Flashing Light In Orion

[scottmbenson]

The other night i was outside and noticed a light that appeared to be stationary just to the right of Orion's arm holding the club. I only pose this question because the light would blink a couple times and then stop. But then a minute or two later it would blink again. It was around 3:30 am central time in Troy, Alabama. It was fairly noticable with the naked eye, but easily noticable with my 15x70 binoculars. I was just wondering if you or anyone else had seen this particular event or noticed the same time event anywhere else in the night sky. Since i work nights i have become much more attentive to the night sky and on most nights see shooting stars, satellites, and whatever else i can see with my binoculars. But this particular night i was focusing on Orion and the Orion Nebula and happened to notcie the flashing light towards the upper left shoulder. Any answers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Scott

 

[shadow735]

<p>How can you tell if something is a satellite? can you see the International Space station? I have never seen (or not know if I seen it)</p><p>I cant see many stars where I live (Simi valley Ca) due to all the light pollution. I never really noticed until I went camping at Ojai. the sky was so filled with stars and I saw the Milky way, it blew my mind, now I hate where I live its so light polluted its a shame that most people cant see what I saw in Ojai, its simply beautiful..</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>The other night i was outside and noticed a light that appeared to be stationary just to the right of Orion's arm holding the club. I only pose this question because the light would blink a couple times and then stop. But then a minute or two later it would blink again. It was around 3:30 am central time in Troy, Alabama. It&nbsp;was&nbsp;fairly noticable with the naked eye, but easily noticable with my 15x70 binoculars. I was just wondering if you or anyone else had seen this particular event or noticed the same time event anywhere else in the night sky. Since i work nights i have become much more attentive to the night sky and on most nights see shooting stars, satellites, and whatever else i can see with my binoculars. But this particular night i was focusing on Orion and the Orion Nebula and happened to notcie the flashing light towards the upper left shoulder. Any answers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Scott <br />Posted by scottmbenson</DIV><br /><br />I acn't really come up with a good explanation. Perhaps a few more detail will help.</p><p>When it wasn't blinking, was it visible or not?</p><p>How fast was it blinking?</p><p>How bright was it, both blinking and non blinking compared to some other stars in Orion?</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>How can you tell if something is a satellite? can you see the International Space station? I have never seen (or not know if I seen it)I cant see many stars where I live (Simi valley Ca) due to all the light pollution. I never really noticed until I went camping at Ojai. the sky was so filled with stars and I saw the Milky way, it blew my mind, now I hate where I live its so light polluted its a shame that most people cant see what I saw in Ojai, its simply beautiful.. <br />Posted by shadow735</DIV><br /><br />The ISS is more than bright enough to see if you can see any stars at all. For a high elevation pass it is brighter than the brightest star (Sirius). The only thinks that are brighter are the Sun, Moon, Venus, and Iridium flares, another kind of satellite also listed on the H-A page.</p><p>The best way to see satellites is to go to the Heavvens-Above page and set you location. Then you can get nightly lists of the passes of the ISS, as well as other bright satellites. Rather than write out all the instructions again, let me go find my last post&nbsp;on the subject and I'll copy it here. Here it is:</p><p>Go to this page:</p><p>http://heavens-above.com/</p><p>Select your location as accurately as possible either from the town database or the map.</p><p>Once you have done that, bookmark that page, after that when you click on&nbsp;the bookmark your location should already be loaded.</p><p>Then under "<strong>Satellites"</strong> you will see:</p><p class="menu">Satellites</p><p class="menu2">10 day predictions for: ISS &nbsp;|&nbsp; Genesis-1 / 2 &nbsp;|&nbsp; Envisat <span>&nbsp;|&nbsp;HST</span> </p><p class="menu2">Daily predictions for all satellites brighter than magnitude:</p><p class="menu3">(brightest) <span>3.5 | 4.0 | 4.5</span> (dimmest)</p><p class="menu2">Iridium Flares</p><p class="menu3"><span>next 24 hrs | next 7 days | previous 48 hrs</span></p><p class="menu3">Daytime flares for 7 days - see satellites in broad daylight!</p><p class="menu3">If you click on the ISS link, it will give you upcoming sightings for the Space Station.</p><p class="menu3">You can also click on the Daily satellites brighter than +3.5. Since you have so much light pollution, I wouldn't bother with the +4.0 or +4.5 links, since they will show many more satellites which you probably won't be able to see.</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[shadow735]

Thanks for that information its extremely helpful... <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

<p>Thought I'd throw in some real world experience from this morning. I was out meteor observing from 3-6 AM once the moon was setting.</p><p>between 5 and 6 Am I saw 6 sats. 3 were steady dim ones, 1&nbsp;was to&nbsp; an Iridium flare (mag -2); in fact I think I may have solved a mystery. I have often been unable to ID a number of dim satellites almost every meteor session. I now suspect quite a number of them are non-flaring Iridiums. Heavens-Above seems to not show Iridiums in their regular satellite list since they&nbsp;are between&nbsp;+4.5&nbsp; and +5 when not flaring. I clearly saw the preceeding and following Iridiums in the same plane 9 minutes before and after the flaring one. Each appeared about 12 degrees further west.</p><p>One dim one I haven't ID's yet (have to&nbsp;transcribe my tape for the time).</p><p>Two were flashing satellites. One appered moving SW to SE well below Orion. This had about a dozen total flashes, two about 1st magnitude, the rest were between +5 and +3. They occurred over 7 minutes and the sat traveled about 20 degrees in that time. That's quite slow moving for a satellite. The timing was quite ittegular, apparently it was a rocket body tumbling on multiple axes. The sun was about 21 degrees below the the horizon at the time.</p><p>There was one other that produced a single flash in the west, I couldn't really keep looking in that direction, since I was meteor observing after all.</p><p>Anyway, thought it might be related to this thread.</p><p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[The_JUICEMAN]

Hello,
Tonight I have seen the flashing under Orion's arm. Seemed to be stationary. A goldish color and flashed exactly every 12 seconds or so.

 

[adrenalynn]

Welcome to the forum!

Sirius.

Or Betelgeuse, but likely "under the left arm", you're talking about the brightest star in the sky, Sirius.

 

[ZenGalacticore]

Are you actually Sirius for a change?

 

[frodo1008]

But I do not think that Sirius or Betelgeuse for that matter) ever "blinks", does it?

Perhaps in either poor light conditions or extremely high winds?

But those conditions would cause intermediate "blinks" and not regular ones every 12 seconds.

Could perhaps any real professional astronomer give us an answer?

 

[frodo1008]

But I do not think that Sirius or Betelgeuse for that matter) ever "blinks", does it?

Perhaps in either poor light conditions or extremely high winds?

But those conditions would cause intermediate "blinks" and not regular ones every 12 seconds.

Could perhaps any real professional astronomer give us an answer?

 

[adrenalynn]

Sirius ALWAYS appears to blink, every night it's visible. You have but to go outside to observe it. Betelgeuse near rise/set.

If by "real" - you mean someone that knows what they're talking about - I already have commented, thanks.

Here's Sirius flickering away right this very instant. 38.4 deg F, calm 0.0mph, 67% humidity, clear, good transparency and seeing. Alas, this video camera won't grab anything as dim as Orion. Maybe the HD cam will... [shrug] Regardless - just about anyone in the US can walk out right now and observe the effect for themselves. This time of year it's low enough to flicker nicely - and as bright as it is, it's hard to miss.

http://www.jlrdesigns.com/sirius.wmv <--- video

Zen: "Doggedly So".

 

[MeteorWayne]

Actually, almost all stars "blink" almost all the time. Sirius is the most noticeable for 3 reasons. It's the brightest star in the sky, about 3.5 times brighter than any other. Also, it is one of the dozen or so stars that are bright enough to activate the cones in your eye, so you can see color. Finally, it never gets very far above the horizon, so the larger distance of atmosphere it has to pass through enhances the likelyhood of extreme brightness and color variations.

Two other stars in Orion are bright enough to show color. Betelgeuse, which is reddish to begin with, but is higher in the sky, the upper left shoulder (in the northern hemisphere) , so generally twinkles less, and Rigel on the lower right "knee", which is close to the same altitude but over 3 times dimmer.

MW

 

[frodo1008]

Thank you both. Could this "blinking" then be the very blinking that the person that started this thread (the OP?) have seen?

He stated that the blinking was quite regular, is that normal for such star blinking?

I have seen Sirius when it did not appear to be blinking, but then I also live in the relatively polluted air of Los Angeles, so perhaps that acts somewhat like a filter. In fact, when you can see the stars at all they seem to be relatively calm, and the last time I was out in the desert area where you can even see the Milky Way, I do not remember them either blinking or not blinking as that was quite some time ago.

But I can certainly see where the stars should blink as the atmosphere is in constant motion.

The only thing that I can think of that would blink in a relative slow and regular manner would be a satellite that was rotating in LEO, or aircraft lights that are meant to blink. But they would be moving relative to the Earth, would they not?

 

[MeteorWayne]

Well, regarding stars, the blinking can seem regular, though it probably isn't. Hard to tell with the OP, since he never answered andy of the questions I asked for clarification. I can imagine upper air eddies that might cause semi-regular patterns.

As for sats, many do have regular patterns, many irregular, and many first time observers often don't notice slow motion (for example note how many Iridium reports state the flare didn't move, when they clearly do), but several 12 minute cycles is way too long for an LEO sat. Of course, ot could have been multiple sats, for example the Iridiums occur every 9 minutes as each sat in the plane passes the sweet spot.

Wayne