3x strobe in Hervey Bay

[TheTalent (Benjamin)]

Hi!
I don't know if I'm in the right part of the forum. Sorry if I'm not. I'm a long time sky watcher but never with much technical interest before. I had an interesting experience on Monday that I was hoping to get an answer for. Disclosure: no aluminium foil hat on my head. My experience probably has a clear explanation, I just don't know it yet. I'm not claiming a UFO.

22/feb/16:I am in Hervey Bay and it's a beautiful clear night. The moon is full, about 30°. At approximately 8:30pm, while looking towards what an app tells me is Alpha Leporis (Arneb) I saw a single very bright white strobe flash. It was about twice as bright as any star. But was only as quick as a single strobe flash and any source was totally invisible before and after the event.
While sitting there briefly questioning what I just saw, about 6 seconds later I saw it again, and then again about 6 more seconds after that. I tried to get my phone to video it but I never saw it again. It probably wouldn't have worked anyway. Three bright flashes at what was for me about the zenith of the sky. What could I have seen? It was far too bright to be a satellite, like I've often seen, and it didn't appear to have moved at all in the (very short) time I saw it. I doubt it could have been an aeroplane. It did look very far away - much further than I imagine a plane could have been. Did I just witness some sort of flare or supernova? I thought supernova were much longer lasting than a strobe.
Any help would be awesome!
Thanks.

[redbeard (Damien)]

Hi Benjamin,

I'm not sure what it is but, I saw exactly the same type of thing what you saw in the Adelaide sky around Chrismas 2015. About the same location in the sky.

At this stage, I'd call it an uo (unidentified object).

🤔
Cheers

Damien

[astroron (Ron)]

Probably a rotating Satellite or space junk.
The description twice as bright as any star,is that as bright as Sirius
the brightest star in the sky which wouldn't have been too far from said flashes.?
If a Satellite is very high say about 5-10000kms it will still receive the suns light even though the sun is way below the horizon.
I have seen many what I call flashers,if you have a pair of binoculars you can actually see some minor flashes before the big ones.
That they cant be seen again is because they have gone into the earths shadow.
Cheers

[doppler (Rick)]

It might have been an iridium flare. Go here and input your location, then click on iridium flares and click the back arrow to see if a flare matches the time and date of your sighting. http://www.heavens-above.com/

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by doppler

It might have been an iridium flare. Go here and input your location, then click on iridium flares and click the back arrow to see if a flare matches the time and date of your sighting. http://www.heavens-above.com/

It is unusual to get three flairs of the one body six seconds apart
But anything is possible I suppose.
Cheers

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Meteor fragments heading straight down at you ? I've seen quick light bursts from these before, no apparent trail, just the quick flash.