[knightrider]

Lastnight out observing in the freezing at sometime between 8:30-9:00 PM EST...

I saw I bright star under the southern cross in the Musca constellation, I only noticed it after I looked up from fiddling with the scope and thought "that's odd I don't remember a bright star there".

It wasn't moving, so not a satellite. It was bright, not as bright as canopus or sirius, but about a tad brighter than acrux.

It lasted a few seconds after I saw it. I saw it start to fade in magnitude and after about 3 seconds it was gone. Quick enough to be mesmerized in wonder and be gone by the time I thought to grab the binoculars.

Given the full moon, it extincted most normally visible stars from the sky, so I used the binos and telescope to spot what star it may have been.
It's position in the sky, it was either HIP 62608 or HIP 61199, but more likely the latter (HIP 61199). I can't be certain which one but it was definitely within those stars proximity.

Now I know supernovae last several days/weeks etc. So it couldn't be that.
Apart from that I cannot think what else it can be. Satellites move across the sky, be it slow or fast, but this wasn't moving. I'm unaware of stars increasing dramatically and decreasing dramatically in magnitude within a matter of minutes or seconds.

Ideas?

It's got be baffled. Interested to see if anyone else observed this.