Something Strange During 2015 Perseid Meteor Shower

a reply to: Aqualung2012
At the time I allowed myself an amusing hypothetical thought and imagined if thats what a ship going into FTL would look like from the ground. Secret space fleet or somthing!

Wild imgination

Seen these types of flashes in the night sky before, its a satellite that is spinning and at certain angles it reflects the sun as a flash. Nothing strange.

So, you are in Elgin, I am in Kalamazoo. This morning at a bit past 0500 I was on my way home going north. I could see flashes of lightning in the far north. Maybe associated with your direction but it doesn't sound like it from what you are describing. It sounds to me like you watch the stars a lot.

However, I have seen intermittent flashes when looking at the sea of stars. Ten years ago (approx) it was in August when my dad and I were out on the back patio looking at the stars. He got bored and said he was going to bed. I stayed to watch some more. Looking north in the north east there was a flash so bright that it lit up my dark country yard like a welding flash. And it was exactly just a flash but the flash in the sky was huge from where it originated while the light flash surrounding me was after the sky flash.

I saw nothing on the net or news but I know what I saw. I have seen meteors and even what is suspect and or allegedly ball lightning. But the flash I saw remains in my brain and it was big and far away. Keep looking up.

a reply to: imod02

I've seen the same.. I believe it's an iridium satilite.. it adjusts its solar panels.. You can track them online and see if one was in your part of the sky.

This is really interesting, unfortunately we had too much cloud here.
Maybe, over the years and with a growing accumulation of witnesses, the flashes just may be something/someone out there who wants us to finally 'join the dots' (pun intended) to help us acknowledge within ourselves that there are others out there...

a reply to: Aqualung2012

I've seen them for years. Exactly like what you describe except I have seen them flash up to four or five times in one spot like a camera flash. be cool to know what they are.



Peace.

Sorry if it has been said already. Satellites that cross the terminator between sunlight and darkness appear to blink on and off sometimes as they cross because the terminator is the surface of the earth which may be mountainous instead of say a plain or ocean.

In the case of mountains there are peaks and valleys so just as the satellite passes into darkness it may be crossing from peak to valley several times causing it to blink on and off before going dark altogether.

Sorry its not a better description of the phenomenon, I used too see it too when star gazing.

I saw the flashes Monday night, probably 6 or 7 flashes in total. Kept thinking I was seeing the flash of an aircraft but it wasn't, also thought of iridium flares but seemed to be too many flashes for that. The flashes also seemed to be moving North slowly. Had me stumped?!?

a reply to: Aqualung2012

Yes I see/saw them too.
It not just last night. Been observing this on any given night. Last night here in Pittsburgh PA was no clouds or moon. Same area of sky, and sometimes around Ursa Major. I suspected a direct alignment hit of a meteor from my view.
There seems to also be a fixed point with 2 stars that will flash.... then 1 to 2 satellites will spawn from that point and traverse the sky in a northern direction. It got to the point that last month I ordered night vision goggles.

Except the blue ones..... it was as if a star faintly blinked into existence. Then slowly got brighter to the point it was the brightest object in the sky. ( like when you turn the power knob on a light. Then it disappears. I wondered if perhaps I was witnessing a GRB gamma ray burst. I see on average 4 a night.

Glad someone else is seeing these too.


My dad whom lives 15 miles away ask me about 2 month ago if I happen to be out sky watching. I cut him off immediately telling him about the flashes coming from the fixed point of 2 stars. And told him about the satellites spawning and traveling north. His jaw dropped and said. "Yes! That's what I've been seeing."
Since then we have been watching this happen every clear night we can. It's like an unseen satellite is firing missiles or something. Since I got the night vision goggles, it's been easier to track.

The brand is a YUKON night vision binoculars. (TRACKER). Meant for hunting. But works quite well for sky watching.

Tumbling satellite or debris gets my vote... which is different to an iridium flare.

I have no official capacity on this nor experience, only observations and reading other reports. These pin point flashes can be seen night in night out, from past reports clearly observable wherever you are in the world, sometimes you'll only see one and get no idea of a path, sometimes you'll see two flashes but it's still hard to determine, some times they have so much tumble they flash regularly and it's clear they're on a path/orbit. On occasion, there is more than one tumbling / pinpoint flashing object in the sky at the same time which can make it that little bit more confusing/hard to work out.

I'm not sure you'd want an operational satellite to be tumbling so erratically, so perhaps its worth considering also space junk, debris and satellites that are dead - that simply aren't being told to stay upright because they're no longer operational, but at the same time remaining in orbit for some years.

the Union of Concerned Scientists listed 902 operational satellites[25] from a known population of 19,000 large objects and about 30,000 objects launched.

en.wikipedia.org...

I used to think this was some kind of alien phenomena when I first encountered it, but as it became easier to spot and regular "encounters", my view has long since moved onto space debris and tumbling satellites. A bit like when you see litter on the street, these pinpoint flashes are a reminder of the litter we've created in space

For example, in February 2015, the USAF Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 13 (DMSP-F13) exploded on orbit, creating at least 149 debris objects, which are expected to remain in orbit for decades.

149 un-co-ordinated objects (some probably shiny metal) orbiting us with who-knows-what kind of tumbling motion. It's also such a short-lived and common sight that I don't think it relates to the realm of extraterrestrial or such, even if it is perhaps occurring in the same "regions" of space that some alien phenomena does*.

There may not be any official conclusion but there is certainly a common sense one. I'm not saying this covers every single pin point flash in the night sky but I think it (debris) explains a big portion. I get the impression there is also very little official information on space debris, it's certainly not an issue/policy we'll ever see covered on MSM or in politics, unless of course a specific event like a satellite crashing somewhere on Earth - where space industry & gov's really have to cover their backsides

My point is, there's debris, and there's secret debris, and we seem to still be in an age of 'learning' about debris in orbit - no public hearings, court cases or anything yet to really show what the implications are or what the current "signs" or pointers of the problem may be.

So that harmless little pin point flash today could be what crashes into your house in 50 years time when its orbit has decayed

It's probably worth worrying about it being that more than aliens or anything... but it's just my opinion, each to their own

* There are still plenty of questions that need answering though, to completely rule this out. The erratic movements of "fast walkers" (not seen by naked eye) could be connected to pin point flashes (seen by naked eye). That would be quite hard to determine but not impossible. That said, in a lot of fast walker videos, there is no noticeable flaring, which into the visible spectrum, would show up quite brightly on IR videos. So I'm still going with debris

a reply to: Aqualung2012
I live in NE Bavaria in Germany and saw the EXACT same thing over the last few nights. Last night, I was centering my observations around Cassiopia and then BAM! I saw two distinct flashes right above the star Shedir. Cassiopia

The flashes were seperated by a few seconds...and did not reappear. They looked like small, bright, concentrated, explosions in space. Only reason why I was looking at Cassiopia is because the same type of flashes happened in that area three nights ago. Other, singular flashes, happened in other parts of the sky, but their location were random, and seen by pure luck.

My jaw dropped when I saw this thread! I was convinced nobody would believe my wife and me. I´m on the other side of the planet, with a time difference of +7 hours relative to Chicago time. I would estimate last nights observation of the flashes between 00:00 - 01:00 CET, which would be between 17:00 and 18:00 CST....still daylight in your neck of the woods!

All excellent new replies, and do I plan on addressing them all.

I really like the post about space debris, which makes a ton of sense.

I just woke up for a moment to let the dog out, and I'm still tired. (After all I was up all night writing and attending to this thread.)

I'll be back in a few to pick up the conversation. In the mean time, feel free to continue the discussion.

a reply to: Aqualung2012

Just chiming in - I've seen this exact phenomena too, about four summers ago, in the skies above Lake Superior from the beach in Marquette, MI. About 6 or 7 times over the course of an hour. My companion that night said she saw what appeared to be ball lightning too, but it was behind me and gone before I could turn around.

Hello!
I'm in Woodstock, Ill and watched for 3 nights...I saw the very same thing....
What I found odd was that it kept happening in what appeared to be the same exact spot in a cluster of stars.

Signals from the Heavens Gate scouts possibly? I need to get the a barber, kmart, and the pharmacy STAT.

a reply to: Aqualung2012

Been seeing them the last few nights from close to you (Streamwood, IL) - exactly as you describe. Going to check out the link in your OP now.

I saw 3 of the small flashes (like a star brightening then fading out within a second or two. Completely stationary) last night around 12-1:00am. I'm in Michigan, near Lansing. I don't recall ever seeing this type of thing before and I'm an fairly avid sky watcher.

a reply to: Aqualung2012

I watched on Tuesday evening. I didn't think much about it at the time, but after reading your thread I can say that I noticed this happen on two occasions. It was like the two stars I noticed got snuffed out. I can't say for certain that there were any flashes associated with them. There was no storm activity or clouds to block out stars. So either my eyes were playing tricks on me, what I saw weren't stars, or a couple of stars did go out (which is off the charts improbable).

originally posted by: 02bmw76
Looking north in the north east there was a flash so bright that it lit up my dark country yard like a welding flash. And it was exactly just a flash but the flash in the sky was huge from where it originated while the light flash surrounding me was after the sky flash.

That must have an incredible experience! Sounds a lot more intense than what I've been seeing though, but either way thanks for posting.

originally posted by: HooHaa
a reply to: imod02

I've seen the same.. I believe it's an iridium satilite.. it adjusts its solar panels.. You can track them online and see if one was in your part of the sky.

Thanks for that tip, I'll be looking more into that as a possibility. Should I happen to see anything like it again, I'll definitely visit that website. Care to share a link?