01-26-2025, 11:40 AM
This post was last modified 01-26-2025, 11:48 AM by argentus. Edited 1 time in total.
I am not attempting to debunk your sighting; I have seen many things I couldn't readily explain in my life as well.
I'm curious though, was this in your southern sky? I guess you know what your namesake looks like, and because Sirius is often visible low on the horizon, through the "thickness" of Earth's atmosphere, it often appears to flash/change colors. It's also the star with the largest magnitude (from our perspective).
Whenever I have seen something like this, I usually go to heavens-above . com and see if it is a currently tracked satellite or other known celestial object. Some of the satellites and geosynchronous, and therefore appear stationary.
Of course, there are lots of satellites that for various reasons aren't listed there. It's become a hobby to find out when close (and bright) passes of various things are going to happen and then go look for them. If you haven't used heavens-above, you can put in your specific location and selection the various objects, like the ISS, satellites, etc. and find out exactly when they will be visible at your location.
Once I've done all that, then I feel particularly lucky to have seen something truly unexplainable. I have seen three different objects in my life that were not only unidentified, but in my humble amateur armchair scientist opinion, could not have been of human origin.
thanks for this fascinating thread! I'll be watching
ETA: I meant to add that when I first started looking at Heavens-above it was because I saw a flash in the sky that appeared to move. It turned out to be a trackable satellite that slowly turns and reflects off sunlight. They used to call them Irridium flares, but these days are much less frequent, as the Iridium class of satellites are being phased out for the less reflective NEXT satellites.
I'm curious though, was this in your southern sky? I guess you know what your namesake looks like, and because Sirius is often visible low on the horizon, through the "thickness" of Earth's atmosphere, it often appears to flash/change colors. It's also the star with the largest magnitude (from our perspective).
Whenever I have seen something like this, I usually go to heavens-above . com and see if it is a currently tracked satellite or other known celestial object. Some of the satellites and geosynchronous, and therefore appear stationary.
Of course, there are lots of satellites that for various reasons aren't listed there. It's become a hobby to find out when close (and bright) passes of various things are going to happen and then go look for them. If you haven't used heavens-above, you can put in your specific location and selection the various objects, like the ISS, satellites, etc. and find out exactly when they will be visible at your location.
Once I've done all that, then I feel particularly lucky to have seen something truly unexplainable. I have seen three different objects in my life that were not only unidentified, but in my humble amateur armchair scientist opinion, could not have been of human origin.
thanks for this fascinating thread! I'll be watching
ETA: I meant to add that when I first started looking at Heavens-above it was because I saw a flash in the sky that appeared to move. It turned out to be a trackable satellite that slowly turns and reflects off sunlight. They used to call them Irridium flares, but these days are much less frequent, as the Iridium class of satellites are being phased out for the less reflective NEXT satellites.
"Pseudoscience depending for its “truth” on consensus is deeply hostile to challenge." -- Rael Jean Isaac
