blinking light in the sky

[sickboy]

Hello, I just went outside and saw something in the sky that left me wondering.

Basically it was a light, blinking about every half a second moving across the sky at a relatively fast pace, it went through my field of vision in about a minute. It was moving very straight and kept blinking on and off.

From where I was it basically looked like a star, only moving. I was just wondering if it was possibly something special or just a high-altitude jet because it was definitely way too high for a regular plane.

Does any one have a clue what it may be?

(I don't believe it's a UFO but you know, maybe it's something cool I'd like to know)

[astropapi1]

Pffff, it was obviously Santa.

[Tommygun]

If it went across the sky that fast, I might suspect a satellite or the space station.

The blinking effect could be the sun light being reflected off it and then scattered unevenly through the atmosphere.

[NovaSilisko]

Perhaps a rotating object with a reflective surface. Or, as you said, a high altitude aircraft.

[Seret]

Lots of satellites blink. That's the main way you spot them.

[Nuke]

it is actually very hard to gauge distance of distant objects. human vision evolved to detect the distance of objects that are nearby. but the accuracy of this detection falls of greatly with distance. also the closer to the ground the faster it would appear to move. a small quiet cessna may appear faster than a fighter jet at several times the altitude and speed.

if i were to poke a guess, i say what you saw was a private jet. they are very fast and fairly quiet. even close to the ground.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Nuke

[sickboy]

it is actually very hard to gauge distance of distant objects. human vision evolved to detect the distance of objects that are nearby. but the accuracy of this detection falls of greatly with distance.

if i were to poke a guess, i say what you saw was a private jet. they are very fast and fairly quiet. even close to the ground.

definitely a possibility, and most likely the most probably. the lack of sound is what threw me mostly

[Seret]

If you're somewhere with dark enough skies spotting satellites is actually pretty common, too. You'll see one go over every few minutes.

[DunaRocketeer]

Sounds like it might be a satellite. You could go on the Heaven's Above website and find out what it might have been by narrowing down your location, time of sighting, and the direction of the satellites travel across the sky.

[rtxoff]

Everybody pack your stuff and go into your bunkers, UFO invasion was sighted.

[lajoswinkler]

If it:

- blinks with a regular period

- the blinks are sharp, on-off

- doesn't abruptly show up or dim in the sky

then it's an airplane of some kind.

Satellites do not blink on and off. They change their magnitude.

[DunaRocketeer]

Satellites that are spin-stabilized certainly do blink. Also, old and disused satellites frequently tumble, catching the sun as they rotate.

Edited June 27, 2014 by DunaRocketeer

[lajoswinkler]

Satellites that are spin-stabilized certainly do blink. Also, old and disused satellites frequently tumble, catching the sun as they rotate.

Blink is a sharp on-off behaviour. Like a flashlight. On... off...

That never happens with satellites because the Sun is not a point, but a disc, so the reflections on Earth aren't sharp.

They just change their magnitude, faster or slower.

[DunaRocketeer]

I'm not going to argue over a point of word definition, I believe I understand what you mean now.

[Motokid600]

What time did this occur TC? Sounds like you saw a tumbling satellite, but these can be seen only a few hours after sunset/before sunrise.

[PakledHostage]

What time did this occur TC? Sounds like you saw a tumbling satellite, but these can be seen only a few hours after sunset/before sunrise.

Montreal is at about 45.5 degrees north. That's only 21 degrees below the Arctic circle. At this time of year, everything from the north pole down to the arctic circle is in continual daylight. By some fairly simple geometry, anything high enough above Montreal to be able to "see" the arctic circle will also be illuminated. The minimum requisite altitude for something to be able to see 21 degrees to the horizon is about 450 km. An object that is higher than 450 km or one that is slightly lower but further north than overhead Montreal will be visible no matter what time of night it is¹

¹It might not be visible for its entire pass from horizon to horizon though because its trajectory may take it across the terminator while still within the viewer's field of view.

[Tex_NL]

Montreal is at about 45.5 degrees north. That's only 21 degrees below the Arctic circle. At this time of year, everything from the north pole down to the arctic circle is in continual daylight. By some fairly simple geometry, anything high enough above Montreal to be able to "see" the arctic circle will also be illuminated. The minimum requisite altitude for something to be able to see 21 degrees to the horizon is about 450 km. An object that is higher than 450 km or one that is slightly lower but further north than overhead Montreal will be visible no matter what time of night it is¹

¹It might not be visible for its entire pass from horizon to horizon though because its trajectory may take it across the terminator while still within the viewer's field of view.

I'm at roughly 53 degrees north and even this time of year satellites aren't significantly more visible. At least I've never noticed them to be more visible.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Tex_NL

[Motokid600]

Ah I didn't see his location. That makes sense though now that I think about. And of course there's crap going every which way up there. Well either way.. chances are it was a dead satellite or tumbling piece of space junk. The only thing I wonder now TC is if the flare intervals came as a blink ( on and off ) or an increasing/decreasing magnitude. ( flashes )

[PakledHostage]

I'm at roughly 53 degrees north and even this time of year satellites aren't significantly more visible. At least I've never noticed them to be more visible.

Well something 450 km up but down close to the horizon is several thousand km away. There's a lot of air between you and it. It would have to be very bright (i.e. the ISS or an iridium flare) for you to be able to see it. But if you look straight up, you'll be able to see a lot more satellites throughout the night now than you would in December.

Edited June 27, 2014 by PakledHostage
Added "throughout the night" to my last sentence before someone gets pedantic... [d'oh!]

[sickboy]

thinking it might be a satellite is pretty sweet, either that or I'm just crazy but it was a plane. I just felt it might be something else as there was only 1 light instead of the usual wing lights.

as far as the time, it was around 11 PM - Midnight

[rtxoff]

Well one thing that bothers me on that picture above, there is UFO missing in it. So how do i identify an UFO? :-D

[lajoswinkler]

thinking it might be a satellite is pretty sweet, either that or I'm just crazy but it was a plane. I just felt it might be something else as there was only 1 light instead of the usual wing lights.

as far as the time, it was around 11 PM - Midnight

There are planes with only one blinking light. It might've been a jet fighter, who knows.

Well one thing that bothers me on that picture above, there is UFO missing in it. So how do i identify an UFO? :-D

Is that sarcasm?

[YNM]

What's it's magnitude ? (For comparison, Mars is around ~0 these times, or you can go with some other thing like Polaris or so, as I live in the south I often prefer acrux). Blinking isn't a good way to deduce something (apart from crafts, except you can only see the strobe) - without glasses, my eye (-1.75) see Sirius blinking crazily, almostly on-off. Another good way to guess is by it's movement on the sky - is it moving north-south or east west, or any other direction ? When did it culminated (pass your meridian, seen with greatest altitude) ?

My bets are either lowly lit satellite, or very high craft.

UFOs ? No, undercover projects maybe ?

[SlyReaper]

[christok]

Well one thing that bothers me on that picture above, there is UFO missing in it. So how do i identify an UFO? :-D

Starting point, in fact. Once you get to the bottom of the decision tree, it's an IFO.