small bright flash

wylo

I was looking up on Friday evening and just to the right of the last star of the big dipper there was a tiny flash, the flash was a tiny bit bigger than an average star, but not too much, and was still very noticeable. I would say from start to finish it was about 1.5 to 2 seconds long.

It didnt give off any light beyond its own size. And it really didnt look like a shooting star as it didnt go anywhere or have any direction, but then again I dont know what criteria make up a shooting star exactly, and it wasnt a twinkle of another star coming into my vision or anything like . It was quite distinct and obvious.

Any ideas what it may have been?
Cheers!

namloc1980

Iridium flare perhaps?

BobbyPropane

Space Station is floating around recently

wylo

thanks for the help folks, having googled and youtubed Iridium Flare Id say that what it was alright, the timing and flash intensity seem around the same, the only thing I didnt spot was the satellite continuing on, but I guess some of that would have been to do with haziness/city lights in the distance not giving a clear view

Cheers!

TaosHum

wylo wrote: »

thanks for the help folks, having googled and youtubed Iridium Flare Id say that what it was alright, the timing and flash intensity seem around the same, the only thing I didnt spot was the satellite continuing on, but I guess some of that would have been to do with haziness/city lights in the distance not giving a clear view

Cheers!

Was this at about 11 at night? Think I saw the same thing.

Cú Giobach

If you put your location in here Heavens Above you can see if a Flare was visible from there at the very time you were looking.

ollie103

If it was after 11.30 pm on Friday (10 Aug) then it was the ISS - very bright as it passed across the sky at a (relatively) high altitude, moveing from west to east. This pass was much longer than a few seconds though - I'd guess that the brightest time for the pass was around 30 - 40 seconds.

wylo

Thanks Cu, unfortunately Im too late to check Friday ,unless theres another option other than 'previous 48 hours'

Ollie, it was just one distinct flash, Ive seen the ISS pass over a few times. But Ill have a look on that site anway. Thanks!

Cú Giobach

wylo wrote: »

Thanks Cu, unfortunately Im too late to check Friday ,unless theres another option other than 'previous 48 hours'

Ollie, it was just one distinct flash, Ive seen the ISS pass over a few times. But Ill have a look on that site anway. Thanks!

After clicking on Previous 48 hours If you look at the top right you'll see options for | Home | Prev. | Next | Help |
Prev. will bring you back to Thursday. Good luck.
You also have to put your location in pretty accurately, as a few miles either way makes a difference with these flares.

wylo

Thanks again, I think I may have found it...
http://www.heavens-above.com/flaredetails.asp?SatID=27374&lat=52.67314&lng=-8.60386&alt=0&loc=Unspecified&TZ=GMT&Date=41131.9638895476&Mirror=0

The only thing Im a bit stuck on is the altitude, I would have thought it was more than 35 degrees, but maybe thats about right.

Great site, I just learned for the first time how to actually find a point in the sky. Im gonna see can I spot more of these in the near future!!

You learn something new every day.


edit: I notice it seems about 30 degrees off actually. I thought I put in my location pretty accurately but ill give it another try.

Cú Giobach

wylo wrote: »

Thanks again, I think I may have found it...
http://www.heavens-above.com/flaredetails.asp?SatID=27374&lat=52.67314&lng=-8.60386&alt=0&loc=Unspecified&TZ=GMT&Date=41131.9638895476&Mirror=0

The only thing Im a bit stuck on is the altitude, I would have thought it was more than 35 degrees, but maybe thats about right.

Great site, I just learned for the first time how to actually find a point in the sky. Im gonna see can I spot more of these in the near future!!

You learn something new every day.

Unfortunately I don't think that was it, the one you linked to was at 08:00 ie 8am.
There were two on fri night/sat morning at 11:56 pm and 12:08 am respectively from that location, but none earlier on Fri evening.

It could also have been a glint off a random (tumbling) satellite or space debris.

wylo

Thats weird, I thought 00:08:00 meant 12:08am, hence that link made sense to me, i.e. the 4th one down is the one I linked and the time sounds about right..http://www.heavens-above.com/iridium.asp?lat=52.67308&lng=-8.60391&alt=0&loc=Unspecified&TZ=GMT&Date=41130.4373333333&Dur=2


EDIT: apologies for the confusion, I just re read my OP and I noticed I said Friday evening, it wasnt the evening, it was much later at night, I should have been more accurate there!!

Cú Giobach

wylo wrote: »

Thats weird, I thought 00:08:00 meant 12:08am, hence that link made sense to me, i.e. the 4th one down is the one I linked and the time sounds about right..http://www.heavens-above.com/iridium.asp?lat=52.67308&lng=-8.60391&alt=0&loc=Unspecified&TZ=GMT&Date=41130.4373333333&Dur=2


EDIT: apologies for the confusion, I just re read my OP and I noticed I said Friday evening, it wasnt the evening, it was much later at night, I should have been more accurate there!!

FFS I read that totally wrong, stupidly. Sorry about that.
Looks like you got it alright. It's a nice buzz finding out these things isn't it.

wylo

hehe, I certainly didnt help things.

Yea its pretty cool alright, nice to be able to work this stuff out and it referencing something you can actually witness in the sky. Gonna definitely try and "predict" another one.

tricky D

Sounds like a Perseid to me. Coming out of the east around the right area, right of the Dipper, right time.

The ISS doesn't get as far up as the Dipper, it's never north of overhead.

Maudi

Cú Giobach wrote: »

wylo wrote: »

Thanks again, I think I may have found it...
http://www.heavens-above.com/flaredetails.asp?SatID=27374&lat=52.67314&lng=-8.60386&alt=0&loc=Unspecified&TZ=GMT&Date=41131.9638895476&Mirror=0

The only thing Im a bit stuck on is the altitude, I would have thought it was more than 35 degrees, but maybe thats about right.

Great site, I just learned for the first time how to actually find a point in the sky. Im gonna see can I spot more of these in the near future!!

You learn something new every day.

Unfortunately I don't think that was it, the one you linked to was at 08:00 ie 8am.
There were two on fri night/sat morning at 11:56 pm and 12:08 am respectively from that location, but none earlier on Fri evening.

It could also have been a glint off a random (tumbling) satellite or space debris.

Ive seen similiar flashes of praps a second or so and put them down to tumbleing debris.

jfSDAS

It's a real thrill to suddenly see a glint from an Iridium Flare or catch an unexpected brightening from debris as you have Maudi.

This time of year sees a lot of satellite sightings because the Earth's shadow cast into space is low in the sky, meaning more objects in orbit are illuminated by the sun. During the winter months the Earth's umbra is higher in the sky. This leads to fewer satellites seen because when most are above the local horizon they are completely in shadow.

A good primer, beside the Heavens-Above site, can be found at http://www.satobs.org/ -- there are also tons of links at http://www.hobbyspace.com/SatWatching/

keep looking up

John