Possible Stellar Encounter/Outburst

[Rick Petrie]

Whilst viewing tuc47 this evening 24/8/2008 at 11.01 pm AEST I noted a bright outburst within the globular cluster just outside the central core.
The outburst only lasted for about 3 seconds and was bright orange in color.
Would like to know if anyone else saw this event or imaged it.It was quite spectacularly bright.

[Phil]

Wow nice to no what it was.
Phil

[bojan]

Optical component of GRB????? WOW..
No. they are not happening in globulars.. or do they?

Edit:
Perhaps it was a reflection from some satellite? those mylar wrappings they are using is orange in colour...

[avandonk]

It was probably a sporadic micro meteor coming straight at you. No stellar phenomena last a matter of seconds apart from occultations. Many years ago I thought for about 10 sec that a supernova had appeared while I was watching. But then it started to wobble. It must have been a meteor coming down my line of sight. I was too perplexed to even duck.

Bert

[Rick Petrie]

Gamma ray burst- maybe not, but if it was a reflection from a geostationary satellite, wouldn't that happen on a regular basis from the same position? . Being so bright,pinpoint and stationary I don't think any reflection would have come from an orbiting satellite as it would have moved across the field of view.
I'm still trying to fathom it also.:shrug:




If a micro meteor was coming straight at me and not moving off course, how many million to one chances of that happening are? I think I'll go and buy a few lottery tickets.;)

[bojan]

I would not if I were you... because with this event, you already had your share of good luck for this decade :-)

[Outbackmanyep]

It sounds like a meteor as avondonk said, i saw HEAPS of them during the Eta Aquarids this year, i was surprised at how many i saw as just point flashes of light.....

[MrB]

Nah, it was some Alien punk kid with a laserpointer.

[Kal]

hahahaha, this gave me a good laugh! :lol:

:astron::jawdrop::scared3:

[Inmykombi]

I just read an article in the latest Sky and Telescope about " Gravitational micro-lensing "

In my opinion and from all the facts I have from Rick, this is quite a possible scenario in this case.

My understanding is that when a strong Gravity sorurce moves in front ( or is positioned in front of ) a background object, the light from the background object becomes distorted, or even can brighten many magnitudes significantly in a shrot period of time depending on the speed of the gravity source in the foreground which could move in front of the object behind.

Reff: Article on pages 34 to 38 of Australian Sky and Telescope....October Issue.

I can see no reason why this sort of event can be discounted from Ricks observation.
If we take into account the fact that a Globular Clutser has approx. 500,000 to 1 Million + stars in it, and knowing that most if not all maybe older type stars, I can see no reason why we can discount a strong gravity source such as a brown dwarf or other, that could move in front of a brighter star and cause this micro-lensing effect. especially when these clusters are so dense with stars.

The micro lensing effect then could cause a brighteneing of the background star if it were alligned perfectly with our eye and the gravity source in the fore ground.

This is only a suggestion. Maybe someone else has an explanation other than this or a micro-meteorite that others have suggested, and which I think is not the case.

I for one, love visual observing of Globs anyway, and keeping a keen eye on them in the future will not be a difficult task for me.

My advise is, keep lookin' Rick and keep reporting your observations.

Cheers mate.

Geoffro.