Multicolor Sky Light-up over Melbourne Australia 14-Dec

Not sure what to make of this, not even sure if this is the right forum, but it was definately the weirdest things I've ever seen.

This happened last Sunday night 14-Dec. The reason it has taken me until now to post this here is that I've been contemplating whether or not its worth a post, but here I am anyway.

I had just came home to my brother's place, where I've been staying, after a 1 hour drive from my parents (who I visit each Sunday night). They live in the country and the drive home had been very dark and boring. It was a very cloudy night. I got home about 11:30pm. My brother had gone to bed so the house was dark. I was greeted by his dog as I walked in the door. Not being tired yet, I sat in his lounge room and switched on the TV in the dark. It was the only light in the house. The dog went back to his bed in front of the TV. The movie 'Friday After Next' was on so i watched that.

Now my brother has only been in his house for a short time, so there are no curtains in the lounge room. Full windows on most of the walls with one being a sliding glass door. You can see half of the entire sky from his couch in the direction of Melbourne which is about 20km away.

At about 12:45 a intense flash of light caught my eye which lit up my entire view of the sky. It was reflecting off all of the clouds, just like lightning lights up the whole sky at night. The weird thing though is that it was multicolored, flashing rapidly from blues, greens, reds, like fireworks above the clouds. I instantly jumped up and ran to the sliding door all in the matter of about 5 seconds. By the time I unlocked and ran out the door, it had stopped. I stood there staring at the clouds for about 20mins waiting for something, but nothing else happened.

Now the only explanations I can come up with are either lightning, but this lit up the whole sky and was like a disco, very colorful. It also lasted longer than I would think lightning to last. It was above the clouds and there was no sound.

Or a meteor, but it was flashing multicolors and had no real direction it was coming from. I looked for any news the next day about meteors or anything of the like, but nothing.

I know for a fact that I coudn't of been the only one that saw it. The WHOLE sky lit up like the 4th of July, like a freaking disco! Anyone driving towards the city would of seen it too.

So that's my story, just wondering if anyone from the Melbourne area saw this aswell or has any more info on it as I can find nothing. Maybe it was a giant mothership, but lets no jump to conclusions What do you guys think?

We noticed on Sunday night that the sky was a deep red around 10:15 pm which was more than an hour after sun down... figured it had something to do with the sun though.

IRM

I'm in holland at the moment.
and sunday night, just after the sun went down, the moon was on his biggest i've ever seen him. can you imagine....in holland

off-topic:
i noticed a bright ''star'' in the sky, but the weird thing about it was that it was daylight. but that thing in the sky was glowing stronger than most flashlites or whatever in daylight.
any ideas of what this could have been?

You've gotta be kidding me!

I saw the same thing this past Saturday.

There were two verry bright objects in the night sky. One was about 35 degrees above the horizon, one was about 15. The first was brighter than the second.

On the ride home, which lasted about 1 hour, the objects didn't seem to move at all, and remained in the same spot.

When I got home, they were still in the sky. I checked again, later around 2:00am Eastern STD time, and they were still there.

I think they might've been planets possibly? They didn't appear to move when I saw them.

must be the seem thing. they were so bright!
a watch them in the ride home and followed them like 3 hours.
i even made a short movie with my cell.
i really wonder what this thing is, and how many more people have seen it.

but it can'tbe a planet, then it has to move right?
but it was hanging on the same spot in this 3 hour drive.

Yea they both looked like flattened stars, like flattened horizontally, the first one (the one higher in the sky) was about 2x brighter than the second.

Both had the same shape. I think a planet would hang around for about 3 hours, but I could be wrong. I didnt' get the impression they were UFOs or craft of some kind.

no me neither. it felt like it was normal. but something that bringht in the middle of the day....you don;t see that very often.

i'll try to show the vid i made maybe you recognize it.

here it is. it's kinda short but you see the light quite good.

stange light over holland

reply to post by Toasty

Roughly where in Melbourne are you located?

Like InfraRedMan, I noticed the very red sunset.

There's been a few more fireworks let off at night in my area. Probably some people getting ready for New Years.

If it was any warmer outside, then it might be worth staying up a little later the next few nights. There's no way I'll be out tonight!

Hey guys. I'm in Perth and whilst I haven't seen anything over here light up the sky in that fashion, it is interesting what you are saying about the sunsets. I too have noticed really intense flame red sunsets covering most of the western horizon and lasting sometime after the sun goes down. Not like the usual ones that light up the clouds and sky pink but an intense glow above the horizon as if there was an immense fire there. I have thought it quite odd but not sure whether I've ever noticed it before and just put it down to atmospheric conditons but its interesting you guys have noticed the same from the east.
In regards to the bright white star like lights in the sky I am wondering whether you guys are just noticing Venus and Jupiter? I have noticed these 2 planets have been extremely bright in the sky, infact the brightest objects bar the moon but they seem to come up really early when there are no other stars visible yet and that can make them really stick out so to speak. Anyway just a thought.
Also I've noticed that the moon has been visually stunning lately. Last night it was low in the sky and it appeared absolutely massive despite not being a full moon. Very interesting but again I think the moon always appears huge when low in the sky.

The two bright objects in the Eastern sky are Venus and Jupiter. Both have recently been in conjunction and were very in close proximity to the Moon in early December. See Space Weather Gallery

The unusually large and bright Moon seen recently is due to the occurence of full moon at perihelion. This is when the Moon is closest to Earth in its eliptical orbit. It was 30,000 km closer than when at aphelion, so it appeared 17% larger and 30% brighter. This event last happened 15 years ago.

WG3

It was probably caused by a meteor. The Geminids peaked just a few hours earlier, and they are more than capable of lighting up the whole sky as if it were daylight, and in different colors!






Source: SpaceWeather.com

reply to post by tezzajw


We are located 20kms outside of the CBD towards Geelong. I keep trying to think maybe it was fireworks, being close the new years like you said, but I'm thinking it was too intense for that and it seemed to be above the clouds. It just seems odd that I haven't found any other reports of it as the sky was lit up all the way over the horizon towards the city so others must of seen it too.

Thanks C.H.U.D, a meteor is the only explanation I can think of that would fit what I saw. If it was a meteor it must of been a big one, the way the sky was flashing. I wasn't aware of the Geminids meteor shower, so that seems to be the best answer! Thanks very much. It was amazing to see only if it was for a few seconds.

Hi there i would just like to point out that here in Auckland there were several sightings of a meteor last Saturday night.

We live in Hoppers Crossing and my daughter and I were sitting in the dark admiring our Christmas tree lights when they started to dim and the sky outside the window lit up, then it got brighter and then brighter still. The lights were also dimming more and more at the same time.

Our windows face east towards the city, but the sky was brighter more towards the south-east (away from where the moon was). We were both glad we were not alone because it is very hard to explain. The light had a blue hue off it.

We haven't heard anything either - although it was late and most people around our area were in bed.

Damn, i missed it...

was playing xbox 360 the whole of sunday

I only post this because of the Jupiter and Venus talk. I thought it was cool, and especially seeing as how you guys are from Austrailia and what not....just thought I would share.

www.sydneyobservatory.com.au...

OMG .................My mum and I saw it. Our lights on our Christmas tree flickered and then the sky lit up blue, red, green and just a huge flash of light in the sky. It happened in a moment and we didn't know what was going on. I was wondering if anyone else saw it !!! I thought someone crashed into a lightpost; which I was hoping wasn't the reason !!! I really want to know what it was now.