Strange Sighting...Who has a clue what it could be?

I live in a town called Weiden located in northeast Bavaria. At 01:25 CET this morning, the night sky was clear and moonless. I was in my livingroom, and I just bent down to turn off a light. As I got back up (the livingroom was now dark) to my right, is a large bay window. I turned to look at the stars and was instantly attracted to a very bright star...about the same magnitude of brilliance as Venus during early evening. Then came the WTF part. The "star" increased in brightness by about 50%, then rapidly faded, moving very slightly to the left as it faded and then completely disappeared. The whole sighting might have lasted 4 seconds, and I think I just happened to catch the tail end of this event. I was looking towards the WSW and the object was located about 30 degrees above the horizon. Checking the weather later on, most parts of Germany were clear, so this must have been visable over a vast area. So what was it? I know what a satellite looks like, and this wasn't one. Nor was it a meteor or meterorite. This thing was stationary until the absolute end, moving perhaps a millimeter to the left. It couldn't have been a supernova, stars don't explode that fast, let alone move. The only other explanation that I could think of was a spacecraft hitting full thrust and either rapidly flying out of visual range, or it did a controlled burn and shut off it's engines. Maybe somebody has seen something similar? I'm stumped.

reply to post by fockewulf190


Sounds like you may have seen a satellite iridium flare , here's a couple of examples for you to compare .

reply to post by gortex


Thanks for that. Thing is, it didn't move until the absolute end, and then only very slightly as viewed from my position. Have flares of this type been fired up near geosynchronous orbit altitudes? Could a satellite thruster at that hight be bright enough to cause what I saw? Edited to note: your second video is probably as close as it's going to get to what I saw...just picture the object as stationary....and I first sighted it just before it flared.

reply to post by fockewulf190


Its caused by Sunlight reflecting off the reflective surfaces on satellites mate .

Satellite flare

Thanks. Perhaps a mod can add this to one of the sticky posts at the top of the forum so these things don't get reported again.

It was interesting reading about this, thanks to both of you. And many thanks to Gortex for clearing this up, I've read your posts before and you have a rational mind and are pretty helpful on these type of subjects!

I was born close to Weiden, you know that Grafenwöhr, one of the biggest Army training bases is nearby?
A bright light is likely a landing light of a plane or a flare or similar.

yes and it is exciting to catch a sat as it flares. the difference between that and a et vehicle is that it is manmade light, there is a big difference.

Originally posted by gortex
reply to post by fockewulf190

 

Its caused by Sunlight reflecting off the reflective surfaces on satellites mate .

Satellite flare

That is a really good diagram and explanation, Gortex. Probably a lot of 'ufo' vids/sightings are caused by this.

reply to post by flexy123


I was stationed there for three years as an air traffic controller at Grafenwohr Army Airfield when I was in the US Army. No, this wasn't a C130 or a mortar flare.

reply to post by fockewulf190


There is a space ship that essentially works on space.
It works against Newtons 3rd law and conservation of momentum.
In fact it sounds like an entirely new set of rules.
I believe it was a university sort of study when Tesla was young.
Edison didn't like book learner Tesla and neither do the Edison's of today.
The starry bright ships have been noted since 1945 and just might be
moving by the new set of rules.

reply to post by gortex

Hey, thanks for this! I appreciate the diagram, gortex, and the explanation. I agree this would be a good sticky note thread, as it would be a very common form of 'sighting.'

And OP - thanks to you too for putting it out there and asking the question. What a great opportunity to learn from your experience.

Peace, AB

I acutally think the OP observed an aircraft. I live in the North of Kent, UK, and observe many planes taking off and landing NNE of London. What was described was a pretty common site as aircraft turn on, and off, their landing lights. As they change direction, with a sudden dimming or brightening of their lights, they can appear to suddenly change direction - I've seen this thousands of times. It is a bit weird to watch.

EDIT - but Gortex could be equally right.

Holy! Sh** that's kinda what I saw on Monday , it got brighter then faded away I watched it for about 6secs then it vanished, I'm in California so I try to look in the sky as much as possible. But for some reason been seeing them more for the past couple months. Wonder why, Love&peace.

reply to post by BagBing


As a former tower air traffic controller, believe me, I would never, ever, bother reporting such a sighting as you suggested. For one, if you Google Weiden under maps, you'll see Weiden is quite far from any major airport. The airfield at Grafenwohr operates almost exclusively during the day and has normally very light traffic. The jet routes which cross over Weiden are very high and the aircraft flying on them look like aircraft flying at 33K and above, not like an aircraft turning base, or on final approach. There are lower level routes surrounding the local area, but they are almost always used by VFR helicopters and the occasional C-12 during daylight hours only.

The only question that still nags at me regards the time of the incident. At 01:25 AM CET, are iridium flares still possible to visualize? According to the diagram posted, my sighting happened during the middle of the night and not within the range of darkness near either the twilight or pre-dawn margins of visualization. And, not to be a stickler but, there was almost no movement of the object at all until the very end. I just want to know if that is possible with an iridium flare or not.

reply to post by gortex


Gortex your tag em n bag em attitude...
With just a story from the OP and without pictures or any sort of real visual to go from, i think you have hit the nail on the head first shot.
=D ofcourse we could say Russian lantern 0o xD better then Chinese because ours go higher and don't get influenced by wind. =D may glow from all that plutoniumy goodness

Although that being said id like to say to anyone else posting... Gortex is a fast poster lol... and he also can make mistakes so don't always close the book on it =D.

Originally posted by fockewulf190
The only question that still nags at me regards the time of the incident. At 01:25 AM CET, are iridium flares still possible to visualize? According to the diagram posted, my sighting happened during the middle of the night and not within the range of darkness near either the twilight or pre-dawn margins of visualization.

What is important is the angle of the sun below the horizon.

During the winter months, the sun is too far below the horizon for the majority of satellites (perhaps some may be visible very low down in the sky in the direction of the sun) to be visible in the sky in the middle of the night.

However, we are now approaching summer in the northern hemisphere, and at this time of year, the sun never sinks very low below the horizon. This means that satellites can be seen in a much larger part of the sky, throughout the whole night in comparison to a winter night, when the majority of the sky above your head is in earth's shadow towards the middle of the night.

Here's a screenshot of my planetarium software, set to roughly your location and the time/date you gave.



The bold horizontal white line half way down represents the horizon, and the sun is represented by the small circle next to Mercury. The software says that it was almost 13 degrees below the horizon at that time. Note that I have not adjusted for daylight saving time, in which case the sun would be even closer to the horizon.

Here for comparison, is the situation exactly 3 months earlier


In this case, the sun is more than 43 degrees below the horizon, so the vast majority of the sky (at satellite altitudes) would be in shadow.

> I'm not aware of anything "special" about the month of May in terms of
> watching satellites. Many low earth orbit (LEO) satellites can be seen
> both morning and evening, every day of the year, in the middle latitudes.
> However, the late spring to early autumn months do afford longer periods
> after twilight for viewing satellites, compared to the winter months,
> with the maximum viewing period occurring at summer solstice. Perhaps
> this is what the Old Farmer's Almanac is referring to.

> This seasonal effect, caused by the tilt of the Earth's axis of rotation,
> is due to the rate at which the Earth's shadow climbs into the sky after
> sunset. As long as satellites remain outside the Earth's shadow, they
> are illuminated by sunlight and can reflect that sunlight back to your
> eyes and thus be visible to you. We often think of this in terms of the
> "shadow height", how high the shadow extends above your location, versus
> the satellite's height above you in its orbit. If a satellite is "above"
> shadow height, it can be visible. If the satellite is "below" shadow
> height, it is being eclipsed by the Earth and cannot be visible.

Source: SeeSat


I didn't see anyone mention it, but if you go here, you can check if the was a flare at around that time if you enter you location, which needs to be accurate, as seeing a flare is very dependent on your location.

Originally posted by fockewulf190
And, not to be a stickler but, there was almost no movement of the object at all until the very end. I just want to know if that is possible with an iridium flare or not.

Perhaps - our minds can play all sorts of tricks on us.

There is also another possibility. A meteor, if it is heading almost directly towards you would not appear to move much.

To the naked-eye they appear as a momentary flash, similar to the appearance of a satellite tumbling in orbit. On photographs, however, they often occur as new stars in familiar constellations. So if you think you've accidentally discovered a supernova, check the sky again - it was probably a point-source meteor!


Disk and point-source meteors are due either to a meteor heading directly towards the observer, or because the meteor is below naked-eye visibility for most of its flight but suddenly flares towards the end, thus becoming visible. They are probably more common than most people realize but their small angular size makes them difficult to observe.

Source: Anomalous Meteor Phenomena

I still favor a satellite flare as the most likely possibility given your description, but either is possible.

reply to post by gortex


Thanks for the videos. That 2nd one is exactly what I saw a while back.

reply to post by FireballStorm


Thanks a lot for your work explaining this phenomena. I've learned a lot from you and the other posters here. Again, I hope a mod does sticky this post for further reference.

Yes I have also seen one of these, and no it is NOT a reflection of the Sun on a satellite.

The one I observed was about a month and a 1/2 ago, at approx 8.30pm ( it was dark), looking southerly at about 30o from the horizon.
It was a stationary "Star" that quickly intensified in size and brightness, to be almost 2-4 times bigger than the biggest Venus views, then rapidly shrunk in size and disappeared. This all occurred in 3-4 seconds, approx. All this time it was stationary. It didnt blink, or refract light (twinkle) or such. I kept observing the area to see if it was a satellite and reappeared in a different direction, but it did not.
No it did not travel across the sky and grow in luminescence...as the 100s of satellites I have seen often do.

No it was'nt a Plane or Helicopter or meteorite or space junk or anything Earthly. It was in Space...could possibly be a geocentric stationary satellite, but it was a huge!! flash.

BTW I am in Australia, so it is not a Northern phenomenon only.
I have no idea what it was, but it wasnt moving like the "Iridium" videos posted.