White flash appears in Geosynchronous orbit lasting for 1.5 seconds.
On the early evening of 10/14 my wife and I saw what can only be described as a flash. Sky gazing in the high desert of Strawberry AZ near Fossil creek just after sunset I saw a flash of light. In a dark area between stars the flash occurred lasting about 1-2 seconds. It reached a brightness dimmer than ISS but brighter than many stars. It went from 0 brightness to full brightness and back to 0 at equal speed, I'd say 1.5 sec total. I did not move at all. I am an amateur astronomer and I know the stars and satellites, this was nothing I'd seen before. If it is a man made satellite then it's a geosynchronous one but why would it flash? If it were tumbling like an iridium flare it would pulse at an even rate not flash once. This flashed once and then again about 10 min later in I believe a different area but close. My wife saw it the second time, I did not. This exact same report came to me from a friend of mine when we were home in Phoenix, he had been on a h! ike in the mtn preserve and when he came home he reported the event, just like what I had seen. I figure it has to be a satellite but doing what? Rotating a camera, antenna, solar panel??? it's strange. I'd be curious to know if anybody else has reported this type of observation. The color was white-ish blue very star like.
On the early evening of 10/14 my wife and I saw what can only be described as a flash. Sky gazing in the high desert of Strawberry AZ near Fossil creek just after sunset I saw a flash of light. In a dark area between stars the flash occurred lasting about 1-2 seconds. It reached a brightness dimmer than ISS but brighter than many stars. It went from 0 brightness to full brightness and back to 0 at equal speed, I'd say 1.5 sec total. I did not move at all. I am an amateur astronomer and I know the stars and satellites, this was nothing I'd seen before. If it is a man made satellite then it's a geosynchronous one but why would it flash? If it were tumbling like an iridium flare it would pulse at an even rate not flash once. This flashed once and then again about 10 min later in I believe a different area but close. My wife saw it the second time, I did not. This exact same report came to me from a friend of mine when we were home in Phoenix, he had been on a h! ike in the mtn preserve and when he came home he reported the event, just like what I had seen. I figure it has to be a satellite but doing what? Rotating a camera, antenna, solar panel??? it's strange. I'd be curious to know if anybody else has reported this type of observation. The color was white-ish blue very star like.
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Strawberry
USA
1.5 seconds
1.5 seconds
34.34
-111.54
flash
AZ
Occurred : 10/14/2011 18:30 (Entered as : 10/14/11 18:30) Reported: 10/25/2011 10:39:59 PM 22:39 Posted: 12/12/2011 Location: Strawberry, AZ Shape: Flash Duration: 1.5 seconds
White flash appears in Geosynchronous orbit lasting for 1.5 seconds.