Mysterious blinking star-like objects

I'm kind of a troll, thus my first post.


I'm not going to talk my self up and say I'm any kind of astronomer, but I have always had a great interest in the sky. So I do know what satellites, asteroids, etc. look like while traveling across the night sky. But as of recently I have been seeing, quite to the T, what was described in the OP. In my experience, it's happened twice in the last week, both happened in the same spot in the sky.I live in Southeastern Michigan.


Both instances I had come home from work (not seeing anything in the sky as I walked up to my place), went inside briefly to grab a cigarette, and stepped back outside.

The first time, last thursday, I was standing and pouting about how dim the stars are due to the light pollution around me, I then saw something blink quite brightly in the North / Northeastern sky (My right side). This object would only blink one color, white (I'd say it looked like a star, but it was way too bright), and had different time intervals between blinks (anywhere from 2-20 seconds). The object didn't seem to move for the first few minutes, but then it blinked once, disappeared, and blinked northwest of me (now to an extreme left of me). It stayed there for the duration of my cigarette, then jumped back, blinked once, and disappeared. I was outside for a good 10 minutes afterwards trying to see where it had possibly moved, but could not find it.

The second time it happened, last night around 11:15-11:30 EST it was blinking quicker (now 2-10 seconds) but did almost exactly the same formation / pattern as the first time, except reversed. This time it started in the northwest and jumped to the northeastern sky, then back, and disappeared. (probably lasted about 8 minutes this time).

I'm not going to jump to any crazy conclusions, but this definitely did peak my interest, especially after seeing other people saw (possibly) the same thing.

I've researched this further and I'm positive that what we're seeing is ELEnin.....

Just kidding. Here in the Southern California suburbs we have seen a major increase in airplane and helicopters in our local skies, particularly at night. This has given us a chance to study the characteristics of commercial and military aircraft, which are easily identifiable even at long distances with binoculars.

The blinking stars don't resemble an aircraft when viewed through binoculars, instead appearing as a ball of light with no real features, like a star. I've seen these objects change colors (white,orange, blue, red), diminish in apparent size and disappear/reappear. It's difficult to make out any features of these things.

In my opinion these things are meant to be seen by us. They are seemingly everywhere right now. I frequently spot them when I'm just glancing at the sky for a couple of seconds while walking to my car. If friends and I get together and intently watch the sky it almost becomes a drinking game as the blinking stars will appear so many times.

Then of course there was the "meteor" sighting over the SW U.S. a couple of weeks back, which even the MSM reported as a huge story.

It's certainly an interesting time to watch the skies.

reply to post by InsideYourMind


To the east of Jupiter and lower in the sky is the blinking star called Capella. It literally spins a rainbow of colors.

I shot some great footage of it on Thursday September 22 2011 with a powerful zoom lens however, I haven't posted it to youtube.

This video is a pretty good one if it.

Originally posted by InsideYourMind

Originally posted by ThePawnsTheory
...after reading that other thread that was linked, I would also like to point out that is the second or third report to see this phenomena in the Orion vicinity.

edit on 28-9-2011 by ThePawnsTheory because: (no reason given)

Yup, early this year i have seen several flash's from the area of orion, but not anything which appears to be moving, just stationary "ping" like lights which appear for no longer than a minute. Pretty strange.

This Orion thing has me confused because as far as I know Orion will not be visable in the night sky until November. I know because Orion was the first constellation I was able to find on my own when I was a child and just learning about the constellations and it quickly became my favorite to point out to others. I would look for it every November and it was visable until some time in April. Orion is located near the cellestial equator and is really in the sky all year for most of the planet except for the most northern and most southern locations. Its just that its in the sky during daytime hours from April through November and so cannot be seen. So wherever you guys are looking you're not seeing Orion unless its very very early in the evening and then maybe you can see part of it on the southern horizon. You said early this year so perhaps it was before April?

reply to post by EnigmaAgent



Yeah, the first ones were really teeny, lol!! The second batch seemed to come out reasonable size tho?

Originally posted by kdog1982
I have to ask,but is it coming from here,betelgeuse?

You're waiting for the super Nova? It could happen any time now. Or not. I think they give a range of about 1 million years.
BTW: Dont say that star name three times or there's bound to be trouble.

Hey, does any of you have a good quality digitalcamera? I would love to film this but I dont own one of those. My cousin has not so good camera, but he will try to shoot it anyway. And those flashes are occuring propably everynight so it should be only a matter of time until someone gets it on film. Eventually I will buy one if theres no video evidence soon enough.

It sounds like an iridium flare. I'm sure others said this I didn't read the whole thread. But one of the main components of being an iridium flare is that they have to be above the horizon, like you mentioned in your post.

reply to post by QUANTUMGR4V17Y


Ok this guy from Michigan saw these flashes looking north so not coming from the direction of Orion as in the northern hemisphere Orion is always to the south and a little east.

I have seen this as well while hoping to see the uars remnants on Friday, Sep 23rd around 9:30PM. I was in Medford, OR looking north and spotted a single bright flash high in the sky that wasn't like a typical satellite flaring.

Am I the only one who doesn't see a mysterious blinking star object in the OP and Heart is black has some movie preview for his/her mysterious blinking star object. What is up with that??
Pictures or video, please.

reply to post by WeekendWarrior


I am uploading the HD video I shot last Thursday September 22 2011 to youtube.

I might go out tonight and shoot it again. It is the star Capella but it does NOT look at all like a normal star IMO.

Originally posted by BIGPoJo
reply to post by thedoctorswife

 

Can you post some video or some pics?

2nd.

Sorry we,ve tried,but cant get anything clear or good, my daughter is loving it though, potential ats-er I think.

Originally posted by QUANTUMGR4V17Y
I'm kind of a troll, thus my first post.

I'm not going to talk my self up and say I'm any kind of astronomer, but I have always had a great interest in the sky. So I do know what satellites, asteroids, etc. look like while traveling across the night sky. But as of recently I have been seeing, quite to the T, what was described in the OP. In my experience, it's happened twice in the last week, both happened in the same spot in the sky.I live in Southeastern Michigan.


Both instances I had come home from work (not seeing anything in the sky as I walked up to my place), went inside briefly to grab a cigarette, and stepped back outside.

The first time, last thursday, I was standing and pouting about how dim the stars are due to the light pollution around me, I then saw something blink quite brightly in the North / Northeastern sky (My right side). This object would only blink one color, white (I'd say it looked like a star, but it was way too bright), and had different time intervals between blinks (anywhere from 2-20 seconds). The object didn't seem to move for the first few minutes, but then it blinked once, disappeared, and blinked northwest of me (now to an extreme left of me). It stayed there for the duration of my cigarette, then jumped back, blinked once, and disappeared. I was outside for a good 10 minutes afterwards trying to see where it had possibly moved, but could not find it.

The second time it happened, last night around 11:15-11:30 EST it was blinking quicker (now 2-10 seconds) but did almost exactly the same formation / pattern as the first time, except reversed. This time it started in the northwest and jumped to the northeastern sky, then back, and disappeared. (probably lasted about 8 minutes this time).

I'm not going to jump to any crazy conclusions, but this definitely did peak my interest, especially after seeing other people saw (possibly) the same thing.

That's very interesting, you are describing perfectly the same thing i have seen.
Its not the flashing itself that is odd (as that can be easily explained as a satellite), but rather the way they appear to move around, almost jumping from point to point as you described.

4:45 AM? I was abducted a few weeks ago around that time after seeing this light. It sounded like as if it came out of light speed since I heard a very high pitched noise wich is the fast vibration of the eardrum because of noises that we can't hear (above 20,000hz). I know I was abducted because the xray I took shows a metallic object in my neck (left side). After that I heard the high pitched noise a lot of other times, at night, and when travelling. I went to another town and at night I woke up after hearing this noise again. Don't be bothered by it, it didn't do anything to me yet so it shouldn't do to you.

Originally posted by LindsayLoo
reply to post by thedoctorswife

 

Amazing that people are seeing this everywhere! I wonder what it is. I got a video that I will upload tonight after I get off work. Granted its pretty crappy quality due to the fact that my camera sucks, but you can see the flashing and the movement of it.

It is moving isnt it? Its not my imagination. My daughters said " mum its moving from side to side", and i thought "no", but it certainly does appear to be moving. Its blinking all sorts of colours, its the craziest little star in the sky.

Originally posted by freedommusic
reply to post by InsideYourMind

 

To the east of Jupiter and lower in the sky is the blinking star called Capella. It literally spins a rainbow of colors.

I shot some great footage of it on Thursday September 22 2011 with a powerful zoom lens however, I haven't posted it to youtube.

This video is a pretty good one if it.

That is a nice video, but not what i have seen.
As i said in a post on page 2 (i think)... when i say star-like its not actually resembling a star as though it is a fixed point of light moving around. It is a strange "blip", or "ping" of light, like an instant flash the kind you would find on a camera (it doesn't stay on, and lasts half a second at most).

Oddly every time the flash happens, the origin moves about in an odd pattern going from left to right or sometimes jumping across a large portion of the sky suggesting an increase in speed. This is what has me baffled.

For instance if you seen a flash of light (which looked like a star when it lit up) several times as it moved, you could eventually predict where the object is, though i have seen them "blip" in the exact same place after a delay of maybe 15 seconds or so, and then immediately doing another "blip" in the opposite direction.

What i have been watching was not a star, it was something "nearby" as in upper atmosphere or even in space.

I still can't wrap my head around what it may have been.

Interesting! Last week I stepped outside to great my wife and daughter as they were pulling in to the garage around 9:30pm. While talking about the day I notice in the background an extreamly bright star in the distant. I thought to myself, "maybe it's the North Star" but I am not used to seeing it to the east about 30* up. I live in Michigan, and am used to seeing it above head. I turned and look for it and it was right were I thought it should be. I continued to watch it as I thought it might be an air plane in the distant but it was not moving forward or back, and it wasn't aproaching or moving away either. I pointed it out to my wife and daughter and they were also intrigued with it. And suddenly, the bright light began to slowly dim. I thought to mysel, it must be a jet or a plan flying away, but as it dimmed all the way out, it began to come back again brighter and brighter in the same spot. I tried to rationalize it but all I could come up with was maybe there were clouds in the sky that I could not see, although it was pretty clear to me. I feel like it was an object hovering in the sky blinking, but at a much slower rate than what iv'e read from the post on here.
Thats my two cents.

Sorry, I didn't read all 4 pages but did anyone know that sattelites can and do blink ?
Some of the sattelites blink because of attitude control, change of direction and to keep themselfs in the right orbit.
When that happens there can be anything from 1 to 5 blinks. Sometimes the firing thrusters can get very bright from our perspective. Most sattelites have chemical thrusters, i know that some soviet sattelites have used electric propulsion for ages.

Here's a nice video catching the blink.

As people have posted before it looks like Capella. You've got Jupiter very bright to the right of it. I did look out earlier when it was just above the horizon and it was quite active with it twinkle.