unusual object !

Hey folks was out looking at iss lastnite and after that I seen something

very unusall going west to east, best way I can describe it was like a very

bright flare, white in colour and moving VERY fast if this makes any sense,

about 12.40, anyone else see it, what was it?

Derek.

Yes.
Join the club!
:laugh:

(check and see were there any predicted Iridium Flares for then)

I saw something very similar to you although it stayed a constant brightnessand also something else on
another night that flared in a stationary position.
see here:
www.irishastronomy.org/forum?func=view&catid=21&id=79255

So over the last few nights,
Terry Mosely and I witnessed on two separate nights the 'stationary' 'flare'
and Yourself, My Mother, My wife and I saw the 'fast' one.

Interesting...

what are iridium flares :blush:

I deffinately dont think this was a sattelite because of speed and it was so so bright

also it was pritty long like it had tail of some sort, pritty cool :bigshock:

Ah OK.
It sounds like it may have been a meteor then if it had a 'tail'.
Bright white you say?

Iridium Flares are just
reflections of the sun off the solar panels from one
of the 'Iridium' network of satellites.
Usually you'd just see what looks like your regular
satellite moving along and then it will 'Flare up' in magnitude (brightness).


They are predictable and you can get a list of times
of when these will be passing by going to the Heavens Above website
and putting in your location.

Here's a long exposure shot of one I took last year to give you an Idea.



Here is an animation of what one looks like form Wikipedia:


What I saw on both occasions were neither.

ok I looked at the animation so it wasnt an iridium flare,

most likely a meteor, now iv seen lots of these but none as bright as this one

but ya I think you are right a meteor:)