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Just been out with Ted. Whilst playing ball in the fields a bright 'flare' caught my eye. By the time I'd looked up at it, it was fading, back to the only star visible in the sky, about 45 degrees above the remaining colour of the sunset. I'd say I was looking between SW and W, but had no compass with me and couldn't see the pole star so I'm just going on memory of it's position. We were on a hill above Stone in the midlands.
I'd say it was between 16:20 and 16:50. I'm pretty sure what it faded back to didn't move (significantly) in the sky over the half hour after I saw it. It was many, many times brighter than any star or planet I have ever seen in the sky. Any ideas what I might have seen? I'm thinking a satellite flare, but I've never seen one before, and thought they only occurred low to the horizon. This one must have been geostationary, and I've never heard of that before.
Baby robin on re-entry
Defo an iridium flare.
[url= http://www.heavens-above.com/?lat=50.72673&lng=-3.51202&loc=Unspecified&alt=0&tz=CET ]good website that predicts them[/url]
Quadrantids meteor shower should be around at the moment...
[url] http://spaceweather.com/meteors/quadrantids/quadrantids.html [/url]
must have been a satellite of some kind. cool!
[url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/galileo-was-wrong-geocentrism-ftw#post-1801162 ]iridium flare [/url]
Would you be looking toward the Cosford / Wrekin?
A) Chopper over Cosford?
B) light on the TV tower on top of the Wrekin?
Both sites would be roughly SW of Stone and as you say you were on a hill
Chinese lantern? They have had me over before when you catch them out the corner of your eye, especially when they get quite high. Then they fade and burn out. They do look odd when your not sure what it is.
Second on the Chinese Lantern. Seems to be loads in the skies at the moment.
Thanks for the info. From the links I'd say it was pretty much definitely a satellite flare, that coincided with the only visible star at the time. Armed with the info on the linked site I'll try and purposefully observe another to make sure, but Occam's Razor tells me this was more likely than observing a star go super-nova with the naked eye!