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(meteorobs) Strange Lights in the Sky



Hi all

After six consecutive cloudy nights, last night (March 31) was clear, and I
managed over 3 hours of good Virginid plotting.  I was pretty satisfied with
that alone, but during the watch I observed some curious events, which I
hope some one on this list can explain.

I started observing at 18h44 UT.  At 19h31, a 'star' appeared in Virgo at
RA12h15, Dec -6.5deg.  It brightened suddenly to magnitude 2, then faded to
magnitude 3-4 until 19h36 when it suddenly faded from view.  The 'star'
stood out like a sore thumb since it was smack in the middle of the area I
was using to determine limiting magnitude.  Puzzled, I went back to plotting.

Suddenly, at 20h34 there was a flash of light at RA13h40, Dec -2deg.  At
first I thought it might be a point meteor, but 20 seconds later there was
another.  The object continued to flash, at regular intervals of once every
20 seconds up to magnitude 2.  At 22h33 UT when I stopped observing (after
local midnight) it was still flashing away merrily.  I plotted its position
as RA14h42, dec -6.5deg.  I trained a telescope on the object, finding it
visible nearly all the time in between each second magnitude flash.

I guess what I witnessed was a satellite launch, but I'd be pleased to know
if someone can shed more light on my experience.  What surprised me was the
visibility of the object around local midnight.

All in all, an interesting evenings observing.

Tim Cooper