I was wondering...

Sitting on my porch at dusk is a very calming, relaxing pastime for me..Especially if I have a fine cigar and a double rum on the rocks sitting beside me..I degress..

I was watching the stars come out last night and I nearly fell off my chair.. Here was this light continuously flashing white red and blue.. How patriotic I thought..for both america and australia!! My first reaction was of course is this an ET.. so I bolted for the camera..

I watched it for about 5 mins.. I hadn't moved..It wasn't doing funky circles or zig zags. It was just sitting in the sky majestically flashing it's tri colours at me.

I know this was not a UFO..But actually a star..but why people ..and please tell me..does it flash three colours? has it to do with refraction.. gases in the atmosphere..me being a bit pissy?? I would love to know.

Chris

Well this could be tying into all this new HAARP acitivity mentioned in the WWSE posts.
Anyone been feeling weird lately?

Ozchris, did you get a decent picture of it??? If so, can you post? Would be best if you got a pic of each mode of light you observed.

I did get a picture of it.. It tells me diddly squat mates.. All it looks like is a pin prick of white light behind a dark landscape.. nothing that would help you guys explain to me what I saw.. I am convinced it was a star...I have heard mars flashes red and white sometimes.. is this true?

Chris

There are a couple of theories that would explain phase shifting of light from a star, but a lot of those involve light bending around a massive gravity body. These are theoretical models with some observational proof, but mainly through full scale observatories, certainly nothing observable with the naked eye.

I can see a light source being changed to one color or another through pollution, ect, but not changing continuously between 3 different colors.

Are you sure it wasnt a distant aircraft anticollision light? An airplane? Maybe a far distant strobe light on a radio tower? (Not trying to debunk you, just trying to rule out any "normal" explainations)

DR..

Don't worry about the debunking.. I am just as skeptical as the next joe bloggs.

I am sure I have read somewhere. That some of the planets visible at early dusk do seem to "flash" maybe due to refraction ..maybe due to gases in it's/our atmosphere.. I was just a wondrous phenomenon and I was wondering if anyone else had seen it.

Chris

I am sure I have read somewhere. That some of the planets visible at early dusk do seem to "flash" maybe due to refraction ..maybe due to gases in it's/our atmosphere.. I was just a wondrous phenomenon and I was wondering if anyone else had seen it. Posted by OzChris

Light has been known to refract, reflect, and "skip" along atmospheric inversion layers, which might well cause a flashing effect. However, I cannot see why it would change the color, but would just make the original color get darker and lighter...

Hrm, well i was wondering about something i heard on discovery also about radiation in space, is it true that if you turn your head quick enough and look at a certain direction you can see the flashes of radiation?
It was on a documentary about how we cant go to mars, due to this lethal radiation that would require enormous amounts of lead to shield against...and can we see it on earth?

You know what.. I will see if I get get some realtime footage of this occurance.. dunno how well it will turn out on a digi cam but I'll give it a shot cobbers..

Chris

Possibly a helicopter? The right light is green (looks blue), the left is red and the tail pylon light could have been the white light.

but TC??

Stationary for over 15 minutes....possible longer..I got sick of looking at it and it was getting chilly....

I can see it happening. I watched a CH-47 hover nearbyby for longer than that. I have no idea what their reason was. The mind of a pilot is a scary place to wander into, and I'm not about to tread there without proper weaponry!!

I find it extremely doubtful that what OZ is talking about is a helicopter. for the past couple of weeks i have found 2 of the same objects that OZ has described, they both blink red white and blue, and they both move with the horizon. The first time i saw this phonomena i was quite mesmerized myself.

Some planets can be seen to shift color, and then not be visible once the sun sets. Perhaps this is what you saw? You might want to look into the possibility, see if there are any planets in that area of the sky in your area that might fit the bill....

Originally posted by OzChris
I know this was not a UFO..But actually a star..but why people ..and please tell me..does it flash three colours? has it to do with refraction.. gases in the atmosphere..me being a bit pissy?? I would love to know.
Chris

Yes... long-time known phenomina. The star was probably one of the red giants such as Aldeberan. It's caused by the angle of the star to the viewer (thickness of the atmosphere) and the star's color.

Here's a poem by Robert Browning (quite famous... many of you probably know it...) from the 1800's that talks about it)

MY STAR
---Robert Browning (1812-1889).

All, that I know
Of a certain star
Is, it can throw
(Like the angled spar)
Now a dart of red,
Now a dart of blue
Till my friends have said
They would fain see, too,
My star that dartles the red and the blue!

Then it stops like a bird;
Like a flower, hangs furled;
They must solace themselves
With the Saturn above it.
What matter to me if their star is a world?
Mine has opened its soul to me;
Therefore I love it.

The poem kind of says it all...

Yes... long-time known phenomina. The star was probably one of the red giants such as Aldeberan

Wasn't Aldeberan destroyed by the Death Star though, in the first Star Wars flick?

J/K (Yes, I know it was Alderan, but it was funny to me at the time...)

Byrd...

Great post, it takes a artist sometimes to explain what science cannot!

Try looking at the stars from Los Angeles, CA....they flicker all kinds of colors. It's the fumes in the air, and the atmosphere. Not UFOs.

Maybe instead of a double rum, you were drinking some cheap beer..."Look at the colors dude!!!"

As a patriotic Australian I resent the fact that you think I drink CHEAP BEER....my god man how can you be so blasphemous..ask Thomas Crown a fellow connasuir (spelling??) of the amber ale....he'll tell you that cheap beer not only leaves a bad taste in your mouth it rends you incapable of even palatting anything worthwhile for weeks.

Chris

Gravity stars spin around in a tremendously fast-paced speed. They have what looks like a pole on top and on bottom of it that helps it spin.

Maybe you saw one.