mystery light

[Pete59]

I am in Texas in southern Queensland and was just talking to a person who saw a very bright light in the north west about 8.00pm.they had been watching it for about 15 minutes.It was oval shaped and had what appeared to be 3 tails coming out from it.If anyone has any idea what this was please let me know.:eyepop:

[Bobj]

Tell him to leave the plonk alone and concentrate on fishing for the yellowbelly in Glen Lyon dam.

[ving]

twas a 3 tailed oval thingy... nfi.

[[1ponders]]

How bright is bright? The only thing astronomical I coulds find for that time in the NW were the Pleiades cluster (Venus was long gone). The Pleiades could easily be mistaken for a comet or similar the first time you notice it. They look kinda oval with a tail.

[MortonH]

Wouldn't be a combination of Venus and eyes playing tricks, would it?

You know that weird effect you can get when you forget to breathe???

Morton

[dcnicholls]

Could either be the "Min Min lights" or Venus.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s818193.htm

Venus can look quite weird when bright and very low in the sky, under the right weather conditions. I once drove across the Hay Plains in the wee small hours of the morning and saw this amazing bright light haning over the eastern horizon. Nothing like Venus normally looks. I knew it had to be Venus, but it took half an hour of watching it (and the 'roos on the road), to convince myself it was Venus.

The Min Min lights are(AFAIK) only seen in Queensland. I wonder if they have anything to do with the XXXX beer? ;)

DN

[jjjnettie]

Did they see it just the once or is it visable every night?

[spacezebra]

I had never heard of the Min Min Lights - many thanks for the post - very interesting.

Cheers Petra

[Pete59]

it might have been a group of stars but they said it was sort of pulsating.
this is not the only strange thing they have seen.something happened a few years back too.

[Chrissyo]

Pulsating? That could just be the bubbling/twinkling of stars through the atmosphere.

[firstlight]

Or perhaps the exhaust plume of a high altitude jet lit up by a spectacular sunset over the horizon?... Just a thought. Saw something similar once, thats what it was.

Tony

[jjjnettie]

Brighter stars close to the horizon tend to "pulse", their brightness can vary tremendously. Their colour changes as well, from white to red to green to yellow etc. I think it's called atmospheric abberation.
It also explains away a lot of UFO sightings.