What did I see?

Last night it was too hot to sleep so I spent a little time with the
stars. The sky was clear but bright (Los Angeles County); I could see
all four of the faint stars in the Little Dipper, and there was a hint
of Milky Way in Cygnus.

At 2004 Aug 09 07:17 UTC (12:17 local time), I was looking at Lyra,
trying to split epsilon Lyrae with my unaided eye, when there appeared
a stationary flash of light about 5 degrees west of Vega. It brightened
gradually and faded gradually, with a total duration of about a second.
It peaked at 2nd magnitude. I don't remember a color, but it was
definitely not as blue as Vega nor as red as say Arcturus. And it
didn't
appear to move.

It wasn't an Iridium flare (I checked).

It probably wasn't an airplane -- no motion, and the wrong part of the
sky. The flight paths into LAX and BUR go either way south or way west
of us, and this was quite high in the sky.

The most probable cause was a head-on meteor -- but this happened in the
western part of the sky (definitely not a Perseid) -- what are the
chances that a sporadic meteor would appear in the NW *and* be headed
straight for me?

Any other possibilities? Gamma-ray burst? I'm still puzzling.

-- Bill Owen (still able to split eps Lyr, although it was a lot easier
when my eyes were 30 years younger!)

On Mon, 09 Aug 2004 14:49:59 -0700, Bill Owen wrote:

Last night it was too hot to sleep so I spent a little time with the
stars. The sky was clear but bright (Los Angeles County); I could see
all four of the faint stars in the Little Dipper, and there was a hint
of Milky Way in Cygnus.

At 2004 Aug 09 07:17 UTC (12:17 local time), I was looking at Lyra,
trying to split epsilon Lyrae with my unaided eye, when there appeared
a stationary flash of light about 5 degrees west of Vega. It brightened
gradually and faded gradually, with a total duration of about a second.
It peaked at 2nd magnitude. I don't remember a color, but it was
definitely not as blue as Vega nor as red as say Arcturus. And it
didn't
appear to move.

It wasn't an Iridium flare (I checked).

It probably wasn't an airplane -- no motion, and the wrong part of the
sky. The flight paths into LAX and BUR go either way south or way west
of us, and this was quite high in the sky.

The most probable cause was a head-on meteor -- but this happened in the
western part of the sky (definitely not a Perseid) -- what are the
chances that a sporadic meteor would appear in the NW *and* be headed
straight for me?

Any other possibilities? Gamma-ray burst? I'm still puzzling.

-- Bill Owen (still able to split eps Lyr, although it was a lot easier
when my eyes were 30 years younger!)

See your Doctor at once. I won't elaborate, I don't want to worry you too
much.

"Bill Owen" wrote in message
...
Last night it was too hot to sleep so I spent a little time with the
stars. The sky was clear but bright (Los Angeles County); I could see
all four of the faint stars in the Little Dipper, and there was a hint
of Milky Way in Cygnus.

At 2004 Aug 09 07:17 UTC (12:17 local time), I was looking at Lyra,
trying to split epsilon Lyrae with my unaided eye, when there appeared
a stationary flash of light about 5 degrees west of Vega. It brightened
gradually and faded gradually, with a total duration of about a second.
It peaked at 2nd magnitude. I don't remember a color, but it was
definitely not as blue as Vega nor as red as say Arcturus. And it
didn't
appear to move.

It wasn't an Iridium flare (I checked).

It probably wasn't an airplane -- no motion, and the wrong part of the
sky. The flight paths into LAX and BUR go either way south or way west
of us, and this was quite high in the sky.

The most probable cause was a head-on meteor -- but this happened in the
western part of the sky (definitely not a Perseid) -- what are the
chances that a sporadic meteor would appear in the NW *and* be headed
straight for me?

Any other possibilities? Gamma-ray burst? I'm still puzzling.


As Spock would say...Facinating! You can't say you saw a UFO because it
wasn't flying (was stationary).
You can say, that yes, a strait on meteor was heading your way. IMHO