2012-02-21 - Stephens City, VA - Light

Star-like light disappears and reappears multiple times in stationary position

I arrived home after shopping and noticed a very bright light in the Eastern sky. I hadn't recalled seeing a bright star in that area before and decided to watch it. I went inside and got my video camera and came back. I observed the object for about 10 minutes and decided to continue observing inside as it was cold. After a few minutes inside I noticed the object dim and completely fade out. This only took a few seconds. About 5 to 8 seconds later, it came back into full brilliance again, not like a light turning on, but from dim to full brilliance in about 3 or 4 seconds. I went onto the back porch and tried to film this several times, but it was difficult keeping my hand held camera still, especially at full zoom. I decided to go back to the driveway and rested my arms on my car. I was finally able to capture a clear portion where the light fades out. The camera seemed to continuously re-focus itself and the next few times that it appears to fade out it! is really just the camera re-focusing. However, the first time on the video, it does completely disappear as I was literally keeping one eye on the camera and one eye free to watch the light. It faded several times as I watched with the naked eye as well prior to filming. I determined that this was not clouds blocking the object as has been suggested. I observed several other dimmer stars that could be observed through the thin clouds that were present. Also, the clouds were moving much too slow to cause the light to fade so quickly and return so quickly. I checked the skies about 1 hour later and the light was gone. I will re-check the area tonight at 8:30pm and if the skies are clear and no light is visible, this will eliminate the possibility that the object was a star.