Bright star where none should be!

[Blue Fire]

Hi all! I haven't posted here in quite a while, but I've just seen something that has me mystified. I got a call from a friend who is a casual sky observer asking me about a star he was looking at. It was twilight in our area (Western New York state) and there were no other stars visible in the sky which was clear. He'd been watching this thing for 15-20 minutes. So, the time frame is from about 8:20 p.m. (Eastern time) to about 8:45 p.m. He asked if it was Venus. I replied that it couldn't be because Venus was below the horizon. I went outside to look and readily saw what he was watching. Then I went back inside, grabbed my binocs, and had a quick look at it before it faded from view altogether.

Nearest I can tell is that this star was in the vicinity of Psi Ursa Major high in the northeast. It did not move so we ruled out aircraft. From the quick look I got through my binoculars before it faded, I thought I detected what looked to be small wisps of smoke very near the object. Anyway, this thing was quite bright - I'd estimate its magnitude to be brighter than Saturn currently, but a bit dimmer than Jupiter. Note that this was in a still fairly bright sky in which I could see no other stars yet.

Could it have been a variable star? Or a supernova? I ruled out meteors and falling space junk since the light was steady and stationary. I don't think it could be an iridium flare since I understand they don't flare for 15 to 20 minutes.

Any guesses, folks??

[Darryl]

How about an aircraft that is coming towards you for the 15 - 20 minutes with its landing lights on which is much further away than you thought and then makes a turn, or turns its landing lights out. Being twilight you may not see any navigational lights especially if its quite some distance from you. It would appear stationary if it was coming straight towards you until it got relatively close to your position.

You could also fire up a planetarium program and enter the date, time, direction you observed the UFO (doesn't mean extraterrestrial) and see what may have been in that vicinity.

I put my bet on the aircraft scenario.

[Blue Fire]

Thanks for replying, Darryl! But I am strongly doubting an aircraft. First, my friend watched it for 10 to 15 minutes. I saw it for another 5 minutes. It didn't move, and I saw it through binoculars - I would think I would have noticed the other lights of the aircraft if it was one. And for an aircraft with lights that bright, I would think I would have heard something.

Also, it is important to note that this light was very high in the sky at about 70 to 80 degrees. A plane coming straight at me would have been doing one heck of a dive for 20 minutes! I live in a rural area and there are no big airports around within 40 miles. And for a small airplane coming in to the 3 other small airports, those lights would have been very big and I would have heard the plane.

Finally, my friend lives 7 miles away and we agreed on the position of it. If it was moving, I have to wonder what the chances are that its trajectory was just right for neither of us to notice movement.

Sign me still mystified.

[dmill1220]

Originally Posted by Blue Fire

Hi all! I haven't posted here in quite a while, but I've just seen something that has me mystified. I got a call from a friend who is a casual sky observer asking me about a star he was looking at. It was twilight in our area (Western New York state) and there were no other stars visible in the sky which was clear. He'd been watching this thing for 15-20 minutes. So, the time frame is from about 8:20 p.m. (Eastern time) to about 8:45 p.m. He asked if it was Venus. I replied that it couldn't be because Venus was below the horizon. I went outside to look and readily saw what he was watching. Then I went back inside, grabbed my binocs, and had a quick look at it before it faded from view altogether.

Nearest I can tell is that this star was in the vicinity of Psi Ursa Major high in the northeast. It did not move so we ruled out aircraft. From the quick look I got through my binoculars before it faded, I thought I detected what looked to be small wisps of smoke very near the object. Anyway, this thing was quite bright - I'd estimate its magnitude to be brighter than Saturn currently, but a bit dimmer than Jupiter. Note that this was in a still fairly bright sky in which I could see no other stars yet.

Could it have been a variable star? Or a supernova? I ruled out meteors and falling space junk since the light was steady and stationary. I don't think it could be an iridium flare since I understand they don't flare for 15 to 20 minutes.

Any guesses, folks??

Hi Bluefire,

Jeez the only explanation that I can come up is that you managed to see the setting Sun, light up a Geosynchronous satellite.

I can only come to this conclusion due to three observations you made.

1) the object appeared almost overhead.
2) at twilight or after the sun has set in your horizon, any satellite in geosynchronous orbit, almost directly above you, may have just possibly reflected the setting suns light.
3) the object you observed from two different although close baselines did not appear to move after quite a while of observation.

I haven't checked Mercury's Position, and anyway that couldn't be what you saw.
It sounds like its too far away from the Sun to be the cause, have you checked the Heavens Above web site to see what satellite could have been in that position at that time?


Dennis.

[Blue Fire]

Thanks Dennis! I had forgotten about the Heavens Above website. As you say, a geosynchronous satellite being lit by the setting sun does seem to be a best fit. But I couldn't find any sats at Heavens Above that exactly matched what I saw. However, the Cosmos 1143 Rocket did pass through very close to the position I estimated. But it's listed appearance was an hour later that what I saw, it's magnitude wasn't as near as bright, and the charts show that it was moving fairly fast (about 5 minutes from horizon to horizon).

Oh, well,... [sigh]

[dmill1220]

Originally Posted by Blue Fire

Thanks Dennis! I had forgotten about the Heavens Above website. As you say, a geosynchronous satellite being lit by the setting sun does seem to be a best fit. But I couldn't find any sats at Heavens Above that exactly matched what I saw. However, the Cosmos 1143 Rocket did pass through very close to the position I estimated. But it's listed appearance was an hour later that what I saw, it's magnitude wasn't as near as bright, and the charts show that it was moving fairly fast (about 5 minutes from horizon to horizon).

Oh, well,... [sigh]

Bluefire,
It still could have been a satellite or space junk, not all satellites are listed since some are Classified and are considered to be a national security issue, especially after the Chinese shot down one of their own that was at least 500 miles up!.
As far as the Russian cosmos rocket positional data, that one is out.

[Blue Fire]

Dennis,
Thanks, if it was a Classified satellite, perhaps I should cease and desist and keep my mouth shut. Wouldn't want draw undue attention to myself as a security threat.

[dmill1220]

HI Bluefire,

I doubt that very much, LOL
IF its a Geosynchronous satellite, you should be able to spot it again as the sun sets.

More than likely its just space junk, moving very slowly.
I would think if it were a super nova the current search by all the worlds telescopes for GRB's should have caught something that bright. or may its those damn aliens again. we may never know, and I find circumstances like that frustrating.

Dennis

[Blue Fire]

Originally Posted by dmill1220

HI Bluefire,

IF its a Geosynchronous satellite, you should be able to spot it again as the sun sets.
. . .
Dennis

Nope, we haven't seen it again. Perhaps it was moved to a slightly different orbit to avoid being seen again by prying eyes like mine. I did get excited for a minute or two just now as I ran across the announcement for Tiny Star Unleashes Huge Explosion:

A tiny star recently unleashed what is considered the brightest burst of light ever seen in the universe from a normal star, astronomers announced today. Shining with only 1 percent of the sun's light and boasting just a third of the sun's mass, this run-of-the-mill star previously was nothing to write home about. On April 25, the red dwarf star, known as EV Lacertae, unleashed a mega-flare, packing the power of thousands of solar flares.

But alas, April 25 is a might earlier than May 5 and EV Lacertae is not near psi ursa major. Sigh. Whatever it was, it was certainly cool anyway.