Bright flare in the sky

[GazzMeister]

Good evening all

I was just setting up a celestron with sky align about 5 mins ago and when I looked up after finding alpha crux, I saw a really bright light to wards the south east. The flash was stationary and it faded too fast to slew the scope to. What would this have been? It was (I guess, in noob terms) around as bright as jupiter if not brighter.

Any hints?:shrug:

Gareth

[Mick]

Probably an Iridium flare. :thumbsup:

[Blue Skies]

Check here: Heavens-Above (http://www.heavens-above.com). You should be able to check flares in the last 24 hours and it will show up. It wouldn't have been stationary, they do move slowly, though.

[GazzMeister]

Thanks for the replies people

I guess that it must have been 07 Aug18:41:47 (http://www.heavens-above.com/flaredetails.asp?SatID=25172&Session=kebgcapamdijcodmcalnmjpn&Date=39301.3623516067&Mirror=2)-450°150° (SSE)12.2 km (E)-8Iridium 50 (http://www.heavens-above.com/satinfo.asp?SatID=25172&Session=kebgcapamdijcodmcalnmjpn)

It seems to have been at around the same time and area. That's the first time I've seen anything like that. It was unexpected and pretty impressive. I must have just thought it was stationary, because it freaked me out a little bit, I thought I might have been witness to some huge cosmic event!

Thanks for clearing up the confusion.

[Blue Skies]

A -8! No wonder it startled you.

[radu5er]

G'day GazzMeister

I think I may have seen the same thing last night. I was looking at the pointers and the Crux with just my eyes (both of them :P ) and it just flashed away.

It was quite startling.

Cheers,