posted on Feb, 17 2009 @ 12:22 AM
Sometime last week(wednesday I think), around 5PM, I was picking up my sister from work. I suddently noticed a *big* flash in the sky and pointed it
out to my sister. The flash lasted no more than 20 seconds and it slowly turned to a regular sized dot in the sky (the flash was about 4 to 6 times
brighter than the regular dot).
I kind of freaked out when I saw all the 'Jupiter ignited' threads today because me sister joked that Venus had exploded
Anyways, I'm sure that what we saw is a planet because we see it every night though not at the same spot as before, and I assume that the conditions
were just right for us to see the flash (ie. I don't think it exploded, but that light got reflected at some weird angle).
It's position was about 60 degrees above the horizon (facing West, above the setting Sun). My location is the state of virginia.
So the questions are:
Are these kind of flashes common at sunset/sunrise?
What planet were we looking at? I think my sis is right with Venus, but just want to make sure.
[edit on 17-2-2009 by daniel_g]