Mystery flare, from Terry Moseley:
"While observing a pass of the ISS tonight (now last night, July 10!) , I saw a bright 'star' temporarily appear, brighten to about zero magnitude, and then fade again to invisibility over a period of about 10 seconds, at around 23.15 BST. It was in the general region of Gamma Ophiuchi, although the sky was too bright, with too few stars visible, for me to get an accurate position. AHA, you'll say - an Iridium Flare! Well, I've seen nearly seven hundred Iridium Flares - I actually make a point of observing them - and I don't think it was one.
Firstly, there were none predicted for anywhere close to that time or in that position. I know that there are 'rogue Iridiums' which are not under control, and which therefore cannot be predicted, and I've seen, and logged, 16 of those. BUT - they usually appear in roughly the same quadrant of the sky as the predicted flares, since the Sun-Earth-Satellite angle is similar. And this was in the opposite side of the sky to all the predicted flares for the current period.
Secondly, it really did appear to be stationary. Now I know that since there were few stars visible because of the sky brightness, I could be deceived about that. But it appeared not very far above the roof of my house, which provides a good stationary reference point, and I'm 98% certain it did not move by more than a degree or so, if at all, during the period of observation. All Iridium flares I've seen would show detectable motion over that period.
It could of course have been a very high slow moving satellite, but it would be VERY rare for such a high (and the high ones are nearly all fairly small) satellite to show such a remarkable brightening.
I did not see it brighten from invisibility up to maximum, as I was observing the ISS further to the West, but it wasn't visible when I first went out to look for the ISS, and I had a good look round the perfectly clear sky to see what stars were visible. It was only as the ISS came up out of the West towards the South that I noticed this mystery object. I did a quick double take - checked my bearings - Arcturus to the SW, Altair to the SE - and it obviously should not have been there! It was about mag 1 when I saw it. That's when I started watching it instead of the ISS. It reached about mag. zero (about = Arcturus) at its brightest, and stayed at about that brightness for a few seconds, and I then saw it gradually fade from about zero mag to invisibility. The colour was sort of creamy yellow. It could have been a deceptive 'Rogue Iridium', but I don't think so!
SO - DID ANYBODY ELSE SEE THIS? My location is Glengormley, 54 deg 39.9' N, 5 deg 57.2' W, alt about 120m."
If you have happened to see this please contact us.