Did anyone else see a star brighten and fade in Musca constellation?

[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.

[acropolite (Phil)]

my guess is an incoming meteor, if it was headed in your direction there would have been no trail.

[LAW (Murphy)]

I've seen exactly the same thing a few months ago, it lasted too long to be a point meteor, but didn't move like a satellite. I figured it must have been a flare off the solar panels of a geosynchronous satellite.

[Terry B]

Interesting.
Very transient star flaring has been reported in the past but are very hard/impossible to verify. You would need an image taken at the time from somewhere else that showed a bright star where you were looking. With the amount of astrophotography occurring now there may well have been someone imaging at that time. Even a very wide field would be suitable. Unfortunately finding that person would be very hard.
More likely was a reflection or a meteor but it is impossible to be certain.

[knightrider]

Originally Posted by LAW

I've seen exactly the same thing a few months ago, it lasted too long to be a point meteor, but didn't move like a satellite. I figured it must have been a flare off the solar panels of a geosynchronous satellite.

I had never heard of this one, but I looked it up and it seems like the only viable explanation.

However http://www.satobs.org/geosats.html points out that:

Typically the satellite will be in the mag. +11 to +14 range (or dimmer), but brightening by several magnitudes when the geometry is favourable (around mag. +5 to +6 is not untypical). One satellite is reported to have briefly been visible to the naked eye at mag. +3 !

.

My guess it hit mag 1.5 at least. Given the full moon flooding out most visible light, this one easily cut through.

[knightrider]

Originally Posted by Terry B

Interesting.
Very transient star flaring has been reported in the past but are very hard/impossible to verify. You would need an image taken at the time from somewhere else that showed a bright star where you were looking. With the amount of astrophotography occurring now there may well have been someone imaging at that time. Even a very wide field would be suitable. Unfortunately finding that person would be very hard.
More likely was a reflection or a meteor but it is impossible to be certain.

A wide field before and after would be perfect...

[Rob_K]

I'd rule out meteors because the observation lasted several seconds. We do see meteors that last that long but they're essentially either tangential to the atmosphere (where no-one anywhere on the surface of the Earth is in the line of trajectory) or larger objects with deeper penetration (where the trajectory is affected by the atmosphere and no one will see it as a static point regardless of the orientation). Any meteor coming directly towards you probably won't be much more than a flash. I know that sightings like this are often put down to meteors but I can't see it myself. The chances of the average observer (as opposed to meteor obsesso) seeing one aren't vanishingly small, but very close to it! Do the maths!

Flare stars are unlikely unless it's a new type. These typically rise to maximum in a few minutes and subside in tens of minutes to hours. See here:
http://www.aavso.org/vsots_uvcet

I reckon the simplest explanation is the best one - a satellite flare or other reflection (from who knows what, something suspended under a weather balloon, etc). If the lat/long in your profile are correct, HeavensAbove didn't show any Iridium flares for your location at that time. Trouble is, people are such bad witnesses - I'm including myself in that too. We've had many bright transient 'stars' reported on IIS - "it didn't move". But often someone's been able to actually show which (moving) satellite it was. I'm worse, I see stars moving when they're patently not!!

As an experiment I've shown Iridium flares to people and asked them afterwards whether the light moved. Without exception the answer has been no. But it did move of course. The reason is that it outshines the neighbourhood and there's nothing to anchor it with. And on a Full Moon night there's even less. If the Iridium satellite was doing a close pass to the Moon or Sirius or Jupiter, the answer could have been different.

Anyway, nice report knightrider, you're obviously right on the ball to see something like this whatever it was, congratulations!

Cheers -

[knightrider]

Very interesting post Rob.

Yes my co-ordinates are accurate. The iridium satellites, are they geosynchronous also?

I'm beginning to favor this explanation as the most likely. Perhaps it was a rogue iridium sat. From extra reading they only have a life of only 5-7 years, and only the operational ones are predictable for the iridium flare paths

[Steffen]

Geostationary satellites can only be positioned above the Earth's equator, hence they won't be seen near the SCP, but somewhere in the North (from Australia anyway).

I have no idea what it could have been, though.

Cheers
Steffen.

[DavidU (Dave)]

Mmmm, interesting. We should put the word out to see if anyone was imaging at the time of the event.

[astroron (Ron)]

Iridium Satellites are not the only satellites that flair.
Most low to medium orbit satellites will flair if they go over the poles and the sun is at the right angle
That you didn't see it move,even though you belatedly got your binoculars, can be explained by the full Moonlit sky.
With possibly quite a few military satellites that's positions are not reported,the chances are that all you saw was a flair from a Satellite.
I have seen plenty of these flairs over the years.
Geostationary satellites at around 30-40thousand kilometers would not flair at mag +1 as far as I know.
Stars just don't flair like what you saw,I am sure if something like this had happened to a star, one of the many satellites looking for such things as Gamma Ray Bursts would have spotted it.
PS
I always keep my binoculars handy,and a not pad and paper to record times directions ect
I am glad you enjoyed the experience
Cheers

[knightrider]

Lot's of great comments guys. I've learned a little more again about some things I didn't even know existed.

Thanks for the insight and input. I'll keep wondering, and hope maybe one day I'll see another

[chappo (John)]

Checking in Satellite Safari, Globalstar M051 was passing p car, w car and then past HR 4361 about 8.25pm.
Normally mag 6.6, but could have flared on a solar panel.

[knightrider]

That path is too high up, it was lower down. Thanks for checking though. I haven't gone through any satellite path data.

[Back Yard Boy (Kevin)]

I have just seen these posts and they jogged my memory of seeing what appeared to me to be a brightish star disappear suddenly in the vicinity of the Crux in late May.

I remember being outside and spotting a brightish star which certainly did not look familiar. Note that I assumed it was a star because it was not apparently moving like a satellite.

Anyway, I decided to go inside and get my star atlas so I could determine which star it may have been, and a few minutes later when I returned to the outdoors, the star had vanished.

[pixelsaurus (Mike)]

I remember reading a report about something similar in S&T during the late 80s or early 90s. Several American observers noticed naked eye "stars" that flared and then died in a matter of seconds in Gemini and possibly Taurus, from memory. There was a feeling at the time that perhaps they witnessed distant gamma ray bursters. My penny's worth.

[knightrider]

I checked out NASA's Swift GRB satellite reports and nothing came up for that date, also the average magnitude floated around +20.

I'm contemplating if it could've been a variable star also though. I googled for reports for that particular night in the southern hemisphere and came up with nothing so far.

[EagleStr1ke (Joel)]

Hi I saw this exact phenomenon that you did but unfortunately I was out and didn't have any of my equipment. If you guys come to a conclusion as to what it was I'm curious to hear. At first I thought supernovae but since you've ruled that out I don't know what it was. If it helps, I was standing outside sydney observatory when I saw it (oh the irony)

[knightrider]

That's interesting that you saw it also Joel.
It was the same night also? I'm located far north QLD.

To anyone that knows:
Do satellite flares cover a large area? or are they specifically aimed at any given location to see them?

After some reading it's seems very unlikely to be a variable star of any sort, as none of the different types seem to display any of the qualities that I observed. So, as astroron pointed out, probably a satellite...

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by knightrider

That's interesting that you saw it also Joel.
It was the same night also? I'm located far north QLD.

To anyone that knows:
Do satellite flares cover a large area? or are they specifically aimed at any given location to see them?

After some reading it's seems very unlikely to be a variable star of any sort, as none of the different types seem to display any of the qualities that I observed. So, as astroron pointed out, probably a satellite...

Iridium Satellite's are spread out across the sky, last week I saw two within one minute of each other and only a deg of seperation,eg one was 354° at 17:56 and the next one was 353° at 17:57, now unless you had noted down the time of both of them, you could be forgiven for thinking they where the same satellite.
Joel could have seen a satellite flair around the same time, but it would be unlikely to have been the same one seen around 2000kms away from your position.
Another thing I thought after my last post, was,by the time you got your binoculars the satellite had gone into the Earths shadow and so you would have not seen it move anyway.
The main thing that has come out of this thread for me, is that it pays to always have your bino's, a watch, and pen and paper to record accurately your observations.
Cheers