What is this?
Taken by Adam on October 25, 2014 @
Luray, Virginia, USA
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Camera Used: Unavailable Unavailable
Exposure Time: Unavailable
Aperture: Unavailable
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Date Taken: Unavailable
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Details:
I stargaze a lot. This past Saturday,10/25/14, I had someone with me. We both saw this object at the same time. And before anyone says it's a pixel issue. It's not. I was able to capture the object with 2 cameras. These 2 images are from each camera. I have not personally seen an Iridium flare but I know what they look like. This was no flare. A lot of times when I am stargazing I will see a very quick, and sometimes bright, flash of light. As if someone in space took a picture with the flash on. This happened Saturday evening with another witness with me at 8:26 to 8:30 just before the ISS made a pass. But instead of just a single flash it continued to flash every 4 to 8 seconds and was moving. I quickly raised the binoculars up to where the flash was and I saw a very, very faint speck of light moving rather fast towards the South. The only pattern was 2 very fast flashes. I say in total both flashes last about .15 of a second. It was very fast but noticeable. At it's brightest, the flashes were about a -5 magnitude. The object itself varied in sustained brightness but was no brighter than a 3 magnitude and at times it dimmed so much you couldn't see it until it flashed again. I followed it as it was going South until I couldn't see it anymore. Total view time was around 4 minutes. One camera used is a Canon PowerShot SX130 IS, 15sec at 1600ISO. The other is a Canon PowerShot SX510 HS, 15sec at 80 ISO. I combined the pictures with StarStax. The spots pointed out is the flash of the object. What could it have been? Space junk?
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