Something Strange During 2015 Perseid Meteor Shower

As I said I saw a number of satellite flares before dawn this morning while watching the meteor shower, but unfortunately none of them happened to pass through my camera's field of view while flaring. I did catch a couple of meteors though.
h.dropcanvas.com...
The Andromeda galaxy and Pleiades are also present in the shot. I didn't even set up the telescope, this was just a very simple shot with an SLR on a standard tripod, no tracking, 30 second exposures.

a reply to: Aqualung2012

Yea we're gonna go ahead and set up the Sony, tripod, and telescope (no camera mount, but we have tape lol.)
Maybe we can zoom enough to see what's up, and if not, maybe catch some of the air show runs, or who knows?
What direction were you seeing these in?

ETA: thanks for that info ngchunter - promise not to flip out over every "flashing light" we see lol

a reply to: Aqualung2012

And I thought I was just trip'n. But I saw that same phenomena out here in Cali
I also saw one good green flash very short but straight over head last night.
WOW!

SnF

a reply to: Aqualung2012

Being a layperson astronomy geek, I've spent some time watching the night sky and have seen some things I couldn't identify, but usually put it down to a lack of info... usually. The two high altitude lights meeting, stopping and whipping around each other at impossible speeds before shooting off to opposite horizons remains a puzzle... anyway...

I, too, have seen odd flashes in the night sky on rare occasions. At the time, I put it down to seeing a meteor burn up coming directly at me... or the secret space forces doing their thing, heh.

Anyway, interesting conversation... back to lurking.

a reply to: Aqualung2012

thanks for sharing.

I'm new here to ATS, so don't know if there's some vetting process I have to go through in order to reply, but I've seen the same thing, but not during a meteor shower. A few years ago I was standing outside talking with my dad And this huge, circular flash of blue light shone through a cloud behind his head for about 3 seconds and then gradually faded. After I saw it I caught myself just staring in that spot in disbelief and told him what I had just seen. We watched for a few more minutes and the same thing happened in the same spot, but the second time it went out very quickly. Still to this day neither of us have any idea what we saw. a reply to: Aqualung2012

This is really weird bc this very thing happened to me just a couple weeks ago. It was on the night of July 26. I saw the double flash and it happened again about 10 minutes later. It didn't light up the whole sky, just a point like a super bright star. It was odd but I didn't think too much of it. I'm in central California.

a reply to: Aqualung2012

I too see this very often, either same spot or on a path. I've also seen multiple flashes in random but close proximity. I've put it down to iridium flares, although the ones in the same spot don't make sense, perhaps someone has an explanation? I've never seen happen it on a visible satellite though, always just the very bright camera flash effect.

I also saw these weird "flashing stars" last night! Just intermittently here and there.

But the big highlight of my night was seeing something very similar to an "Iridium Flare" around 9-930 CST in the north east sky, nearly directly overhead, moving North over the horizon just east of Polaris. It moved at a constant speed, noticed it as a very bright object that i figured must be a plane, but it had no flashing lights and i quickly realized it couldn't be a plane, and faded out to a very dim object over the course of about 5-6 seconds. After the fade-out, it kept moving toward the north and took about a minute or so to get out of my field of view. I'm just west of Nashville.


a reply to: Aqualung2012

a reply to: Aqualung2012

I see this type of phenomenon all the time up country where there is no light pollution. I am pretty certain these are a type of satellite, maybe military or something, or they are hitting the sunlight and flashing. I am not sure, but it happens quite frequently. They may even be equipped with a flashing light.

Or they are genuine UFOs...

I did not expect to see a topic on this. My wife and I stayed up and saw the same thing. I saw it flash a total of 4 times, she saw two. She wears glasses. I'll go back and read the entire thread to see where in the sky people saw it. Or if it was stated.

For me, it was just above the point in Persius, immediately below if not right on the edge of Cassiopeia. I think it was right around 1:30-1:45 am. I'm about 30 miles from the Texas, New Mexico border.



ETA: Well, at least one other poster put the "flash", for me more of a "strobe" similar to air-plane running light, in Cassiopeia. That is pretty cool. I didn't see the object move at all. It was perfectly stationary, I stare at the skies a lot. I know the many different ways satellites can present themselves, but for me they are always moving. It is even evident if they are only visible for a very short period of time.

Good thread OP.

a reply to: Aqualung2012

Saw the same exact thing...and I am also in the NW subs of Chicago, 20 minutes from Elgin.

Like a star appearing and flashing out..no streak.

I assume that this is a meteorite hitting in such a way as to just glance the atmosphere and gives off a localized burst or a meteorite small enough that it combusts on hitting the atmosphere rather than streaking for a while.

a reply to: Aqualung2012

I've seen that same thing while out doing astro photography several times over the last couple of years. Only difference is that was not during any showers, nor where there any booms. Accompanied by it.

Correction - It was during this shower. Here is the thread I made about it.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

originally posted by: Bobaganoosh
I know the many different ways satellites can present themselves, but for me they are always moving. It is even evident if they are only visible for a very short period of time.

Geostationary satellites do not move enough to see by eye. Even by telescope I can literally turn the power off and not notice any motion at all over several minutes. Most geosynchronous satellites would also likely not produce any visible motion over short time scales of a few seconds.

I live 60 Kilometers south of Frankfurt in Germany. During the meteor shower peak yesterday a friend mentioned there was a stationary flash. When i found the position in the sky i only saw one (the last) flash, he told me then that he saw 4 flashs. in winter 2014 during the leonid shower i saw a dual flash, but it was more than two my friend insisted.

Hello

I dont post often but this thread got my attention.

The last 2 weeks i have seen these flashes here in Eastern Europe.
They are like a straight flash from nowhere and dosent even last 1 sec. At first i thought it was some bad weather at the distance but the weather was perfect in the whole area.

They come from nowhere and a couple of minutes later same flash appear. Dosent look like a thunder but who knows maybe there is a logical answer

My 2 cent

a reply to: Aqualung2012

I am in Ontario Canada, and i saw this same thing. I thought i was losing my mind or my eyes were distracted with focusing.
So glad you posted.

a reply to: Aqualung2012

Just to confirm I saw the same thing during this week, here in the North of Portugal. I was looking in the west direction. About 10 to 11 pm, local time.

originally posted by: Aqualung2012
I have been observing the meteor shower from Elgin, IL (a suburb of Chicago.) Each night I've noticed something odd in the sky.

What I've seen the past three nights (and twice this evening) was: A flash of light like a star suddenly appearing for a split second then blinking out. Each time this happened, I would glance over to where the flash was and within a second or two, it would flash once more in the same spot... but only once more. Two quick and seemingly stationary flashes just seconds apart, and nothing else.

You know, i had the EXACT same experience around 1 am (CET) last night in Copenhagen, Denmark, when watching the clear sky from my balcony.

I am almost positive that it flashed in the exact same spot, because from my point of view it happened to make en almost perfect right triangle with the two "outermost" stars of Big Dipper, which I was looking at at the time. (I believe the stars are called Alkaid and Mizar, should anyone be interested).

I only saw it that once though.

Can everyone who saw it specify the location in the sky or general direction they were looking in? Some people have but others haven't. I've seen people say northwest, west, Cassiopeia, and the big dipper. Anyone else?

If we can narrow down a general location, I'll try to point my telescope in the vicinity tonight or whenever it's clear and take a look. (Unless we're speculating that this phenomenon is limited to the meteor shower.)

Peace.