dimming star-did U see it? Any explaination?

[jimmysvibing]

At 2am EST on Sunday, July 17th, high in the eastern sky, a friend and I witnessed a star dim out from very bright to going out completely. I waited a week or so to see if the occurence was going to be reported. As of today it hasn't made the news. Did anyone else see that event? It looked like the end of an exploding star. Any other possible explainations?

 

[jindivik]

probably an iridium flare or something, when i didnt know what they were i thought something similar.....they seem to get brighter and then suddenly go dim and completely dissapear?<br /><br />here is a website with more information about iridium flares <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />also if you register with the heavens above website, you can enter your home location and it will give you results on when the next iridium flares will be visible from your area, and the part of sky they will appear in <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[jindivik]

i wish it wasnt cloud here, or i could have just seen one with a magnitude of -8 .... my location puts me within 0.2KM of the centre

 

[jimmysvibing]

definitely not a plane...it was static (on and not moving) for an extended period of time. I took notice because of its relative brightness among the other stars. Watched it for 5 mins before it faded to black.

 

[jimmysvibing]

would the satellite causing the flare remain static in the sky for over 5 minutes?

 

[MBA_UIU]

From the way you are describing it I wonder if you could have been watching a meteor. If it entered from the right angle, and because of its great distance, it would appear to be stationary as the exterior burned off. You wouldn’t see the trail as for this to work it would have to be coming right at you. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong><font color="#0000ff"><br /><br /> <br /><img id="268587ce-7170-4b41-a87b-8cd443f9351a" src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/6/8/268587ce-7170-4b41-a87b-8cd443f9351a.Large.jpg" alt="blog post photo" /><br /></font></strong></p> </div>

 

[yurkin]

5 minutes really isn’t that long. On a clear night a plane moving directly away from you from a distance would appear to not be moving at all for that short a time. If it started out as bright as a bright star and then slowly faded away to nothing it sure sounds like you are describing a plane flying off into the distance. <br />And I think a major star disappearing would cause quite a stir.

 

[nexium]

None of the explanations (so far) fit what you described, after you added that you observed for 5 minutes.<br /> Possibly the star was oculated by an asteroid. Typical oculations last seconds rather than minutes, but I think rare conditions could produce a very slow dimming and a very long "out completely" time at your location. If this is the correct explanation, the star should have brightened again later, perhaps much later. Neil

 

[jimmysvibing]

I did go out on the next 2 nights. The object did not reappear as far as I could tell. I would consider the iridium flare theory, but the object seemed to be more distant than a satellite would be. And to be more clear, the object dimmed over a 5 minute period, but I watched the sky for about 30 minutes. Does anyone have a flare prediction program? Finding out if there was a flare that night would answer the question of the flare.

 

[jimmysvibing]

Why couldn't it have been a star?

 

[jimmysvibing]

Could it be possible to have seen the end of the light coming from an exploded star? NASA recently printed an article describing a finding that puzzled scientists....the light echo of a dead star. "The surprising finding indicates Cassiopeia A, the remnant of a star that died in a supernova explosion 325 years ago, is not resting peacefully." Although the light seen from that event was infared, it stands to reason that similar unknown events could happen as well. I've seen satellites and meteors....this was neither of those.