Bright white light in eastern sky

[louie_the_fly (Stew)]

At about 2125 Central time tonight there was a really bright white light in the eastern sky. It was about -14°, below Eridanus area, a fair bit above Rigel. I was viewing M43 at the time and saw it out the top of my eye. It looked like it was heading toward Canopus traveling N to S reasonably quick. I thought it might have been a satellite or the ISS so I tried to follow it with my scope for 10 seconds or so. Then it stopped and was stationary for another 5 seconds or so. I was just about focused on it then it disappeared. Completely. Like gone. WOW! Anyone else see it, or know what it might have been?

[MattT]

Didn't see it but sounds like a fireball....a larger than normal meteor. I saw one east of the false cross on Saturday morning round 4:20 and they are really brilliant then nothing, one of natures marvels.
Matt

[doppler (Rick)]

Could be a ufo, shooting stars dont stop mid flight. But I remember seeing something similar when I lived in the Adelaide hills. There were strange lights in the sky moving slowly then speeding up and suddenly disapearing. It was a cars headlight shining on thin cloud while driving up a steep windy hill. Looked weird for a while though. Do a google search it still might be a ufo.

[MortonH]

Helicopter?

[louie_the_fly (Stew)]

I was thinking it may have been a fireball, and I'm going with that. It just disappeared. Bright as your next door neighbors porch light. Then nothing.

Doppler, we live in the Adelaide Hills, and I've experienced what you've mentioned when driving at night. Especially when it's foggy. Not the UFO, the lights thing. But it was a crystal clear night. Still, when I ran inside, all excited and that, and told my wife she said "oh. Maybe it was aliens".

Morton, we live near an Army base and there's always helicopters flying around us. Wasn't one of them either as it just vanished.

Fascinating, but weird. (Insert music from Twilight Zone here)

[g__day (Matthew)]

Wierdest thing I ever saw (possibly ball lightning) was a globe of yellow green light that descended about 300 metres from where I live (11kms North West of Sydney CBD) - falling about 10 metres a second - fairly constant for about 15 seconds then it just flared for a second or two - at about 100 metres off the ground - lit everything up and totally dissappeared. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a flare - it only lasted around 10 - 15 seconds all up and travelled maybe just over 100 metres in that timeframe, descending gently against a stiff breeze from about 250 metres up to 150 meters elevation. It was a damp, wet evening with little lightning - and I was on my second story deck watching is just the right direction at around 2am when it occurred.

Left me pleasantly puzzled as to what could be - unlike a flare it was bigger than a scoccer ball - say 45 cm - 60 cm wide circle of really sickly coloured, light. Ball lightning is the only thing I've every heard of that fits the bill (a plasma ball that drifts weirdly, illuminates then dissappears). Really cool and really quite close. No noise - and like I said moved sedately and not affected by the wind. Never seen anything (even in a chemistry lab) burn that greenish yellow before.