Bright Star Then Disappeared?

[Katyfoz]

I went fishing with my boyfriend the other night, and at about 11 o'clock I was laying on the bed chair looking up at the sky and I noticed this light in the sky, looked like a star, get really bright for about 3 seconds, and then start to fade out until, after about 5 or 6 seconds, it disappeared totally from site, it didn't move from where it was and I can not seem to work out what it was?? But about 2 hours later, it happened again, but in a different place in the sky? What was this!!!!

[Buffy]

Welcome to Hypography Katyfoz!

 

While it's possible that what you saw was a supernova, they typically are not visible to the naked eye. This is a link to recent ones registered with the International Astronomical Union but if you look at the Mag. (magnitude) column you'll see they're mostly in the 15-20 range, and that magnitude needs to get close to zero to be able to see it with your naked eye.

 

Alternatively, the most likely explanation is atmospheric conditions: changes in air pressure caused by the wind can refract light, magnifying it and causing it to become bright for short periods. This is actually the phenomenon that gave us "twinkle, twinkle little star" although in your case, what you saw was probably a more extreme form of this that actually can do large magnifications.

 

One more possibility is that objects in orbit can tumble at slow rates, and reflecting sunlight back at the earth. If it is high enough, it won't appear to move, but also the further out it is the less bright it will be, and so less likely to see. This is probably not what you saw because it's very hard to get the right conditions.

 

Of course it could have been the Greys on their way to capture and torture some poor cow, but I'm not one of those people who believes such things happen as the data is so far inconclusive.

 

 

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers, :phones:

Buffy

[sanctus]

It could also just have been an iridium flare...always wanted to see one, if you wanna compare what you saw to an expected one, here is a wikihow on how to spot one: http://www.wikihow.com/Find-an-Iridium-Flare

[Deepwater6]

Might have been the (ISS) International Space Station. There are loads of websites that will give you fly-over time schedules if you look them up. I go to -  [email protected]   and it emails my phone with the time, incoming direction and degrees of the fly over. It looks like a bright star moving across the sky. Really cool, I try to catch it whenever possibly. Tons of other stuff flying up there too if your willing to take the time and look.