I saw a moving "star"!

Hello all. Yesterday, around 10:30 pm, I saw a very bright moving "star" high in the atmosphere. The sky was partly clear and some stars were visible. Initially, it was standing still but it caught my attention because of its brightness. After a few seconds it started moving left while pulsating(or so it seemed) with orange lights. Then it stopped and turned back to approximately its original position. I watched it for a few minutes and then decided to go back inside my house. After half an hour or so I went back out and sure enough it was exactly were I left it!

Optical illusion or ufo? What do you people think?

The moving may be an illusion while the pulsating may be just a sparkle. I've seen several stars that sparkle in some rainbow sensation thing. There are only a few that sparkle that I've seen anyway. I call them my friends lol.

I'm sorry, but that sounds like a classical Venus sighting. It's regularly (and I mean Regularly) mistaken for a UFO since it's so big and has a tendency to seem to be moving what with all the atmospheric disruption. Even I've sorta gone 'What the heck?' at it at certain very optimal star gazing times.

I'm sure other members will try and help you out, approaching other angles as well. Either way, thanks for you report!

Maybe Saturn?? I think now is the time when we can see Saturn.

I saw a 'moving star' that was moving fairly fast...

It happened a couple years ago, it was around 11 PM & I was getting out of my car & looked straight up. I saw a dim looking start very high up moving fairly quickly. It was way to high up to be an airplane, and was moving too fast to be a planet. Had I not looked up where I did when I did, I could not possibly have seen it... I lost it after a few seconds because of how high up it was and how dim it looked from the ground...

I figure it was either a satelite or the IIS... All be it only because these are the only rational explinations I can put on it...

Originally posted by bobby3I saw a dim looking start very high up moving fairly quickly. It was way to high up to be an airplane, and was moving too fast to be a planet. Had I not looked up where I did when I did, I could not possibly have seen it... I lost it after a few seconds because of how high up it was and how dim it looked from the ground...

That sounds like an experience I had last November. It was around 11pm (UK). I was looking at the sky, and a star started to move. It moved acvross the sky in an irregular pattern, and then seemed to disappear upwards. About a minute later a second star, that had been next to the first also moved across the sky, but continued past the point where the first vanished, and sort of faded as it neared the horizon.

(I appologise for the crappy report)

Yeah, initially for a few seconds it was still then started moving left across the sky but it was way up and far from my location. If I had to guess altitude I would say about 30,000+ feet. The weirdness is that it started pulsating like an aircraft only after it started moving. Before it was just brightly shinning just like any other star, although somewhat brighter!

Anyway, I am sure it was not a plane because planes don't start and stop at will and certainly not a star cause star movement is extremely slow in relation to the human eye. Well actually stars stay still in relation to earth but since earth revolves while orbiting the sun they gradually appear to move during the course of the night!

Also, it can't be a satellite cause satellites move at a constant velocity across the sky. I have seen some satellite movement during the years and this did not resemble anything like that!

There was no haze in the atmosphere and the clouds were few and small. In short the sky was pretty clear and objects were easy discernible.

I really still think it was some kind of ufo...either that or perhaps a high altitude spyplane!

I've seen a star that was moving also.It was too slow to be a shooting star,and way to high to be a plane.It did not blink or pulse.I showed it to my wife and she didn't know what to think of it.This happened around 11:00pm also.

you know, stars move 'naturally', at the same pace the sun does. Sure it couldn't have been that? I mean, the earth Is spinning.

Many people have never experienced a "moving" star. Some claim you are seeing planets, some say it's just the space station etc. Until they have actually seen a "moving" star, it's impossible for them to know exactly what they are, and more importantly, what they are not ;-)

My friend and I both witnessed a stationary star turn into three stars, then the two new stars just shot off in different directions.

Things are not always what they seem to be.

If you take the time to go out and stare at ANY star... it will have the same effect. VERY strange sometimes. It will appear to move... then move back...

And the flicker... I concur... could easily be atmospheric in nature. How high off the horizon was it at this time? The lower it is on the horizon, the more atmosphere you have to get through to see it... more propensity for refraction of light...

The thing to really remember is to NOT discount this type of sighting in the future just because this information may very well be true in THIS case...

Also... GREAT work bringing it to the attention of your "community". If it doesn't get brought up it can't be proven true OR false, right?

SPout

Closest thing I saw resembling a anything usual, was a object I thought was a star. I know a bit about astronomy, so it wasn't any of the planets. It was the brightness of Jupiter, and was at the top of the sky (San Francisco). After observing it for a couple minutes, the light very slowly dimmed out. I was gonna go home and view it through my scope, but it dimmed to darkness. I asked other astronomers what it could've been, but I haven't heard an explanation.

The star I saw didn't "appear" to move it DID move in one direction until it I could no longer see it.I'm not saying it was a ufo,but I do know it was not a plane or a shooting star.

Originally posted by crowpruitt
The star I saw didn't "appear" to move it DID move in one direction until it I could no longer see it.I'm not saying it was a ufo,but I do know it was not a plane or a shooting star.

The space station can be seen by the naked eye as well. It looks exactly like a regular star in many instances. I can go outside with my 80mm binos and spot satellites any clear night. Their kinda cool to watch, and they move quickly.

OP, if you live in Georgia, you may have seen the exact same thing as me. I'm collecting photos and videos of this extremely bright object I see at night that stays motionless one minute, and then starts moving in one direction. I have seen this object almost every night for the past 3 months.

I will make a thread next week with all the video and images I have taken of this object and will post them. Please feel free to comment on it.

When I was a youngin' we used to camp a lot in the Rockies, and we would sleep on the ground bundled up in a tarp, anyway, watching the night sky way up there with no distracting lights... Very cool! It was really neat to see "The Milky Way", and just the sheer number of stars visible is awesome... My point... There were lots of "moving stars", moving in a straight line across the entire sky at a constant speed, some were faster than others and going in different directions, but never changing course or speed. Of course mom told us they were satellites, and it made perfect sense... When i say "lots", there were a lot... always one in the sky with hardly anytime between "passings"...

That was back in the 70's and early 80's... I wonder how many satellites frequent that night sky now???

It was probably a satellite, Ive seen loads of them and a moving star is just what it looks like.

Oh the irony. I was outside lastnight skywatching and I immeidately located Venus because it's position and luminosity. Then I turned to the opposite part of the sky and saw another bright star that I could not recognize. I am curious if this object could have been one of the exytrasolar planets in our system. I never saw it before and it was so bright and stationary (it wasn't red so I ruled out Mars). Any input would be appreciated. I know alot of you guys and gals are super astronomers. Thanks.

[edit on 26-2-2007 by carnival_of_souls2047]

it was most likely a satellite.

i see them so much. once i thought it was a ufo. but im sure it was a satellite.

and there are tons of them at nite. you can see all the different sattelites goin over us. prolly spying om us too.

I've seen a moving star also. I live in a large city, but a couple of years ago I was camping in a remote part of the country. The object I saw looked like a star, but stopped on a dime and changed direction several times. I know it wasnt a planet or star all the other stars were stationary. Like you said it was high in the atmosphere. But what I saw didnt pulsate it was just a small dot in the sky. No aircraft I know of could do what I saw. My uncle was with me and saw it too, he dismissed it and said it was a satallite. But do satellites stop and change direction? The object took about 20 minutes to move across the sky and dissapear on the horizon.