Recent comments in /f/space

Ape_Togetha_Strong t1_j8g62jo wrote

Look, you're not doing a great job of saying what exactly is confusing you, so I'm not sure where to start.

The earth spins. That means that all the things in the sky are always moving. The sun sets because the Earth spins. Stars also rise and set just like the sun. The angle they trace through the sky varies depending on where they lie on the celestial sphere. If you're really saying that you don't think it could be a star because you're under the impression that stars don't move below the horizon, then I can assure you they do.

It sounds to me like you saw a star twinkling near the horizon and then setting.

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Andyman0110 OP t1_j8g41jv wrote

It didn't seem like any of the other ones were also moving beyond the horizon. This one was brighter than anything else in the sky and didn't seem like it was part of any constellation. I'm not an expert I just genuinely am not trying to mark it off as something it isn't. A lot of these answers do provide partial explanations but all of the circumstances together always provides a gap in the suggestions mentioned.

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Andyman0110 OP t1_j8g2rjw wrote

Wouldn't a star appear fixed and not moving? It definitely looks like what I was seeing, except for the movement. I was pretty sure no matter what, stars are so far away that they don't move past the horizon of our view. I might be wrong. The app another user suggested I download showed Sirius in the south east but the object I saw was very clearly south west.

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Andyman0110 OP t1_j8fvdmo wrote

I don't think this is necessarily true. I can post photos I took of the moon vs this object. I can literally see the craters on the moon but I can't make out a single detail on this object other than light. It was also more twinkling colors rather than a proper blinking at intervals. I tried to get a photo of when it appeared red but I got two that are green and one white photo. I really really doubt it's a plane. I know what they look like. It also wouldn't sit an hour in my vision, moving as slowly as it did without changing size or light intensity.

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Andyman0110 OP t1_j8ficgd wrote

Usually I can see the details of an airplane, like the shape and what not. I don't live far from an airport so generally I can hear and see them pretty well. I used my phone to zoom in 30x which usually let's me see even windows on a plane. This was still just an orb of light at max zoom.

I thought maybe a drone too, but it was flying for over an hour and was really far but still very bright. It seemed a little unlikely although it's not impossible. It really seemed to be in space and not in earth's atmosphere. Sirius is a bit too far east to be what I saw.

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Waddensky t1_j8fhilw wrote

How did you know that it was further than an airplane? It's very hard to judge distances in the sky if your only reference is a light.

My first hunch would be a drone, they have blinking lights in different colours and move erratically.

Another suggestion is Sirius, a bright star well-known for it's twinkling and apparent rapid colour changing.

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weathercat4 t1_j8fhg07 wrote

That's called scintillation, it's cause by turbulence in the atmosphere refracting the light around. It's mostly noticable on bright objects near the horizon because you are looking through more atmosphere.

The apparent zipping around you described is another interesting illusion.

https://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/autokinetic-effect-2.php

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Rain1dog t1_j8ev4tx wrote

I was just watching “Tokyo Lense” a YouTube channel about a guy who documents his life in Japan and this world is so incredibly beautiful. I wish I had infinite money in more than 80 years cause this little rock we’re on his quite sexy..

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