enormous diamond shaped flash in notrhern sky

[tjmull4]

Hello, this is my first time so be gentle. Last night during the hockey night in Canada intermission,I stepped outside for my typical star gazing timeout , I saw something quite startling. I was looking north west somewhat at the big dipper and saw an enormous diamond shaped flash in the sky approximatly in the M82 region . Help ! Did anyone else out there see what I saw? Thank you .Time;APPROX 8;00 PM.,Mtn. time,Calary Alberta Canada,.Brighter and larger in sky than saturn by about 5 times , as well it was a diamond flash ,eg like the diamond on a playing card. It lasted about half a second to a second.

 

[MeteorWayne]

What Time was it? What Time Zone?
Where are you?
How bright was it? (Compared to Jupiter, or the Moon)
How big was it? (Compared to Jupiter or the Moon)
How long did it last?

Without this info, we can't even guess.

 

[Boris_Badenov]

I'll take a guess, an Iridium Flare.

 

[Archer17]

FWIW, I inputed Calgary into 'HeavensAbove' the other day and didn't see any Iridiums listed for the time-frame given.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Yes, there are no Iridium series in that part of the sky currently. Still, it sounds like the classic description of a first time observation of an Iridium flare. And as I have noted several times in the satellite observing discussion, there are unpredicted flares from uncontrolled and spare Iridiums.

MW