Have planes always blinking lights at night??, page 1
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reply posted on 9-7-2008 @ 05:02 AM by RuneSpider
reply to post by Devilnitro28


Yes, actually, they do. As do heliocopters. They are used for line of sight navigation and to help see each other at night.
And just out of curiosity, you have NEVER seen a plane with it's lights on?


reply posted on 9-7-2008 @ 05:16 AM by darkelf
reply to post by Devilnitro28


Is there a landing field near your home? The landing light can be very bright, doesn't blink, and can obscure the other lights due to position and brightness.


reply posted on 9-7-2008 @ 06:51 AM by azonic-mantra
reply to post by _Phoenix_


Hi Phoenix

Thanks for your reply and happy to provide a little more information on how to spot and identify certain celetrial objects.

In astronomy one of the first things you learn about is the scale to measure brightness called Magnitude. Every celetrial object is ranked on this scale and can help when identifying individual stars with fairly static magnitudes (Polaris 1.97 / the sun -26) and objects where magnitude will vary depending on their proximty to the earths surface (ISS between 0 to -3 and Iridium flares up to -8) Obviously the lower or more negative the number the brighter the object appears.

If you spend enough time looking at the sky and comparing magnitudes of certain objects you get quite an accurate guage of magnitudes without having to refer to the scale. There are also certain characteristics of each object that give them away:

Stars: Fixed magnitude and position (not accounting for precession) but can also appear in different colours due to our atmosphere splitting the spectrum of light they emit.

Satalites and the ISS: Usually only seen 2-3 hours after sunset, will stay at magnitudes similar to venus, moving steadily across the sky (around twice the speed of a commercial plane at 30,000 feet) until passing over your Zenith (directly above your head) and fading as they move in to the earths shadow. The usually fade from full brightness to nothing in 2-3 seconds depending on speed.

Iridium flares: One object i dont hear too much about on ATS but i think would account for a lot if sightings. This is where a satalite roles in its orbit and exposes a particular shiny part of its structure to the sun (such as a solar panel), as they move very quicky they appear as a quick streak in the sky similar to a meteorite. I would really recommend looking for pass over times for these as they are amazing!

Back on subject, I still trying to work out what these aircraft are with the slow pulsing red or white light.


reply posted on 9-7-2008 @ 07:00 AM by _Phoenix_
reply to post by azonic-mantra


Thanks for the detailed reply!

Just what I wanted.

You obviously know a lot about it.



[edit on 9-7-2008 by _Phoenix_]


reply posted on 9-7-2008 @ 01:40 PM by Soylent Green Is People
When a plan is landing (and taking off, too, I think) it turns on it's "landing lights" which are white and do NOT blink, and can be very bright.

A plane may turn on its bright white, non-blinking landing lights 10 miles or more from an airport. If the plane with landing lights on is moving toward the direction of the observer, the lights can seem very bright indeed. However if the plane turns a little, the landing lights will appear to become dim.

I live quite far (about 15-20 miles) from an regional airport (commuter jets and medium/small planes only), and I see the bright landing lights often. The approach pattern for planes using the airport takes them toward my home before they turn toward the airport for landing. Quite often when the plan is coming in my directiona, the landing light appear as bright as a spotlight, obscuring the plane's other lights. Then the plane turns away, and the landing light appears much dimmer (to me). Only then I can see the other blinking red lights on the plane.

If you ever spent time near a landing runway at a busy airport in the evening, you can see the planes "stacked up" waiting to land. They may be invisible until they turn toward you, or until they turn on the landing lights. Even then, since the planes are coming at you (toward the runway) the bright lights lights may not seem to be moving att all -- just hanging there, until they begin to descend to land -- and at that time the light that appeared to just be hanging there begins to appear to move downward.


[edit on 7/9/2008 by Soylent Green Is People]


reply posted on 9-7-2008 @ 02:30 PM by CosmicTraveler
Aircrafts with odd flashing lights.. heres one with only 2 bright flashing lights that appear to be
at the front and back.. seen this a few times aswell.. the plane behind traveling in the same direction
is how a plane should look..


s292.photobucket.com...



And another plane with odd flashing lights that was flying round and round all night saturday and sunday
from 12am to around 4am.. i could not see it becuase trees were blocking my view.. but kept hearing it
going around.. just caught it though flying away..


s292.photobucket.com...
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