Mysterious blinking star-like objects

in toowoomba queensland australia watching one do it right now ssw 2 bright stars
one at the bottom keeps disappearing and flickering heaps

aloha- i saw something just like this sep.25, this past sunday. at about 1:30 am hawaii time i was outside looking up into the sky to the north-east about 60-70 degrees above the horizon, jupiter was to the right and a bit lower. anyways, there was this blinking light- it was beyond our atmosphere-i know that, but it would blink every 5-15 seconds, after about 10 minutes, there were two more that just showed up, one above,and one below the original blinker, and they would start blinking also- after watching all this for about 20 minutes- it appeared to me as if they were communicating with each other with their blinking. i saw a pattern to the blinking. anybody else notice this???

Why don't a few of you install google sky maps onto you phones and point your phone to the area that is blinking in the sky? This will tell you what it is or at least let you all know if you are looking at the same object

I too have noticed this especially the last couple of days. I saw a redish star Monday night (Midlands Area) bout 7 - 8pm, then noticed it was moving in a weird way. Didn't notice flashes at time but got about a minutes worth of film. Also saw what I thought was a satelite Tues morning bout 5.30am. I thought it was a satelite but was moving way to fast and brighter than any other star. Wtf is going on with these things?

twinkle twinkle little star.. anyone?

reply to post by strafgod
The blink being seen is not a little blink. It flashes and lights up a big part of the sky.

Saw this in the sky also in north west England. Slightly brighter than Jupiter and in the same area of the sky almost. Im going to head back to the spot I saw it tonight and get the exact location.

Do we think this is a possible Supernova?

reply to post by WeekendWarrior

That is exactly what spinning satellites do. They can also be very bright, that's also why they are called 'Flashers' Space junk, like spent boosters, or rocket stages can spin about in no particular fashion too.

reply to post by Matthew5012


No not a supernova

My most mundane guess is tiny bits from a satellite catching the sun
My most exciting sci-fi guess is exotic particles colliding with atoms in the upper atmosphere


But if it’s doing what it did in 2008 then it does look unusual

reply to post by InsideYourMind


betcha we are seeing solar reflections coming off PV panels on sats.

like scattered sequins the PV panels glitter in the night

Traditionally such lights in the sky were literally "the gods" but in this modern day no one thinks that way anymore. However, we can still explain "the gods" in a more scientific terminology ? What if the lights that you're seeing are only visible to you ? Have you ever tried making your star observation sessions with a friend ? Then you will notice if the lights are only visible to yourself ? My theory is that you're suffering "Schizophrenia". Do not get upset about it. Schizophrenia is actually universally ubiquitous. In reality everyone suffers it. Problem is convincing them that they need to do something about it. Schizophrenia is often so subtle in how it affects us that we do not even realise it is there. If you're taking the trouble to stand out in the open on a dark night more often than just a once off then nature steps in to make it interesting for you. My worry is that you're opening yourself [psyche] up to what most call "paranormal phenomenon" that are probably better left alone. Being a bit more informative for example what if the air around us and the space around the Earth is over flowing with spiritual entities responding to the fact that you're looking in their direction ? Thus they flash in response to the fact that they know that you're going to see the flashes and thus you will look even more in their direction. In my opinion it is a trap. A trap that will close in around you such that eventually you end up in a lunatic asylum or more probably a prison or even worse you could become "possessed" to such an extent that you end up on death row as punishment for a crime that you will have commited whilst under influence of your "lights". In antiquity "the gods" were known about and people were careful to avoid becoming "possessed" by them. However, in these modern times we are far too easilly drawn into their psychic trap. Your "lights" seem to be at a distance. The "lights" that I see are only small and move around like insects buzzing about. During certain atmospheric conditions I sometimes see them dancing in and out of the clouds in the sky. At night I do not see them. However, some years ago I was out in a near by park in the middle of the night looking at the stars. The sky was absolutely clear except for a touch of mist. I observed a star change its location. It moved from one position in the sky to a new position in the sky without acceleration and without any deceleration. It looked to be just a normal star. Except that it changed its position right before my eyes. I still cannot explain to myself how any such thing can happen. Obviously not an orbital satellite, but perhaps a "levitation platform" out in space ? Even though we are not told about the existence of such technology does not rule out the possibility that such technology nonetheless exists anyway. Aliens ? Probably not. It is far more likely to be just another one of the manifestations that I have come to understand as being my "Schizophrenia".

AVE RAEGINA CAELINA LA DEUS NOSTRA CAELI LA VERA DEUS

I've seen these flashes many times. They light up the entire night sky for less than a split second. Like others have said, if you blink you'd miss it. My buddy believes it is lightning, but I argue that they occur in completely cloudless skies at times so how can it be lightning flashes. I was never able to determine where these flashes were coming from though.

Ok, well once you've ruled out the possibility that the objects are not stars, then logically the next possibility that must be entertained is that you are viewing one of many, many satellites that are currently in orbit, some which are not even operational, and other "debris". Not to mention the numerous classified surveillance and military satellites as well.

The UCS Satellite Database is a listing of the more than 900 operational satellites currently in orbit around Earth.

www.ucsusa.org...

Space debris and such:



Satellite tracking:

Live Real Time Satellite and Space Shuttle Tracking and Predictions

So it is entirely possible that what you are seeing are objects and/or satellites.

I have seen the same thing back in February. I just happened to look up and caught it blink.I watched it blink a few times to make sure I wasn't seeing things and called my wife outside to confirm it and she saw the same thing thankfully. I only saw it for about 3 min but when it was leaving it continued to blink and fade dimer and dimer like when you turn a dimming knob on a ceiling fan.Then it was just gone .It left my wife speechless which I have yet to accomplish. Keep looking up I do.

The blinking star that you see to the East is called Sirius A

Usually it is the larger brighter stars such as Sirius that will flash the blue and red color and usually when below 30° above the horizon.. The flickering you see in stars is caused by atmospheric turbulence and is often referred to as scintillation, and, is often a sign of poor "astronomical seeing". The red and blue you see is also caused by the atmosphere and is a phenomenon called "Atmospheric Prismatic Dispersion".. Sirius and Venus are two popular objects where that phenomenon is most often observed..

Whenever light travels through one medium, such as air, water, or different types of glass, it slows down. For each different medium the speed of light is different. When light travels from one medium to another, it bends and changes direction as its speed changes. This is called refraction. Different (colors) wavelengths of light bend differently, this is the dispersion effect. Longer red wavelengths don't slow down as much and bend less than the others. On the other hand the blue (shorter) wavelengths slow the greatest, and bend the most. . When we see the light from stars in the night sky, that light is passing through the Earth's atmosphere where it is refracted, and the different wavelengths are dispersed. This is called atmospheric prismatic dispersion Usually blue on top and red on the bottom.. Lower to the horizon the more noticeable.. Sirius and Venus are always good for observing this effect/phenomenon.

Off-site content, courtesy of cs.astronomy.com.

reply to post by smurfy


Now thats sorrta what i was thinking. Ive just never seen them before really. And it would make sense that if it was spinning like that it would relect sun light at random times. Case (Most Likely) Closed.

I've been having similar occurrences here in the eastern United States. For the past two weeks, I've been outside looking at the stars from times varying from 12am to 2am and noticing something very peculiar. There are a few stars that don't appear to be very far away from the earth that blink at accelerated rates and are less faint in light compared to all the other visible stars. What's mind blowing is that when you first look at one of these stars there's a triangle shape around it outlined with more faint lights and the main "star" is the center mass of the object, but after looking for more than a second, the outline becomes invisible and you're back to looking at a rapid blinking star.

Now I thought for sure that I was seeing stuff that wasn't there. I placed objects in front of my line of sight and then removed them to see the same trick was being performed of existing and then not. I even waved my hands in front of my eyes and the same # was going on, but for the life of me I could not repeat it with any other star in the sky except for one nearby which was the exact same thing except it was a smaller triangle.

I've had some time to make peace with this fact because it orbits over my vantage point every night and I've taken notice for the past 3 or 4. My best guess on this subject is to give credence to D4rk Kn1ght. The center "star" seems to be real while everything outlining it is a hologram. I have no clue how the filter works to where it's only visible for the first second it's in your perception, but I clap for that one haha.

To add some nuts to this # sundae, my friend has this old fashioned grandmother who's been seeing the same thing and I found out about that only a couple days ago. Perhaps these flashes everybody is seeing are the same thing? I feel like the men in black now, but it's hard to deny something that you see on a nightly basis.

Alot of people mentioning stars, as describing a stationary object which is rapidly "twinkling". I am aware of what scintillation is and would never get confused with a star/planet for a UFO.

Again this "phenomenon" is not a star causing optical illusions. If you could imagine watching a satellite travel slowly across the sky, you will see it move in a straight line, or a gently curved arc (following the curvature of the earth because it is in orbit). Now if you imagine adding a blinking light to this satellite that "flashed" at random intervals, in a "ping" like fashion... not a flash similar to lightning, it doesn't light up the whole sky... but simply more of a dot (a point of light, that resembles a star for less than half a second). Now when observing this theoretical satellite, you can only see it because of the "star-like" flash every so often... eventually you can add up the "dots" so you can see a path, which isn't natural as it jumps around.

Instead of going from point A - B. And flashing every so often along the way. They go from point A - B - C - D -E and etc. Almost in a zig-zag or as i have said multiple times "erratic" movements.

Just want to make it clear that i am not being confused with an actual star. Another simple examp[le of what these lights/blinks look like are LED's, if you could picture one in the sky blinking on/off very quickly, moving slowly to another location and turning on/off again, eventually revealing a zig-zag type pattern.

The other possibility as mentioned is solar-panels reflecting sunlight while in orbit, such as iridium flares. This also doesn't add up because the flash of light that these objects make briefly is an instant on/off blink of light. Somebody posted a great picture of an iridium flare a few pages back, they look nothing like this.

I haven't seen any since last night however. I'll keep a look out though.

Its really hard to explain, but quiet a few people have described what i have been seeing perfectly, so i'm glad its not just me getting confused by these strange lights.

reply to post by InsideYourMind



Re; the satellites, you need to qualify a little of what you say, many of these 'flasher objects' revolve very slowly, be they working, redundant satellites or just plain space junk, and you also need to take account of their orbits, the Japanese 'Flasher' for instance, may only give a couple of flashes in that part of its path that catches the Sun, the first is usually very bright, and a secondary one not so bright, after that nothing at all, all these things have different behaviours. The other thing is you need to identify the time of day, the part of the sky you are looking at and from where you are viewing, (that bit is up to you of course, don't give out any information you don't want to) because of the relative nearness of these things. I agree you would not mistake these things with a twinkling star. You can always check what you have seen against the info I posted, and those from Automatic, a few posts back.

Originally posted by coastalite
I've seen these flashes many times. They light up the entire night sky for less than a split second. Like others have said, if you blink you'd miss it. My buddy believes it is lightning, but I argue that they occur in completely cloudless skies at times so how can it be lightning flashes. I was never able to determine where these flashes were coming from though.

Lightning can be seen many, many miles away, and can be seen even if cloudless from horizon to horizon, so your friend is in the main most likely correct, there could also be something incoming with the same effect, but all that catches your eye is the flash.