<p>The sky was particularly clear last night and I noticed an extremely bright star. I thought it was venus possibly but it was too low down and was flickering craziy. That meant that it couldn't be a sattelite because they don't emit their own flashing light. So I just left it, assuming it was a close star. Then when I looked up at around 9 it had shifted to the right. I know stars move but it had only been about 30 minute since I'd last checked and it had moved across my vision. So it wasn't fast enough to be a meteor or sattelite etc but definitely wasn't a star because it was visibly moving and i tracked it throughout the night as it got lower and moved east. By 10pm it had moved all the way to the edge of my vision, I had to crane my neck to see it from the window. I had also been tracking the other stars just to check the rate at which they were moving. Orion's belt had moved a little (as expected) but obviously not as fast as this object. They were both moving in the same direction east but the object was also moving significantly south, therefore unaligned with anything I could see. After some researching I have concluded that it could have been sirius, the brightest star, south-west of Orion's belt but I'm just not believing that it would have moved that fast. So ultimately I'm sure it isn't something too whacky but are there any other explanations? :)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-08T11:44:27.340Z
Stars don't flash either, but they do twinkle, especially when they're close to the horizon. And the amount of twinkling is affected by variations in the air density caused by temperature and humidity. Stars don't move independently of the other stars, they all rotate together around the celestial pole. So I don't think the thing you saw was a star.
PM 2Ring
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-08T12:20:15.107Z
Exactly, it's position was relative to Orion's belt at first but I'm pretty sure they're seperate.  Thank you though, any ideas of what it  be?
chiara
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-08T12:25:25.800Z
Sorry, no idea. It sounds like it's moving the wrong way to be something astronomical, but it's also moving too slowly to be a plane. Maybe some kind of balloon? But that's a weird time to be flying a balloon.
PM 2Ring
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-08T13:19:21.277Z
Exactly. Yeah we can rule out plane, star/planet, balloon, asteroid... I'll look out for it again tonight but I literally have no idea.
chiara
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-08T15:31:31.320Z
Orion's belt was not moving to the east. All stars move from east to west during the night (except for stars near the celestial pole. Describing their motion gets more complicated.) Where in the world are you located?
JohnHoltz
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-08T15:53:13.203Z
From my view out the window it looked like it moved to the right.. I'm not facing north but I meant from where I was looking it was moving 'east'.
chiara
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-08T16:01:49.963Z
I'm facing 240° south west.
chiara
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-10T00:31:17.170Z
You'll need to state date time and location (city town close enough). There are online planetarium programs which will need that info. Try https://in-the-sky.org/skymap.php or https://theskylive.com/planetarium. For satellites use https://www.heavens-above.com/
TazAstroSpacial
<star><amateur-observing><light><asteroids><natural-satellites>
Slow moving, flashing star-like object in the sky. What could it be?
chiara
# Slow moving, flashing star-like object in the sky. What could it be?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-03-08)

The sky was particularly clear last night and I noticed an extremely bright star. I thought it was venus possibly but it was too low down and was flickering craziy. That meant that it couldn't be a sattelite because they don't emit their own flashing light. So I just left it, assuming it was a close star. Then when I looked up at around 9 it had shifted to the right. I know stars move but it had only been about 30 minute since I'd last checked and it had moved across my vision. So it wasn't fast enough to be a meteor or sattelite etc but definitely wasn't a star because it was visibly moving and i tracked it throughout the night as it got lower and moved east. By 10pm it had moved all the way to the edge of my vision, I had to crane my neck to see it from the window. I had also been tracking the other stars just to check the rate at which they were moving. Orion's belt had moved a little (as expected) but obviously not as fast as this object. They were both moving in the same direction east but the object was also moving significantly south, therefore unaligned with anything I could see. After some researching I have concluded that it could have been sirius, the brightest star, south-west of Orion's belt but I'm just not believing that it would have moved that fast. So ultimately I'm sure it isn't something too whacky but are there any other explanations? :)

**Tags:** star, amateur-observing, light, asteroids, natural-satellites

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Stars don't flash either, but they do twinkle, especially when they're close to the horizon. And the amount of twinkling is affected by variations in the air density caused by temperature and humidity. Stars don't move independently of the other stars, they all rotate together around the celestial pole. So I don't think the thing you saw was a star.  
> **username_0**: Exactly, it's position was relative to Orion's belt at first but I'm pretty sure they're seperate.  Thank you though, any ideas of what it  be?  
> **username_1**: Sorry, no idea. It sounds like it's moving the wrong way to be something astronomical, but it's also moving too slowly to be a plane. Maybe some kind of balloon? But that's a weird time to be flying a balloon.  
> **username_0**: Exactly. Yeah we can rule out plane, star/planet, balloon, asteroid... I'll look out for it again tonight but I literally have no idea.  
> **username_2**: Orion's belt was not moving to the east. All stars move from east to west during the night (except for stars near the celestial pole. Describing their motion gets more complicated.) Where in the world are you located?  
> **username_0**: From my view out the window it looked like it moved to the right.. I'm not facing north but I meant from where I was looking it was moving 'east'.  
> **username_0**: I'm facing 240° south west.  
> **username_3**: You'll need to state date time and location (city town close enough). There are online planetarium programs which will need that info. Try https://in-the-sky.org/skymap.php or https://theskylive.com/planetarium. For satellites use https://www.heavens-above.com/  

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## 0 answers

