strange things in the sky

burgermasters

Has anybody noticed strange star like things in the night sky over the last couple of weeks? They look like stars at first but then they shoot across the sky at
Massive speed changing direction at times and when there is one there is always two or three?? My wife and I have been seeing these things every night for the last two weeks?? Any one any idea what these things are? Don't normally take this kinda thing for real?

b318isp

Probablty the Perseids meteor shower which runs from 3rd week of July through 3rd week of August roughly. They are supposed to be quite pronounced this year.

Corkfeen

Yep, it's a meteor shower, spotted a few the other night.We just generally have a clear sky to spot these events.

kbbucks

Spotted something odd myself over Cork (well Carrigaline to be specific) about an hour ago. A bright white light travelling from West to East at a relatively slow speed. At first I thought it was a satellite - I watch these on clear nights when out in the garden smoking, but it was moving too slowly to be one and it gradually got brighter for about a minute as it moved across the sky - it then stayed at a constant intensity until it got close to the far horizon. The intensity was that of a helicopter search light pointing at us in the distance. It wasn't a helicopter or an airplane as it didn't move as you would expect either to (plus no flashing lights) - we are also only about 8 miles from Cork airport so are well used to both. We've also seen plenty of Chinese Lanterns in the past and it was not one of those
Definitely not a meteor!
An odd one really, anyone else spot it in the Cork area tonight, around 22:10?

Woodville56

kbbucks wrote: »

Spotted something odd myself over Cork (well Carrigaline to be specific) about an hour ago. A bright white light travelling from West to East at a relatively slow speed. At first I thought it was a satellite - I watch these on clear nights when out in the garden smoking, but it was moving too slowly to be one and it gradually got brighter for about a minute as it moved across the sky - it then stayed at a constant intensity until it got close to the far horizon.

? possibly the orbiting International Space station ? Astronomy Ireland says ISS is visible over Ireland August 5th - 21st - this is their schedule for tonight 7th August :
10:16pm: See ISS relatively low but bright in the South.
11:52pm: This will be an even brighter pass of the ISS as it glides through the sky about halfway up in the sky - be sure to see this one!
http://www.astronomy.ie/iss.php

kbbucks

Woodville56 wrote: »

possibly the orbiting International Space station ? Astronomy Ireland says ISS is visible over Ireland August 5th - 21st - this is their schedule for tonight 7th August :
10:16pm: See ISS relatively low but bright in the South.
11:52pm: This will be an even brighter pass of the ISS as it glides through the sky about halfway up in the sky - be sure to see this one!
http://www.astronomy.ie/iss.php

It must be I suppose, was around that time - I didn't think the ISS could be so bright though - I'll pop out again 15mins for another look.

kbbucks

kbbucks wrote: »

It must be I suppose, was around that time - I didn't think the ISS could be so bright though - I'll pop out again 15mins for another look.

That was it alright, just saw it going past again - pretty impressive. I presume it's not always that bright?

bobwilliams

kbbucks wrote: »

That was it alright, just saw it going past again - pretty impressive. I presume it's not always that bright?

was that it flashing every few seconds,also saw a meteor about 5 to 12 due south about 45 degree

Woodville56

the Iss generally is quite bright , doesn't flash, just a steady very bright light moving at speed across the sky - see Astronomy Ireland website for direction/elevation etc

kbbucks

bobwilliams wrote: »

was that it flashing every few seconds,also saw a meteor about 5 to 12 due south about 45 degree

The flashing one's are apparently old iridium satelites, the glare of the sun catches their sides as they rotate slowly - I've seen the one you saw a good few times, generally sometime between 23:15 & 00:30 especially during the summer months on a clear night (although I'm open to correction on that!)

The ISS was a constant bright light passing more or less directly overhead (in Cork anyway) at 23:52.

the_syco

kbbucks wrote: »

Spotted something odd myself over Cork (well Carrigaline to be specific) about an hour ago. A bright white light travelling from West to East at a relatively slow speed. At first I thought it was a satellite - I watch these on clear nights when out in the garden smoking, but it was moving too slowly to be one and it gradually got brighter for about a minute as it moved across the sky - it then stayed at a constant intensity until it got close to the far horizon. The intensity was that of a helicopter search light pointing at us in the distance. It wasn't a helicopter or an airplane as it didn't move as you would expect either to (plus no flashing lights) - we are also only about 8 miles from Cork airport so are well used to both. We've also seen plenty of Chinese Lanterns in the past and it was not one of those
Definitely not a meteor!
An odd one really, anyone else spot it in the Cork area tonight, around 22:10?

This is VERY FECKED UP, as the same thing happened in Dublin at around 23:00-23:30 ealier today. An orange flickering light appeared to rise directly up, way too fast for an chinese lanteren, but no noise at all, thus not a plane or chopper. It also went from east to west, and seemed to go fairly fast in a straight line, over us (East Wall area), and it kept going at a decent altitude. The difference, was that this looked like a flickering flame. I'd estimate it was going faster than what a chopper goes at, and maybe as fast as a airplane would go at. Went in a south west to north east direction.

yankinlk

the_syco wrote: »

This is VERY FECKED UP, as the same thing happened in Dublin at around 23:00-23:30 ealier today. An orange flickering light appeared to rise directly up, way too fast for an chinese lanteren, but no noise at all, thus not a plane or chopper. It also went from east to west, and seemed to go fairly fast in a straight line, over us (East Wall area), and it kept going at a decent altitude. The difference, was that this looked like a flickering flame. I'd estimate it was going faster than what a chopper goes at, and maybe as fast as a airplane would go at. Went in a south west to north east direction.

Similar to this seen last night over tipp, roughly same time. I thot it was a Chinese lantern but not sure, dont have any experience ...

ZeRoY

kbbucks wrote: »

I watch these on clear nights when out in the garden smoking

There's your problem! :P :cool:

endacl

http://www.heavens-above.com/

jumpjack

the_syco wrote: »

I'd estimate it was going faster than what a chopper goes at, and maybe as fast as a airplane would go at. Went in a south west to north east direction.

You can't estimate distance and speed of a light dot in the dark sky. It could be 1 mm wide 1 meter from you or 10 meters large 1 km from you...

burgermasters wrote: »

Massive speed changing direction at times and when there is one there is always two or three?? My wife and I have been seeing these things every night for the last two weeks?? Any one any idea what these things are? Don't normally take this kinda thing for real?

Never heard of shooting stars changing direction. :eek:
Quite odd.
Unfortunately no cellphone can take pictures of stars/objects in the night sky, I tried several times using dozens of different programs on different android devices. :mad:

tommy flynn

I was reading the the paper yesterday about being able to see the space station, so i went out at around 10.22pm and saw a bright light, moving across the sky, i thought this was too bright, more like a plane, however just ahead of that light i saw a very faint light moving in the same direction, the distance between them did,nt seem to change, it was as if the bright light was following the faint one....? im guessing the faint light was the space station.

murphyme2010

The Bright light was the ISS.

The faint light was the ATV-5 which is due to dock on 12th August (I think).
The two are slowly playing catch-up (at 18,000 Km/hour).

tommy flynn

murphyme2010 wrote: »

The Bright light was the ISS.

The faint light was the ATV-5 which is due to dock on 12th August (I think).
The two are slowly playing catch-up (at 18,000 Km/hour).

That is so cool, thanks for that, was great to see BOTH of them.