Expert help wanted

FiannaGym.com

Hi there,

I currently have a wager that I need settled. I was hoping someone with more knowledge than I (i.e. everyone) would answer this for me.

Last night in Dublin (Thursday) there was a whole load of lights flashing back and forth on the clouds. It followed a steady pattern and repeated in a mechanical fashion (like clock work). It was white in colour.

So the two sides of this wager are;

1. It was The northern lights
2. It was a ligth on the ground refelcting off the clouds.

Could an expert explain this?

Thanks a million

Peace

User45701

Well since you posted a thread with this title i have a question i would like answered as well

If a star went nova a about 40,000 years ago it would take said many years for light from the initial implosion to reach us, what would it look like because i once witnessed a massive light that seemed to emanate from a single distant point in space. It was very VERY bright but only seemed to cover a small section of the sky ( it was still big when i say small i mean compared to my entire field of vision of the night sky, the event occurred in October or November 6 years ago, anyone ever read anything on this

sorry i could not answer your own question i should guess northern lights but i thought there was no hope in hell of seeing them from a city

Trogdor

I suppose it really depends how thick the cloud in your area was. There would have been Northern lights visible over most of the country last night if it hadn't been so damn cloudy. It certainly sounds like northern lights rather than urban glow which is the reflection of a big town/city because i have never heard of urban glow getting brighter and darker or flashing. This is just my guess though, i'm no expert

murphyme

I've seen these. I believe one of the night clubs in the city centre (or there abouts) has a laser type set-up to do this.

Michael.

The tax man

It was one of those dancing spot light things that clubs/pubs/hotels tend to use every now and again. I've seen them too over the past few nights.

arybvtcw0eolkf

The tax man wrote:

It was one of those dancing spot light things that clubs/pubs/hotels tend to use every now and again. I've seen them too over the past few nights.

The Bondi club in Stillorgan has a particularly strong light/lazer display at the moment.

Flukey

FiannaGym, the Northern lights are not mechanical. They would be above the clouds and appear like waves in the sky. They would be varied in colour. Go to Google and search for Northern Lights under images and you will see what they look like. There is some Northern lights activity due now, but that does not sound like what you saw. It sounds more like spotlights. There is at least one place in south county Dublin, the Bondi Beach night club, as mentioned that have been doing that for a few weeks now. If you live in that area, you may have seen those. If it wasn't them, there are often such lights at different times in different locations, so I would say that is what you were seeing. I don't know if I have won or lost your bet.

User45701, what you saw could have been anything. We'd need a bit more information. Was it a one off, over in a few seconds, or for a prolonged period? Was it constantly there, moving slowly, like a star across the night sky? If it was very bright, it could even have been a planet. There are lots of things it could have been. I can't say which it was though. I doubt it was a star going nova though.

FiannaGym.com

Yes, they are the bondi beach night club lights, and I'm €100 richer. Still haven't collected though.

Flukey, I've seen the Northern Lights first hand so no need to google them. Also astronamy Ireland emailed me to say that while an Aurora warning was issued for the other night, there were no sightings (and who could have missed the effect the bondi each night club was having on the clouds if looking up). I also went onto the space envoirnment centre website ( http://sec.noaa.gov/index.html ) to check out how strong the solar effects would be that night and even if you were in total darkness in a high place looking north I think you'd be fairly lucky to have seen anything.

Thanks for the help guys


Peace

The Hill Billy

FYI - The Northern Lights were visible on Friday night from Skerries looking north over the sea. Visible only as a constant blue light on the nothern horizon.

Flukey

I have seen them, but living on the southside of Dublin it means looking towards the city lights and associated light pollution in order to do so, so the effect would not be as powerful. My back garden is south facing, and my bedroom looks out that way too. A few years ago I was looking out and the sky did look a bit red. I didn't think much about it. The next day though, I heard reports of there having been a very strong appearance of the Northern Lights the night beforehand. I regretted not having gone outside to have a proper look or not having looked out of the northside of the house.

Khannie

Hill Billy wrote:

FYI - The Northern Lights were visible on Friday night from Skerries looking north over the sea. Visible only as a constant blue light on the nothern horizon.

Missed them that night, though I have seen very clearly them from Skerries before.

User45701

Flukey wrote:

User45701, what you saw could have been anything. We'd need a bit more information. Was it a one off, over in a few seconds, or for a prolonged period? Was it constantly there, moving slowly, like a star across the night sky? If it was very bright, it could even have been a planet. There are lots of things it could have been. I can't say which it was though. I doubt it was a star going nova though.

Well it only lasted about a a second or at most 2 seconds it was more of a quick flash and it was more like being in the dark and someone flicking on and then off a torch in your face.....

I didn't see anything but the light no movement so i ruled out any of that UFO stuff along with asteroid or comet but surely in therey if a star located about 40,000 light years went nova 40,000 years ago we would see it today/tonite (40,000 years later) and im assuming it would just be spotted as a bright quick flash.

Flukey

A star going nova would be more than just a quick flash, so I doubt it was that. Something like that would be well reported anyhow. It was probably something else, maybe not astronomy related at all. It is hard to say for sure.

amen

a star going nova may produce light that last several seconds/minutes/hours/days/weeks/months

chinese astonomers reports a start going nova during 10/11th century and at night time light was sufficently bright to read by and cast shadows and lasted several days. In this case the nova was prob very local our sun

Redshift

amen wrote:

a star going nova may produce light that last several seconds/minutes/hours/days/weeks/months

chinese astonomers reports a start going nova during 10/11th century and at night time light was sufficently bright to read by and cast shadows and lasted several days. In this case the nova was prob very local our sun

This particular Supernova was visible in daylight and was second only to the full moon in brightness in the night sky, if I remember correctly it was said to have been visible for some 18 months.
The remnant of this supernova is now visible as the crab nebula.

The bright flash that User45701 reported sounds like an Iridium Flare