Possible Stellar Encounter/Outburst

[Rick Petrie]

Whilst viewing tuc47 this evening 24/8/2008 at 11.01 pm AEST I noted a bright outburst within the globular cluster just outside the central core.
The outburst only lasted for about 3 seconds and was bright orange in color.
Would like to know if anyone else saw this event or imaged it.It was quite spectacularly bright.

[Phil]

Wow nice to no what it was.
Phil

[bojan]

Optical component of GRB????? WOW..
No. they are not happening in globulars.. or do they?

Edit:
Perhaps it was a reflection from some satellite? those mylar wrappings they are using is orange in colour...

[avandonk]

It was probably a sporadic micro meteor coming straight at you. No stellar phenomena last a matter of seconds apart from occultations. Many years ago I thought for about 10 sec that a supernova had appeared while I was watching. But then it started to wobble. It must have been a meteor coming down my line of sight. I was too perplexed to even duck.

Bert

[Rick Petrie]

Originally Posted by bojan

Optical component of GRB????? WOW..
No. they are not happening in globulars.. or do they?

Edit:
Perhaps it was a reflection from some satellite? those mylar wrappings they are using is orange in colour...

Gamma ray burst- maybe not, but if it was a reflection from a geostationary satellite, wouldn't that happen on a regular basis from the same position? . Being so bright,pinpoint and stationary I don't think any reflection would have come from an orbiting satellite as it would have moved across the field of view.
I'm still trying to fathom it also.

Originally Posted by avandonk

It was probably a sporadic micro meteor coming straight at you. No stellar phenomena last a matter of seconds apart from occultations. Many years ago I thought for about 10 sec that a supernova had appeared while I was watching. But then it started to wobble. It must have been a meteor coming down my line of sight. I was too perplexed to even duck.

Bert

If a micro meteor was coming straight at me and not moving off course, how many million to one chances of that happening are? I think I'll go and buy a few lottery tickets.

[bojan]

Originally Posted by Rick Petrie

If a micro meteor was coming straight at me and not moving off course, how many million to one chances of that happening are? I think I'll go and buy a few lottery tickets.

I would not if I were you... because with this event, you already had your share of good luck for this decade :-)

[Outbackmanyep]

It sounds like a meteor as avondonk said, i saw HEAPS of them during the Eta Aquarids this year, i was surprised at how many i saw as just point flashes of light.....

[MrB (Simon)]

Nah, it was some Alien punk kid with a laserpointer.

[Kal (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by avandonk

It was probably a sporadic micro meteor coming straight at you. No stellar phenomena last a matter of seconds apart from occultations. Many years ago I thought for about 10 sec that a supernova had appeared while I was watching. But then it started to wobble. It must have been a meteor coming down my line of sight. I was too perplexed to even duck.

Bert

hahahaha, this gave me a good laugh!

[Inmykombi (Geoff)]

I just read an article in the latest Sky and Telescope about " Gravitational micro-lensing "

In my opinion and from all the facts I have from Rick, this is quite a possible scenario in this case.

My understanding is that when a strong Gravity sorurce moves in front ( or is positioned in front of ) a background object, the light from the background object becomes distorted, or even can brighten many magnitudes significantly in a shrot period of time depending on the speed of the gravity source in the foreground which could move in front of the object behind.

Reff: Article on pages 34 to 38 of Australian Sky and Telescope....October Issue.

I can see no reason why this sort of event can be discounted from Ricks observation.
If we take into account the fact that a Globular Clutser has approx. 500,000 to 1 Million + stars in it, and knowing that most if not all maybe older type stars, I can see no reason why we can discount a strong gravity source such as a brown dwarf or other, that could move in front of a brighter star and cause this micro-lensing effect. especially when these clusters are so dense with stars.

The micro lensing effect then could cause a brighteneing of the background star if it were alligned perfectly with our eye and the gravity source in the fore ground.

This is only a suggestion. Maybe someone else has an explanation other than this or a micro-meteorite that others have suggested, and which I think is not the case.

I for one, love visual observing of Globs anyway, and keeping a keen eye on them in the future will not be a difficult task for me.

My advise is, keep lookin' Rick and keep reporting your observations.

Cheers mate.

Geoffro.