flashing "star" in southern sky

Hi All,

I have just returned from a holiday in South Africa, on the Western Cape near Cape Town. While staying in my parents beach cottage, far enough away from any main towns so that the night sky was perfectly visible.

One night I saw a flashing light, the same size as a star and from a human perspective ground up, more or less the same distance as a regular star. I pointed it out to my dad who was having a drink with me outside, he said that it was a passenger airplane flying at high altitude, thinking nothing of it I agreed and we carried on chatting aimlessly about life. About 10 minutes later my dad realised that the object was not moving whatsoever, it was still in the same place!

It would flash periodically but the timing would change, sometimes every 20 seconds, sometimes every 40... then it wouldnt flash for a minute... sometimes it would flash more intense, other times less intense. The one time some thin cloud cover moved over, perhaps high stratus - it illuminated the cloud around the flash area. This continued for about 5 nights, one night the flash was moving locations. It would flash just south west of orions belt, then it would move a little closer to pleiades, but it stayed in that quadrant.
Is this a space station, and if so, why is it flashing back at us ?

Could anyone please tell me what this could be ? - is this something that has already been mentioned on the board ? If so, please point me to the main thread and feel free to remove this one.

Many thanks in advance for any help that can be shed on this matter.

namaste
j

[edit on 23-1-2008 by mortalengine]

[edit on 23-1-2008 by mortalengine]

All these views and no replies ? - someone help me out here please ??
There has got to be someone who can either explain this or corroborate the story..

It could be a satellite, i am not sure what object it could be but there is a database on the internet (searchable) which you can use. Just ounch in your location, date and time. Sometimes i see flashing stars on the night sky aswell, the light differs in colour and shape, it's a really nice view those dark nights.

Here is the link
www.heavens-above.com...

Cheers

It's most likely a satellite in geostationary orbit. This orbit is about 22,000 miles out and traces the Earth's equatorial belt in space. That line passes through Orion, etc. Rotation of satellites is commonly used for stabilisation. The flashing is caused by the sun reflecting off the satellite's panels. Geostationary satellites are often interpretted as UFOs.

WG3

Hmm.. interesting, but how does that explain it flashing for 4-5 days... I mean, I understand how light can catch a sattelite and reflect it back to earth I just dont think you guys are grasping what I'm saying. Had you been there you would have been blown away too. I'm talking about something flashing enough to illuminate the sky around it, even the thin cloud cover passing below it. What sattelite moves so fast that it only flashes a light back when the sun glint off it, and continues to do this for days. What we're talking about in that case is some sort of gyrating device, in either case thats weird.

I dont really mind who believes this or not, it's gotten my attention and I'm grateful I saw it. I've seen millions of sattellites but this looked more like a giant camera taking flash photography of the earth, and differing intervals. Please dont forget what I said, it illuminated the sky and clouds around it.

Anyone else got something ? - can we find anything on the net about this ? - surely someone else must have seen this, it lasted 4-5 days in the southern sky.

interesting post mortalengine,

can you elaborate on your location please ??

thanks

snoopyuk

Maybe it was an astronaut sitting on the satelite, blinking his flashlight towards Earth?

Location, date and time, then it should be pretty easy to search the database I posted a link to in the post above. If its not a known object it is interesting indeed. Can you do that and post the results in here ?

Hey

reply to post by mortalengine


I haven't run the angles, but I'm sure it's not a Space Station.

If near the horizon, bright stars or planets can do odd things as a result of atmospheric effects. How close to the horizon are you seeing it?


[edit on 23-1-2008 by disownedsky]

I've seen the same type of thing, except when I see it, it's flashing reds and blues. I'm surprised no one blasted you with "anyone with college credit should know that's a star. Stars do that." That's about what I got for a couple of responces. I've seen them in the Eastern and Southern night sky. I don't know constalations so I can't tell you exactly where. All you gotta do is look up and see for yourself. If may take a couple of nights until you see it. I live in one of the Southern States, if that helps.

Why not barrow a telescope ? They can be had for cheap . If thats not an option .
I mean who can really tell you what YOUR looking at ? Hell it could be the early onset of glaucoma .

reply to post by Quazi176


A decent pair of binoculars should be sufficient to determine if there's any shape or angular size to the object. I have a cheap but adequate pair of binoculars always with me in the car, and a respectable pair in the house in a drawer by the door.

I can tell you from personal and witnessed events here in western North Carolina over the past 20 years or so that there are lights, shining lights with various colors, some like a diamond and some varying degrees of virtually every color in the human spectrum..and beyond.

The lights many times appear to rotate in an off center motion, like a wobble. They can move from position or remain steady for hours while the rest of the night sky moves along in the normal fashion.

I have certain knowledge of what at least SOME of them are, and opinions on the rest. I KNOW for sure that there are dimensional , some might call it spiritual, ohenomenon that are happening world wide. There are also quite a few government experiemnets as well as alien survellience units, although only the ones sporting lights WANT to be seen!! The ones that are truly undercover government drones and such are dark and silent, not wanting to attract attention.

Of course there are an entire group that have to be dismissed out of hand as probable satellites, planes,etc, etc. If a light does not move at all, it is not supposed to be there, simple. All geosynchronous satellites move at varying speeds depending on distance, and all stars and such transit the sky at night, of course. They all move in predictable patterns and can be plotted.

The truly anomalous lights are noticeable to most observers and behave differently than the other celestial objects seen. There are so many dimensional forces using this realm that it is a miracle that more people do not see the facts. There are technologies that can appear and disappear, and change molecular association at will. There are beings that need no technology to affect what we see , hear and can experience on this plane. This planet is swirling with entities and forces and technologies beyond imagination, much like the scene when you see the dust in a room, or smoke, with the light bright and catching the angle where every particle is apparent..know what I mean?

That is what we would see if we could discern the various spectrums beyond human ability: A vast conglomeration of differing types of actual events and personages and spirits, and aliens as well, able to negotiate spectrums we only can imagine in science fiction.

I believe that a true seeker will be lead to the source of knowledge, and that sincere and dedicated experimentation with developing inherent natural human abilities will get results that can be measured personally as well as in this realm scientifically. Thats my take, at least.

Sorry for the late reply guys, I'm back.

So the details you wanted, the dates would have been between the 8th and 12th of January 2008, position is going to have to be a estimate as I would never be able to get you exact coords. It most certainly wasnt close to the horizon, we're talking about a 50-60 degree angle west south-west of Orions belt. It was more or less between orion's belt and pleiades to be honest.

Now the thing that I want everyone to try and understand here is.. this was not a constant light. It's resting state was off, it's active state was a flash at the speed of a strobe. Now I would have assumed this was communication, it made my dad own up about a UFO he saw when he was younger that he had never mentioned before to me, even though I speak about it a lot. Imagine someome signalling you from the blackness, thats what it looked like. Believe me, the whole family who made fun of me and my dad after we mentioned it, were all outside on the lawn the next night looking up at this phenomenon with goosebumps on their arms.

Perhaps it's very explanable, hopefully my rudimentary calculations I have given could help to at least unravel this mystery.

Thanks for all the input so far guys, appreciate it. I'm only sorry you all couldnt have witness this, It honestly looked like a morse coded message the way the flashes were timed.

J

Originally posted by disownedsky
reply to post by Quazi176

 

A decent pair of binoculars should be sufficient to determine if there's any shape or angular size to the object. I have a cheap but adequate pair of binoculars always with me in the car, and a respectable pair in the house in a drawer by the door.

But I dont think you guys are 100% understanding what I'm saying, it was flashing, for instance... it's black... there's nothing... then beep! and its gone..... then again later... beep and its gone... you wouldnt have seen anything with a telescope or with binocs, it was simply a flash the size of a star, but a bright flash that would catch your eye, which is how I spotted it by accident.

Originally posted by Mindless
Why not barrow a telescope ? They can be had for cheap . If thats not an option .
I mean who can really tell you what YOUR looking at ? Hell it could be the early onset of glaucoma .

I was on holiday, visiting my parents. But I do think a telescope is in order, noted.

Originally posted by Quazi176
I've seen the same type of thing, except when I see it, it's flashing reds and blues. I'm surprised no one blasted you with "anyone with college credit should know that's a star. Stars do that." That's about what I got for a couple of responces. I've seen them in the Eastern and Southern night sky. I don't know constalations so I can't tell you exactly where. All you gotta do is look up and see for yourself. If may take a couple of nights until you see it. I live in one of the Southern States, if that helps.

Dude, but the southern states are still in North America, and hence the Northern Hemisphere surely ? either way thats not NB.

Stoked that you've seen the same, but are you sure its the same ? I'm not talking about wobbling lights or flickering RGB either, It's like someone flicking a light switch on for a millisecond, then off, every 20 seconds, then about 1 minute without action, then 30 seconds... then perhaps 15 seconds.. etc. There was no star there where the flashing was coming from...

I wouldnt post about any old thing, this got me spooked and totally stoked at the same time

j

[edit on 24-1-2008 by mortalengine]

[edit on 24-1-2008 by mortalengine]

Originally posted by disownedsky
reply to post by mortalengine

 

I haven't run the angles, but I'm sure it's not a Space Station.

If near the horizon, bright stars or planets can do odd things as a result of atmospheric effects. How close to the horizon are you seeing it?


[edit on 23-1-2008 by disownedsky]

nowhere near the horizon I'm afraid, like I said we're talking about a 50-60 degree angle, the kind of tilt that hurts your neck but you keep staring anyway because you're blown away by the occurence. To be honest, leaning towards more 60degrees.

J

Definitely NOT the International Space Station. When it's visible, it always traverses the sky very quickly. A complete pass from east to west takes a few minutes. It's never stationary in the sky.

I'm still favoring a geostationary satellite. The reported position is right. Satellites in this orbit have an elevation that's determined the observer's latitude (90-lat). That alone would be helpful data to have. The geostationary orbit line passes directly through Orion's belt. The rightmost star is actually on the line. The sun's reflection from a large satellite can be brilliantly bright. This is particularly so when the sun, the observer and the satellite are in a straight line. You could determine if that condition prevailed by noting the time it was observed. The strobing would repeat at more or less similar times on a few consectutive days, but would soon fade due to changes in position of Earth/Sun. If you moved your location to get perfect realignment the strobing would be seen again.

WG3

[edit on 24-1-2008 by waveguide3]

[edit on 24-1-2008 by waveguide3]

[edit on 24-1-2008 by waveguide3]

Originally posted by waveguide3
Definitely NOT the International Space Station. When it's visible, it always traverses the sky very quickly. A complete pass from east to west takes a few minutes. It's never stationary in the sky.

I'm still favoring a geostationary satellite. The reported position is right. Satellites in this orbit have an elevation that's determined the observer's latitude (90-lat). That alone would be helpful data to have. The geostationary orbit line passes directly through Orion's belt. The rightmost star is actually on the line. In South Africa, this will be the leftmost star I guess. The sun's reflection from a large satellite can be brilliantly bright. This is particularly so when the sun, the observer and the satellite are in a straight line. You could determine if that condition prevailed by noting the time it was observed. The strobing would repeat at more or less similar times on a few consectutive days, but would soon fade due to changes in position of Earth/Sun. If you moved your location to get perfect realignment the strobing would be seen again.

WG3

[edit on 24-1-2008 by waveguide3]

[edit on 24-1-2008 by waveguide3]

Thanks for the info dude, sounds very plausible, but in your above statement you said the strobe would be seen at the same time more or less every day ? ... please try remember this thing was flashing at me seconds apart... for hours, basically most of the night. The quick flash ranged from about 20 second intervals to 1 minute at the most. So what im saying basically is that the longest you would wait for the 1 quick flash would be 1 minute, the shortest wait was about 15-20 seconds.

I just cant explain this phenomenon... it's really gotten me excited, could this have been a form of communication ?