the satellites in movies when they show them their turning looking all cool and shiny.

Hollywood is not real.

gemineye
reply to post by NullVoid

 

Normally, I would say you saw a satellite. I'm a satellite watcher and it's fairly common to see the blips that look like camera flashes in the sky. HOWEVER, satellites are in orbit and do not make turns, so I think it's safe to rule out any kind of satellite. So, hard to say what it was.

There are some satellites which can in fact appear to "make turns". If he saw two Iridium flashes from two different satellites it can give the illusion of being one object that made a 45 degree turn.

Our mind tries to put two different events together as one event. It's happened to me when I was out doing some observing. I just knew what had happened.

There are also things like the X-37B which probably could make actual turns.

JadeStar

butcherguy
I saw an aircraft about 20 years ago, at night, appeared to be flying very high. It blinked, but the light was kind of fuzzy and not as bright as the brightest stars. It blinked approximately twice a second, and was moving at what looked to be a very fast rate of speed (hard to tell when you can't be certain of altitude). There were no running lights, just the fuzzy blink. I crossed 3/4 of the sky in about 15 seconds.

A couple of years later, I read about an aircraft that the Air Force was proposing that used external combustion in a pressure wave behind the aircraft, and I wondered if that is what I saw.

The aircraft you heard about was called the Aurora and supposedly was a testbed for the recently unveiled SR-72 which supposedly doesn't exist yet.

Goggled Aurora plane as I have never seen it.






Very cool Cheers jade.

JadeStar

coolcatt
reply to post by gemineye

 

Right I thought satellites did turn when they were in orbit. Maybe not all of them but I would have thought some. Man! Hollywood had me again. Is it just me or do all the satellites in movies when they show them their turning looking all cool and shiny.

Hollywood is not real.

Dam! I thought what we see is a given.

coolcatt

JadeStar

butcherguy
I saw an aircraft about 20 years ago, at night, appeared to be flying very high. It blinked, but the light was kind of fuzzy and not as bright as the brightest stars. It blinked approximately twice a second, and was moving at what looked to be a very fast rate of speed (hard to tell when you can't be certain of altitude). There were no running lights, just the fuzzy blink. I crossed 3/4 of the sky in about 15 seconds.

A couple of years later, I read about an aircraft that the Air Force was proposing that used external combustion in a pressure wave behind the aircraft, and I wondered if that is what I saw.

The aircraft you heard about was called the Aurora and supposedly was a testbed for the recently unveiled SR-72 which supposedly doesn't exist yet.

Goggled Aurora plane as I have never seen it.

Very cool Cheers jade.

Thanks. I don't think those are the Aurora though. As far as I know no photo of it was ever taken, just a photo of its contrail.

There may be some Aviation Week illustration of it if you look for that. There is an illustration of the SR-72 as well.

Aurora
en.wikipedia.org...(aircraft)

SR-72
en.wikipedia.org...

Ok, seems like a satellite then, is there any other capable of like this

Light intensity - just like that Iridium 18.
Light duration - speed up that video about 3X, its like a flash, the vid you post is gradual, thats not a blip.
Time - 1200am to 3am, I dont think its reflecting the sun
Blip interval - none, its like random blip, I have to wait almost 1-2 full minute before 3rd blip but only about 20 secs for 4th.
Direction - East then NorthEast
UFO, doesnt seems like that too, UFO lighten up almost all the time.

Drones most likely, but then, flash based photography ? wheres the secrecy in that, lol.
My best bet is drones. But, drone doing in my area ? bigger lol

reply to post by NullVoid


Know this might sound daft, but sometimes when am walking ma dogs at night out of the corner of my eye i sometimes see blips and really bright lights moving about.

When I turn my head to look properly I see nothing, then i turn my head again and i will see it again, look round, nothing. The reason it happens to me is if it`s a cold or windy night my right eye starts to water a bit, the water gets in my eyelashes and then even a faint star seen out of the corner of my eye can seem like a meteor, shooting star, flashes of light etc.

Think it`s just light refraction through water, bit like an optical illusion. Well thats what it is with me anyhows.

reply to post by fenian8


Probably, but I WAITED for this thing to blip, and it did, albeit 2 minute passed. Anyway I think it might be a satellite flare thingy or might be a ...definitely not aeroplane.

Ok I guess its a satellite then. Case closed people. Keep calm and walk forward.

reply to post by JadeStar


Star for the videos and information but the description of the OP does not match a satellite observation...