Bright Lights by "Big Dipper" on March 18th

[DAMaximus]

Hello. This is my first post so please forgive my ignorance as I am an amateur sky watcher and have just gotten back into the "sport" I guess. So, I'd like to ask if anyone else saw what I saw the morning of March 18th, between 6:30-6:50am est. I was out checking the weather before taking my son to school and the Big Dipper was directly above me. As I was watching, there were two stars that increased in brightness just to the "right" of the handle. They brightened for several mins - when I say bright I mean they grew brighter than Sirius, both of them - then diminished. I checked to the left and right to see if they were merely being consumed by clouds, but neither the handle or the stars to the right were going out.
I could think of only two options, but wanted to ask. Either I witnessed a Binary Supernova or two objects - very bright - came down towards Earth and then rose up skyward. If it was the latter, and they were moving objects, they didn't move east or west. Merely rose and fell on their vertical axis......
I've googled the date, and can't seem to find anything about this. If anyone can point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it. I've seen things in the sky that I couldn't explain before, but I'm assuming that they were satelites - who knows.
Anyway - thanks for having me on your board and hope to receive some hits. I did try to get a video of it on my phone but no dice......

[Amir]

Hi,
since you said they didn't have any movement, i'm thinking of Geo-Stationary satellites lit up by something.
if you let me know your latitude and longitude, i may be able to check.

as far as i know the brightness variation caused by Supernova eruptions usually last much more than few minutes, and also observing two star's eruption, both in one system and simultaneously, is super coincident and next to impossible!

[wonderboy]

Your right Amir, a supernova would never last for such a short period of time, and your also right about the binary explosions, if you were lucky enough to see one of those with the naked eye youd be next to unique.

For me it might have been a ufo. Do we all agree that they exist? I think that they do, so i believe it could have been that.

[Chris Peterson]

For me it might have been a ufo. Do we all agree that they exist? I think that they do, so i believe it could have been that.

They are unidentified, and they were apparently flying, so yes, UFOs. My guess would be airplanes, flying towards the observer with their landing lights on.

[wonderboy]

Hahah, I never even thought of that. I was right in a way though so I'm not gonna admit I'm dumb this time. Planes it was. It could have been one plane behind the other. Where were you when this happened DAMaximus?

[Amir]

my guess would be airplanes flying toward the observer with their landing lights on.

...the big dipper was directly above me.

Chris, i think that's not possible too. He doesn't live in airport & at least we agree that they were not going to land in his backyard. Also airplanes usually do not fly so close to each other, neither land with such an angle.

...then diminshed.

it's again a bit odd that two airplanes lessen their lights so in sync.

how about geo-stationary satellites? Is that possible?

[Chris Peterson]

Chris, i think that's not possible too. He doesn't live in airport & at least we agree that they were not going to land in his backyard. Also airplanes usually do not fly so close to each other, neither land with such an angle.

I live 50 miles from the nearest airport, but I've seen similar things. Aircraft landing lights are visible from 50 miles away or more, and are only visible when a plane is flying directly towards you. When the plane turns, the light fades and you see nothing- not even the normal running lights. It isn't all that unreasonable to expect two planes to be flying parallel to each other, a few miles apart, if they are in some sort of common landing pattern. While I agree that all the conditions have to be just right, and might be fairly unusual, the event itself is clearly unusual. Something happened, and a pair of airplanes certainly seems to me a plausible explanation.

We don't have any information about where this was seen. You would need to be in the Arctic to see the Big Dipper directly overhead. I know from experience that people usually believe things are much higher in the sky than they actually are. So perhaps the described event was lower as well. Certainly, there is no geometry of airplane landing lights that could occur if this truly was very high in the sky.

how about geo-stationary satellites? Is that possible?

No. Geostationary satellites orbit over the equator. There is no location on Earth where the celestial equator can be seen anywhere near the Big Dipper. To not show significant motion for several minutes, a satellite would need to be very high. There are geosynchronous, polar orbit satellites that might present themselves this way, but I don't know of any pairs of them, or any known to flare so brightly.

I'd conclude the following:

Chance of this being an astronomical event: zero.
Chance of this being associated with a pair of satellites: very small, but not impossible.
Chance of this being associated with something in the atmosphere (plane, balloon): very high.

[Amir]

OK, thanks.
so now it all depends on DAMaximus, to provide enough data in order to choose between choices.
(still it might be something totally different though!)

You would need to be in the Arctic to see the Big Dipper directly overhead.

but you don't need to be in the Arctic to see the Big Dipper directly overhead. Big Dipper (Dec~60) could be seen overhead from Lat.~60. the one you mentioned is Little Dipper.

[Chris Peterson]

but you don't need to be in the Arctic to see the Big Dipper directly overhead. Big Dipper (Dec~60) could be seen overhead from Lat.~60. the one you mentioned is Little Dipper.

No, I was talking about the Big Dipper. Agreed, you can be a little below the Arctic Circle, but at 60°N you are getting pretty close, and are clearly living well north of most of the Northern Hemisphere population. Also, you have to look at the time- around sunrise on March 18 you don't have the Big Dipper near the meridian, so it will be lower in the sky than its maximum height.

As you suggest, a few more details from the OP would be helpful.

[wonderboy]

my guess would be airplanes flying toward the observer with their landing lights on.

...the big dipper was directly above me.

Chris, i think that's not possible too. He doesn't live in airport & at least we agree that they were not going to land in his backyard. Also airplanes usually do not fly so close to each other, neither land with such an angle.

...then diminshed.

it's again a bit odd that two airplanes lessen their lights so in sync.

how about geo-stationary satellites? Is that possible?

I never even read the post right, if the big dipper was right above him it couldnt have been planes. My bad.

[Bsorrells21]

umm...i just saw those SAME lights last night, and it's years later - what is up with this? i need an answer

[Bsorrells21]

Also, lights were to the left of big dipper, I'm not sure how long they were there, but I stared for a few moments, went back to what i was doing, looked again, and they were gone. I was in Florida, on Lake Okeechobee for location specifics. Anyone else notice this??

[bystander]

May be those UFOs from Japan or China

[barbara]

I live in South Texas (7 miles north of Mexico border). I saw a large, extremely bright light, to the NE of the second to the top star in the handle of the Big Dipper about 9:30pm on Aug 15, 2011. The light was stationary, the size of a frozen pea, the light did not flicker, it suddenly appeared and in less than a minute - it increased in size by 50% - and instantly disappeared.