Any Idea What I Saw In The Sky?

[MichaelSonicBoomGeil]

Ive scoured the internet for answers and I havent the faintest idea what I observed. Several weeks ago near the constellation Hydra I saw what looked like a star that suddenly appeared, dilated larger than other stars, and recessed at the same speed it formed until it disappeared. It never moved, it was perfectly round, it was a white light that was very solid, and the time it took to expand was about 2 seconds which was the same it took to recess. I could liken it to the effect of a light house from a distance. I would love to have any idea what this was. Every detail about this was eerily perfect and smooth. Well now that I mentioned the light house effect I wonder; could it have been a pulsar that caused this? What are the chances that this is what I saw?

[Turtle]

Ive scoured the internet for answers and I havent the faintest idea what I observed. Several weeks ago near the constellation Hydra I saw what looked like a star that suddenly appeared, dilated larger than other stars, and recessed at the same speed it formed until it disappeared. It never moved, it was perfectly round, it was a white light that was very solid, and the time it took to expand was about 2 seconds which was the same it took to recess. I could liken it to the effect of a light house from a distance. I would love to have any idea what this was. Every detail about this was eerily perfect and smooth. Well now that I mentioned the light house effect I wonder; could it have been a pulsar that caused this? What are the chances that this is what I saw?

 

where and when did you make the observation? could have been an aircraft briefly heading directly toward you.

[MichaelSonicBoomGeil]

Unfortunately, I cant verify exactly the time, just that it was within that constellation. I observed it merely because I was watching the sky at that time. It was very clear, I was even able to see a satellite cruising the outter atmosphere. I can say for certain that the event took place beyond the solar system. It was also within about 20 degrees from directly above me so there was no atmospheric interference.

[Turtle]

Unfortunately, I cant verify exactly the time, just that it was within that constellation. I observed it merely because I was watching the sky at that time. It was very clear, I was even able to see a satellite cruising the outter atmosphere. I can say for certain that the event took place beyond the solar system. It was also within about 20 degrees from directly above me so there was no atmospheric interference.

 

20º from the zenith does make it unlikely you saw an aircraft headed toward you. there is always atmospheric disturbance regardless of the angle of viewing, including straight up. your "certainty" is no evidence of distance by any scientific measure. other possibilities include an iridium (or other) satellite flare -Iridium Flares- or a meteor coming directly toward you. you can review records for these satellites, but you need to know the time with some reasonable accuracy.

 

barring some manner of concrete evidence one can only say that you saw a light in the sky. rather a common occurence that. keep looking up!

[MichaelSonicBoomGeil]

20º from the zenith does make it unlikely you saw an aircraft headed toward you. there is always atmospheric disturbance regardless of the angle of viewing, including straight up. your "certainty" is no evidence of distance by any scientific measure. other possibilities include an iridium (or other) satellite flare -Iridium Flares- or a meteor coming directly toward you. you can review records for these satellites, but you need to know the time with some reasonable accuracy.

 

barring some manner of concrete evidence one can only say that you saw a light in the sky. rather a common occurence that. keep looking up!

 

Youre right about my certainty,and I wish I knew exactly when this occurred. I recall looking up reports the night of and several nights later but I cant find my search history that had the exact time of occurrance. I suppose I will look into those possibilities to see if the details match up. Thanks for the input.

[Qfwfq]

...dilated larger than other stars,

If you mean this in the sense of actual angular size, not just due to brightness, then it wasn't very far away at all. It was definitely not any kind of star, it could hardly have been outside the solar system and likely wasn't very far out of the terrestrial atmosphere (if not within it).

 

The above means that placing it in Hydra says little without specifying the position you were sighting from.

[CraigD]

Welcome to hypography, Michael, and thanks for watching the night sky! :)

I saw what looked like a star that suddenly appeared, dilated larger than other stars, and recessed at the same speed it formed until it disappeared.

...

Well now that I mentioned the light house effect I wonder; could it have been a pulsar that caused this? What are the chances that this is what I saw?

I think the chances are effectively zero.

 

Were a rotation-powered pulsar – the kind with much of their output in the visible band – visible to the naked eye from Earth, it wouldn’t appear to grow slowly brighter/larger, then dimmer/smaller one time only, but would flash very briefly at a regular rate (the fastest know rate is about 1 flash each 0.0014 seconds, the slowest 1 per 8.4), like a strobe light. The other kinds of pulsars emit most of their light in non-visible bands, though their periods can be much longer than the rotating kind. No known pulsar is known to be nearly bright enough to be visible to the naked eye on from Earth, and were one so near, it would have easily been discovered.

 

The lighthouse analogy often used to describe rotating pulsars illustrates that they sweep a narrow beam in a circle, like the focused beam of a rotating-beacon lighthouse, not that one would really look like a lighthouse beacon if it were close enough to see.

[roadglue]

Last year i saw something similar.I think it was around march/april in the north eastern sky around 11am uk time.

I saw what i thought was a morning star,the sky was very clear that day.

Then over about 20 seconds it became maybe 3 or 4 times larger and brighter and i was a bit worried for some reason :).Then over the same period it faded until it was just a pin prick and poof it was gone.

No idea what it was and it didn't seem to be moving just growing and shrinking to my eyes.I've seen many planes glinting in the sun but this was completely different.

Obviously there is a very normal unexciting explanation but i just don't 100% know what it was.

[Moontanman]

I was actually lucky enough to be sky watching with a powerful set of binoculars one night when I saw one of those flares, it looked like a green light at first but suddenly if flared up very bright , it actually looked like a door opening in a house with a bright light in in it. I did some investigating and I think it might have flare from a solar panel of the ISS...

[Village Idiot]

 

I would love to have any idea what this was.

 

Do you suppose it was just a rotating laser for visual guidance to a synchronous satellite?

[Lancewen]

I've never seen a stationary light appear and disappear in the sky, but I did see a light appear shortly after dusk and watched it move at about the speed of a plane, but after about 10 seconds it faded out altogether. I figured it had to be a satellite that moved through a patch of sky that allowed me to see reflected light from the sun.

[CraigD]

Do you suppose it was just a rotating laser for visual guidance to a synchronous satellite?

I've never heard of such a thing, Heedless. Do you have a reference to an example of one?

[Village Idiot]

I've never heard of such a thing, Heedless. Do you have a reference to an example of one?

 

Never heard of it either. But more than a few years ago, I noticed a flash up in the blue sky, and saw it repeat, I forget how soon, in a regular fashion. From my chair in the living room, that flash was always available to my gaze. In case it was a laser that could snuff my sight by one receptor at a time, I moved my chair. Living less than half-way to the North Pole, it was near due South maybe 30 degrees high. Will get back to you if I can find it again, but am nearly a shut-in now, and have trees overgrown.