Strange star in the sky?

reply to post by havok

At a distance of of more than 22,000 miles over the equator, geostationary satellites are very rarely, if ever, visible to the naked eye. They are certainly never bright enough to catch the attention of anyone who is not specifically looking for them.

Typically the satellite will be in the mag. +11 to +14 range (or dimmer), but brightening by several magnitudes when the geometry is favorable (around mag. +5 to +6 is not untypical). One satellite is reported to have briefly been visible to the naked eye at mag. +3 !

www.satobs.org...


[edit on 8/17/2009 by Phage]

reply to post by spaceman84


I am not an expert nor am I a gambling woman but I am willing to bet my next paycheck that is not a star.

Originally posted by SpiritoftheNightSky
reply to post by spaceman84

 

I am not an expert nor am I a gambling woman but I am willing to bet my next paycheck that is not a star.

Don't be so sure. While I do believe in other entities outside of Earth, I am also quite aware that what is called "multiple stars" - that being, more than one star in a group that appears as one unit to observers - do indeed twinkle in multiple colors.

reply to post by Misfit


Like I said no expert and you agree it is not "a" star.

It is indeed interesting and I did not jump on the extra-terrestrial bandwagon, though it is pretty hard for me to believe that the only living things in the vast universe is sitting on this minuscule little rock we call Earth.

I think whatever it is it probably comes from close to home.

i believe im seeing the same thing here in central new york state but those this at first seemed to twinkle colors of all sorts, its also disappeared and reappeared several times last night. a cloudless night no less.. it confused me so im posting...

I've seen this star since I was a kid. I always remember it being quite out of place. It's still there though 20+ years later... so... It's probably a natural thing.

Glad I'm not the only one who has noticed it.

(I'm in Ohio BTW)

Originally posted by chiron613
Is it possible that this is a large satellite in geosynchronous orbit? Come to think of it, could we even *see* such a satellite?
[edit on 8/17/2009 by chiron613]

No way friend. FAR too small.

The 'star' in my view looks like Jupiter. But the rapid color change, I don't know.

I saw one like that - midnight 2-3 days ago. It was very bright - I thought it was a planet - it was as bright as venus or more so. But it was twinkling. I was looking at it, and it was twinkling colors- mianly glints of orange or red.
I thought I was having my first UFO sighting, but about that time, it strobed and disappeared.
It was stationary, and appeared a bit later. The sky was CLEAR.\
I figured it was some satellite that the sun was reflecting off of.

From NW GA, it was almost due west @ midnight.


[edit on 22-8-2009 by hadriana]

Camping a couple of months ago i could see the same star, it was 100% Venus. Checked with stellarium when i got back to confirm it was Venus as i had thought, and it was.

Btw it was changing colour exactly the same way as you mentioned OP.

hmm I'v heard of different colored stars based on their heat but never a star that rapidly changes colors... Definitely deserves more discussion

it's definitely a natural phenomenon... I just can't find any literature about it. Maybe I'm not googling the right thing.

Here's a bit of info on why Venus changes colour.

Why Does Venus Change Colour?

Regardless of what it is it's strange. I see it where I am right now which is 'In-Amenas, Algeria'. I'm working on a rig out here and when the North Star is South West of me I see that funny star North East of me.

It's funny cause it disappears about 21:30 here in Algeria. Other stars remain....

I've got an idea, grab a star map, orient yourself and then tell us which star it is. Then we can give you a better answer.

A simple google search could have saved you so much time;

The scientific name for the twinkling of stars is stellar scintillation (or astronomical scintillation). Stars twinkle when we see them from the Earth's surface because we are viewing them through thick layers of turbulent (moving) air in the Earth's atmosphere. Stars (except for the Sun) appear as tiny dots in the sky; as their light travels through the many layers of the Earth's atmosphere, the light of the star is bent (refracted) many times and in random directions (light is bent when it hits a change in density - like a pocket of cold air or hot air). This random refraction results in the star winking out (it looks as though the star moves a bit, and our eye interprets this as twinkling). Stars closer to the horizon appear to twinkle more than stars that are overhead - this is because the light of stars near the horizon has to travel through more air than the light of stars overhead and so is subject to more refraction. Also, planets do not usually twinkle, because they are so close to us; they appear big enough that the twinkling is not noticeable (except when the air is extremely turbulent). Stars would not appear to twinkle if we viewed them from outer space (or from a planet/moon that didn't have an atmosphere).

Source: www.enchantedlearning.com...

Stellar scintillation is causing the stars to change colors due to light diffraction.

reply to post by stevcolx

Originally posted by stevcolx
I'm working on a rig out here and when the North Star is South West of me I see that funny star North East of me.

Your directions are like a riddle.
Wouldn't it just be easier to say in which direction you saw the funny star? Do you mean it is in the south?

I'm glad you posted this because I filmed the same thing a few days ago and was wondering what star this is. I am positive that it is a star and that it isn't Venus like some have suggested. I don't know which star it could be but I have seen it in the evening sky for quite some time. I can see several stars that display colors like this in my area but this one really stands out. Anyway, here is the vid I took of it.













[edit on 26-8-2009 by silverking]

I'm not sure if you guys follow Bill and Kerry of Project Camelot, but they did a interview with George Green and he mentioned this in the interview. He said if you see strobing lights in the sky its a space craft. The two videos shows a stationary object so I don't think its a satellite. Im gonna start looking for this in the sky to see if I can view it with my telescope. If any of you guys have a scope with a camera on it, it would be nice if you could capture some close pics of it. Amazing stuff!!

reply to post by Deran



This info is true for stars yes. But the videos show very obvious and strong color changes. I have seen stars twinkle form atmospheric interference but I have never seen them change colors like shown in the videos.

I have noticed this same or similar light for the past month.
Ive paid attention to the morning sky for decades and this seems unusual. What is most disturbing is that it changed its degree of sight last week.
It was pretty much due east for weeks and then one night it moved north by about 15 or 20 degrees.
It appears to have two separate light sources.

Im viewing it from Orlando, it is eastern 10 15 degrees off horizon at 5:15 a.m.

hope this helps.