Bright Light in the sky???

If it was Jupiter I think its position change over an hour would have been pretty noticeable... and the smooth, slow brightening and fading pattern doesn't fit atmospheric turbulence.

Thinking more... California (right?), 3:30am (Pacific Daylight Savings Time?), facing East. Too early for reflection from a high altitude balloon? Would you get that bright a reflection from the balloon or its cargo, with that much variation if it was turning slowly?

 

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Back of the envelope geometry says that an object would have to be about 1000km high to be sunlit then (about 0.1 days before sunrise).

Considering refraction... for a high balloon (say 30km) to be sunlit then would require a total of maybe 35 degrees of refraction more than you get on the ground, through maybe 4 thousand kilometres of atmosphere. I've no idea if that's reasonable.

 

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Over the course of an hour the position of Jupiter would not change with respect to the background stars of course the whole star field would move. The brighting and fading would be more of an affect of looking at stellar type object for an extended period of time. There could also be thin clouds.

I think if there was a reflection it would be opposite direction (towards the east). If it was a high altitude baloon it certainly would have changed position in an hour.

I still favor that it was Jupiter.

 

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I saw such a light last night at about 11pm. I couldn't tell how high it was, but the brilliance of the light made me think it was fairly close, about 300m. This could be just an effect of the bright light. It travelled over me from south west and moved in a zig zag every so often. The brightness remained until it stopped in the east and then dimmed slowly. It seemed to turn dull red before disappearing. The object took a total of 2mins to travel from the west until its position in the east. I went in the house. An hour later I looked outside my bedroom window, my window is open so I'm not looking through glass, and there it reappeared. It would turn on to a brilliant white and then slowly dim down and diasapear. At times it would slightly dim and then become bright. I told others in the house and we went out to look at it. It continued to do what it does. The others would continue telling me it's a satellite. It then quickly travelled a short distance up and disappeared. I went to bed, but the others watched it, even though they maintained it was a satellite. This occurred near Krakow, Poland from 11pm last night.

 

Based on the times and direction you gave it sounds like you saw the ISS. It is very impressive. Here is a link to determine when the ISS is passing over.

 

Thanks so much for that, and for the link. Its given me a prompt closure on the matter. I will use the timetable to view it again. I never knew the ISS could look so brilliant from the ground. Appreciate your help

 

Glad to help. On that site there is also a section on iridum flares, which is just a reflective flash from a solar panel, but it is very bright and dramatic. You can use that info to freak out your friends. Something like, take them out side and a few seconds before the flash occurs say, "doesn't orion look impressive tonight?" and when they look up and see the flash watch the different reactions - oh joy!

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Yep, it definitely was the ISS. Thanks to the link you gave me to the ISS timetable, I was able to ready myself for a viewing.

 

Great!

 

bright light gets brighter then dims and moves away

We've seen a bright light just to the east of the big dipper almost every night around 11:00. It gets very bright, enough so to really catch your attention, then dims and moves away and disappears. I live in Kansas and we were in Colorado last week and all of us saw it two nights in a row, 750+ miles away. Glad to see that others have seen it. Does anyone know what it is?

 

I've seen this two times myself. It's exactly as you describe, it moves slowly (well, fast for being so far away) and turns really bright (like a raycaster up there) and then fades away and disappears.

I thought it was a falling star or something, most come in a angle but if they come in a angle nearly straight at you then that might be what it looks like?

I live in Sweden, we have very dark winters and I think the time was close to midnight on both accounts. No clouds present either from what I can recall.

 

I saw something strange too

I was on a night shift last Tuesday, it was about 5.30am. In the south east sky there was a really bright star, only this 'star' was glowing bright, then dimming and disappearing completely! I watched it for about an hour on and off doing this over and over again. As it got lighter the other star disappeared into the morning sky but this glowing ball was still there! As bright as ever! About 10 minutes later I witnessed the star fade away as the other stars had done, it was so strange! May I add, there were no noises to suggest it could of been a helicopter/aircraft. I also took pictures and videos. Does anyone know what this could be?

 

Bright star diming

I saw the same thing last night at 10 pm in west texas. A very bright starlike light in the north that suddenlly dimmed to nothing. It didn't appear to move. I went inside an shared the experience with all the folks but didn't go back out to see if it re-appeared.

 

While driving south on I-15 about 9 pm (10 pm texas) in Utah, I saw a bright light moving south at very high speed; it then suddendly disappeared. I believe it was a large meteorite.

 

If it started out bright, became reddish, then dimmed to nothing, that is almost certainly a satellite. That's exactly what they look like.

 

Bright points of light are among the most common UFOs. And the most common things they typically are are (in no particular order):
-Venus
-Jupiter
-Airplanes
-The International Space Station
-Iridium satellites
-Meteors

 

It could have been a satelite I guess but it wasn't moving. The light appeared to diminish from the outside towards the middle slowly and no reddish hue at all. I watch the skies regularly and have never seen anything like this before. Definitely not a planet or meteor or airplane.

 

Maybe small thin clouds were passing between the celestial object and the observer in some of these cases.

 

floaty stars I see tham too !

YES !!!!!.. i'v seen these alot , i live in the UK , iv seen multiples of them all over the sky from my back garden. The first time i noticed them was last summer ,when we were out watching the shooting stars from the astroid belt we had heard was happening all that week. But these floating star like things well, i first thought they were those chinese lanterns, but they are way too high up to be that. They are so high up I think they are higher than some of the near stars we have seen.. I saw one this evening at around 11pm which is what jogged my memory back to last summer when my son & I sat out looking up at the shooting stars and I was freaked when i saw the first one moving, then after a while i saw another , then another .. my son soon started seeing them too.. I must have seen 20 in the space of 2 hrs that night. They dont stay in a straight line they seem to move in a slightly wavy line sometimes but straight for a 5 or so seconds as if they are floating on a breeze ( which is why i thought at first maybe a lantern) but who would let lanterns off at 3-5am?? and surely they cant go that high up..?? I dont know what they are but they arnt stars or satalites im pretty sure of that.