Strange astronomical event, Or SOMETHING ELSE!?

Well, I got off work last night and when I got home I was walking inside and I noticed that it was a very clear night. I was looking at the sky and I witnessed a star get extremely bright and large then completely dissipate.

I have seen Iridium flares and this was definitely not one. It was fixed in the sky and it was about midnight. You generally don't see Iridium flares in the middle of the night anyway.

I know it was not a supernova as those are bright for months then dissipate. The whole event took 30 seconds or less.

on a side note, the star was flickering before this happened. I live in the northern hemisphere and this was in the north sky if 0 degrees is on the horizon and 90 is straight up then this would be about 80 degrees. Almost over my head in the north sky.

any insight on what it may have been or if there is anyone with similar experiences, please post.

thanks,

oatie

Granted your not making up fairy tales. Which I doubt you are.

Then you should check your local newspaper, and maybe someone has a site of nova alerts, after the fact of course .

If you saw it, inevitably someone else saw it.

I would but, this is a very small town in southwest Wisconsin, people here only worry about dying and American idol.

there is no posting of such events. although I am going to check mufons live event map right now.

just as i thought nothing there.

I dont know of any websites where you can check astronomical events. any ideas?

what you saw was a "UFO", an unidentified flying object

i have not seen any reports of supernova , and it would have been noticed by many others

Originally posted by oatie

Well, I got off work last night and when I got home I was walking inside and I noticed that it was a very clear night. I was looking at the sky and I witnessed a star get extremely bright and large then completely dissipate.

I have seen Iridium flares and this was definitely not one. It was fixed in the sky and it was about midnight. You generally don't see Iridium flares in the middle of the night anyway.

I know it was not a supernova as those are bright for months then dissipate. The whole event took 30 seconds or less.

on a side note, the star was flickering before this happened. I live in the northern hemisphere and this was in the north sky if 0 degrees is on the horizon and 90 is straight up then this would be about 80 degrees. Almost over my head in the north sky.

any insight on what it may have been or if there is anyone with similar experiences, please post.

thanks,

oatie

probably ISS

Originally posted by oatie

Well, I got off work last night and when I got home I was walking inside and I noticed that it was a very clear night. I was looking at the sky and I witnessed a star get extremely bright and large then completely dissipate.

I see something exactly similar almost every one in 3days.. a faint star becomes extremely bright reddish and stays that way for a couple of seconds and then goes black..!

It is nice to know I am not crazy, i am a very amateur astronomer, But I do know there is nothing that can explain this it was still that is the crazy part if it were moving I may have been able to identify it. It was simply remarkable. I stay to the notion that it was something astronomical, but if it were my first ufo (ie. aliens) then it was a bit of a letdown I am not saying it wasn't impressive, it was, but alien probably not. dont get me wrong i am a believer. i feel as though it could be explained but nothing comes to mind.

I thank everyone for posting, but this thread and my experience are dead.

thanks,

oatie

reply to post by Grifter.be


The ISS moves. It just doesn't "dissipate". OP states that the object was still, so it basically rules out a lot of things (meteors, ISS, normally most planes, flares, etc.).

If it were an astronomical event, indeed it would have lasted likely much longer, particularly because the GRB's that are typically short are not visible to the naked eye. Any other visible light even must last longer.

Unless it's a weather ballon powered by swamp gas, it must be a proper UFO, i.e. an Unidentified Flying Object.

reply to post by oatie


I live in south central wisconsin myself and I have had a few "small town" experiences myself. They are very bizarre experiences and not sure how people would take them. Not sure if I believe them myself. But one thing is for sure, and I'm sure you know, we are not immune to seeing and experiencing unexplainable experiences here in little and lonely ol WI.

What you MAY have seen was a meteorite or reentering space junk head on. Most likely a meteorite. I have seen a couple during the scheduled 'showers'- it's a bright light, it gets brighter, and goes out. But being those are itty bitty grains of stuff, it only lasts like a second or 2.

Last year I saw something similar, but I am 100% sure that what I saw was some sort of a vehicle taking off.

I was walking to my car one morning, around 6:00am, and my attention was grabbed by this bright star in the sky. It was unusually bright and really stood out to me. So I looked at it for a few seconds, and then it started to get larger and brighter. What happened next was amazing- The "star" shot away into space. It was so fast and I instantly knew that I was just witness to something amazing.

When I say it shot off, that is really what I mean. It was stationary the few seconds I was originally watching it, and then after it became brighter and larger, it quickly moved up and away from my point of view, and dimmed out as it got farther away. It was obvious to me that the dimming was caused by the object going away from Earth, into outer space. It truly was an amazing experience that I will never forget.

Is it possible that it actually was a meteor, but falling straight at you? So you couldn't see the trajectory? When something is coming directly towards a line of sight it can appear not to be moving, thus when it entered the atmosphere it burned up and disappeared.

I've witnessed this before and this was my assumption, I don't know why.....it just made sense to me at the time.

[edit on (5/30/09) by gnosis111]