Starship Asterisk*

I live in Kelowna B.C. Canada, I saw something in the sky that seemed to strike me as odd. Was wondering if anyone could give any insight to what I was seeing. It was about 1:30 AM PST, looking in the North East sky I saw a flickering star, I know that the flicker is caused by air variations in the atmosphere, however, this object was flickering more vibrantly than anything I have seen in the sky. It seemed to get way brighter even than Mars at times. I have never seen an object brighter than it perhaps with the Sun, the Moon and Venus as an exception. It must have been about 20 degrees off the horizon, and may be 35 degrees east of Polaris. Any one have any idea or may be seen the same thing? It was truly amazing at how much this object was flickering.

I'm actually looking at the same thing right now, except it's in the northwest from Rochester, MN. I still have no idea what it is.

Linux_Proptop wrote:I live in Kelowna B.C. Canada, I saw something in the sky that seemed to strike me as odd. Was wondering if anyone could give any insight to what I was seeing. It was about 1:30 AM PST, looking in the North East sky I saw a flickering star, I know that the flicker is caused by air variations in the atmosphere, however, this object was flickering more vibrantly than anything I have seen in the sky. It seemed to get way brighter even than Mars at times. I have never seen an object brighter than it perhaps with the Sun, the Moon and Venus as an exception. It must have been about 20 degrees off the horizon, and may be 35 degrees east of Polaris. Any one have any idea or may be seen the same thing? It was truly amazing at how much this object was flickering.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080604.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071208.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060819.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000502.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991022.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980402.html

Iridium satellite flare
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_flare

<<The Iridium communication satellites have a peculiar shape with three polished door-sized antennas, 120 degrees apart and at 40 degree angles with the main bus. The forward antenna faces the direction in which the satellite is travelling. Occasionally an antenna will reflect sunlight directly down to the Earth, creating a predictable and quickly moving illuminated spot of about 10 km diameter. To an observer this looks like an extremely bright flare in the sky with a duration of a few seconds.

Ranging up to -8 magnitude (rarely to a brilliant -9.5), some of the flares are so bright that they can be seen at daytime; but they are most impressive at night. This flashing has been some annoyance to astronomers, as the flares occasionally disturb observations and can damage sensitive equipment.

When not flaring, the satellites are often visible crossing the night sky at a typical magnitude of 6, similar to a dim star.>>

http://www.heavens-above.com/

Since you seen it at 1:30 PST and from your location and you posted this on August 7th It sounds like you were looking a variable star called S Cephei in the constellation of Cepheus. It flashes green, red, white and occasionally blue and yellow. When it is close to the horizon the effect is really pronounced, but as it rises higher in the sky it shines like a normal star.

Off Subject....anyone get a good pic of the crescent moon with Venus and Jupiter last night????

Newbie.......anyone care to point me to an interactive part of this??

Steve

SundanceMT wrote:Off Subject....anyone get a good pic of the crescent moon with Venus and Jupiter last night????

Found a fairly good one...digi-cam good anyway not telescopic good
here scroll the image to the right for Jupiter too

interstellaryeller wrote:Since you seen it at 1:30 PST and from your location and you posted this on August 7th It sounds like you were looking a variable star called S Cephei in the constellation of Cepheus. It flashes green, red, white and occasionally blue and yellow. When it is close to the horizon the effect is really pronounced, but as it rises higher in the sky it shines like a normal star.

What makes this star flicker with such varied and vibrant lights?