Poll: Strange light in the sky.

[AlexWinter]

Quick question.

It's about half past midnight here in south-east England.

I was just reading a book outside when I looked up, something must have caught my eye.

My gaze settled almost instantly on a seemingly unimportant, though rather bright, star.

Said star grew brighter and brighter and then simply faded away with out moving.

I watched the space for a few moments but nothing reappeared.

Now I'm going to make this very clear. I don't think it was a UFO of the extraterrestrial kind.

However I've never seen anything like it before. My first thought was supernova, but that would have lasted many days and possibly be in the news beforehand.

Has anyone ever seen anything similar or have any idea what it could be? My best guess is a small piece of space debris just crashed into a satellite, resulting in lots of flames but that wouldn't be stationary.

I'd love to hear any theories fellow members might have.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

Are you sure it disappeared completely?

 

[AlexWinter]

Are you sure it disappeared completely?

Pretty sure. Didn't move just faded out of sight in about five seconds.

 

[octafish]

I've seen a similar thing, but it reappeared a little way away and disappeared again and reappeared again and so on. Turns out what I saw was an artificial satellite spinning and only reflecting light off one side. Could it have been that? When I saw it the light seemed stationary.

 

[Stealthygamer]

IT WAS WHEATLEY. No, it was probably just a satellite crashing

 

[Xaryn Mar]

None of the above. It is most likely an iridium flash which is an iridium satelite reflecting the sun.
There are several if them during a night.

You can go to heavensabove.com and see which satelites where overhead at that time.

 

[J-dog42]

I once saw a giant orange orb glowing in the sky. It just sat there not moving. It was night time as well, so I'm not making some stupid joke about the sun. I didn't want to tell anyone because they may have thought I was crazy. But no one on the internet knows me, so I'm all good.

 

[Squarez]

It's called The Sun, it's this large flaming ball of gas in space.

I know we don't get to see it much in England, but it's probably best that you familiarise yourself with it, especially as it's prone to appearing from and disappearing behind clouds without warning.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

I have no clue what most UFOs are. I belive in aliens but I don't really think UFOs are alien.It could be an asteroid. Could be a stealth craft. It could be alot of things.

 

[Squarez]

I once saw a giant orange orb glowing in the sky. It just sat there not moving. It was night time as well, so I'm not making some stupid joke about the sun. I didn't want to tell anyone because they may have thought I was crazy. But no one on the internet knows me, so I'm all good.

You *****...

Ninja'd.

 

[Harlemura]

Maybe it's bedtime at the International Space Station, so they had to turn out all the lights.

That's my way of saying I have no idea. Unless it was your mind playing tricks or something. I've never seen anything weird like that myself, anyway.

 

[viranimus]

You do realize this is meteor shower season, right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseids

What you saw was likely a meteor on a non opposed tragectory headed in the direction you were facing.

Or its an advance relay team that is triangulating your position in order to capture and probe you for SCIENCE!

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

I saw something like that right above my house a couple of years ago.
It was probably a weather balloon or something similar.

 

[Princess Rose]

It's about half past midnight here in south-east England.

I was just reading a book outside when I looked up, something must have caught my eye.

My gaze settled almost instantly on a seemingly unimportant, though rather bright, star.

Said star grew brighter and brighter and then simply faded away with out moving.

Helicopter. Their spotlight can look like a star from far enough away, and if they turn it away from you (or just fly far enough away) it can seem to disappear like that.

Considering the current state of England, that seems like the most logical choice.

I mean, I suppose it could be aliens, but really, if they're hanging out observing the riots, then they're obviously red-neck aliens.

 

[Xaryn Mar]

Ahh yes.
It might just have been a meteor from the perseids just as @viranimus wrote.

 

[AlexWinter]

You do realize this is meteor shower season, right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseids

What you saw was likely a meteor on a non opposed tragectory headed in the direction you were facing.

Or its an advance relay team that is triangulating your position in order to capture and probe you for SCIENCE!

I watched that shower last year and saw a meteor last night and this was nothing like it. Unless this was coming straight towards me it would have had a tail.

I've seen a similar thing, but it reappeared a little way away and disappeared again and reappeared again and so on. Turns out what I saw was an artificial satellite spinning and only reflecting light off one side. Could it have been that? When I saw it the light seemed stationary.

This sounds likely but I've seen satellites before and they've never been that bright and always moving slowly.

 

[eggy32]

Are you sure you weren't just looking at the moon without blinking and your vision became blurred do you blinked and were looking at a different spot once you opened your eyes?

 

[Total LOLige]

Flying saucer, "It's probin' time!"

 

[AlexWinter]

Are you sure you weren't just looking at the moon without blinking and your vision became blurred do you blinked and were looking at a different spot once you opened your eyes?

Is this a serious question?

 

[EBonhawk09]

My guess is that it was just a small meteorite or piece of debris that created a brief flash of light as it burned up in the atmosphere and faded away as it disintegrated.