I saw something strange tonight

[Starkler (Geoff)]

I'm sure someone will tell me that I'm crazy.....

I had my scope trained on the the Pavo glob (ngc6752) this evening and saw something strange. Inside the extent of the glob and to western side of the core, I saw a flash which lasted for about 0.5 seconds.

This flash looked like a star that was a few magnitudes brighter than any in the globular itself. What could this be?

Could this be something real or are rod cells in the eye known to "pop off" giving a flash to the viewer?

In case I discovered something, it was at 11.05pm this evening

[astroron (Ron)]

It could be a cosmic ray? I also saw a a flash when observing the group of galaxies which contain Ngc 87/88 from the Herchel list from Glenc.
Most professional astronomers will tell you thats most probably what it was

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Very strange ? If it was a supernovae it would continue to glow, a chance alignment with a sattellite perhaps ?

[Lee]

I didn't think a retina was sensitive to cosmic rays??? They leave marks on CCD images, but didn't think they were a visual phenomenom.... anyone???

[robagar]

didn't the apollo astronauts report seeing flashes of light, which were put down to cosmic rays going off inside their eyeballs? Never heard of them being visible from down here though - or is it possible to see a flash as they hit something in the upper atmosphere to make a particle shower?

[ving (David)]

geostationary satelite?

[Glenn Dawes]

Hi Starkler,

My 2c worth (hang on it's got to be at least 5c my now, just based on inflation!) is a point meteor.

I used to photograph the sky a lot using normal wide field camera lenses looking for novae and I would pickup a couple a night at least. I would swear it was real 'star' until I checked my duplicate image (I would take them in pairs, 6 min exposures one after the other) and nothing would be there.

Point meteors are common around the radiant of a meteor shower (when it is on). Now I haven't heard of the "Pavids", but who knows, the southern skies are not monitored as much as the north - you might have discovered a new one (I know somewhat of a stretch!)

Regards

Glenn

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by Glenn Dawes

Hi Starkler,

My 2c worth (hang on it's got to be at least 5c my now, just based on inflation!) is a point meteor.

Now this explanation makes sense as a possibility
The alternative was accepting that I'm loosing my mind. Thanks Glenn

I didn't think it could be a satelite as I would have seen a gradual change of brightness and it didnt move during the time that I saw it.

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

I have seen similar while not looking through a telescope, I put it down to Glenns theory. With a variance though, it could have just been a sporatic meteor which caused it.

[drmorbius (Randall)]

I reckon it's got something to do with aliens... yeah... definitely aliens...

[Gargoyle_Steve (Steve)]

You accidentally intercepted a point-to-point, ultra narrow angle laser communications beam carrying a military cipher with 10Mbit encryption ....... and having now absorbed the base data from this Slondarryan Battle Fleet Tactical Ops Plan ..... they're gonna find you, they're gonna start probing you!

Brace yourself, here they come!

[astroron (Ron)]

I think you guys should "START" drinking again, then you might just come back down to earth

[CoombellKid]

Originally Posted by plasmodium

I didn't think a retina was sensitive to cosmic rays??? They leave marks on CCD images, but didn't think they were a visual phenomenom.... anyone???

Remembering a recent talk by Dr Brian Schmidt - "Gamma Ray Bursts" at Astrofest QLD 06 .

http://www.qldastrofest.org.au/html/brian_schmidt.htm a forword on his talk

I do remember him saying something like "gamma ray burst can be as
bright as mag 8 and last as long as 1000th of a sec to 1000 x 1 second. So
it could be quite possible to catch one through the scope if you happen to
be looking in the right spot. Although I also remember him saying they
weren't taking visual observations, just CCD images.

Some could probably correct me if I'm wrong, it was a very interesting talk.
Unfortunately I forgot to get my name on the list to be alerted of when
events are happening.

regards,CS sunny days

Rob

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

I would be surprise if someone saw a gamma ray burst (possibly superman excluded) unless there was a visual spectrum burst accompanying it. Visible light frequencies are in the range of 10^15 hertz (400-700 nm) whereas Gamma rays start at 10^19 hertz (0.01 nm) , way beyond xrays.

Also it is unlikely to be a cosmic ray as these are in fact the naked nuclei of atoms moving with the energy of 10^20 eV. When a cosmic ray strikes the earths inert gaseous atmosphere the end resultant particle is a muon (travelling at near relativistic velocities ) . Because of their weekly interacting nature these muons have a high potential of reaching the surface where they are detected with bubble chambers or scintillation detectors. (I actually learnt something at Uni this year ) and other ionizing radiation detectors. (eg photographic film and ccd detectors , these guys will also detect cosmic rays if the particles don't hit any atoms in the atmoshere first )

[robagar]

apparently, a cosmic ray particle going faster than the speed of light *in air* does generate a flash of light, by the Cerenkov effect. But it's too dim to see without a very large scope and a very dark night.