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Last night at around 11:00pm EST, I was outside doing some backyard astronomy. After looking at Jupiter for a little bit through my telescope I decided to do some ‘shooting star’ watching. I set up a lawn chair and looked up at the nice, clear sky. I saw a couple of faint meteors and a few satellites pass overhead. At around 11:30, after shifting position, now looking to the East, I saw a bright flash in the corner of my eye. I thought it had been a bright meteor that I had just missed so I turned to where I had seen it and just looked in that direction (in Cygnus). About 2 minutes later I saw, at least I THINK I saw, a faint star in Cygnus flare up very quickly in brightness and then die down. It only lasted about a second or two at the very most but it was bright enough for me to stand up and just stare in that direction out of disbelief for about 5 minutes. To me, it looked like it had gotten as bright as Jupiter was, which was on the opposite side of the sky. Anyway, after that, I went inside and got a pair of binoculars and looked at the star where I had seen it. But nothing seemed odd about it. I observed it for about 10 or 15 minutes, but it just looked normal.
Attached is a chart where I saw the flash.
Anyway, what the heck was it? Am I crazy? I do notice that I am prone to phosphenes [A sensation of light caused by excitation of the retina by mechanical or electrical means rather than by light, as when the eyeballs are pressed through closed lids. –Dictionary.com], but all the ones I’ve had didn’t at all look like what I experienced and didn’t last nearly as long.
Any help would be great, thanks!
Attached is a chart where I saw the flash.
Anyway, what the heck was it? Am I crazy? I do notice that I am prone to phosphenes [A sensation of light caused by excitation of the retina by mechanical or electrical means rather than by light, as when the eyeballs are pressed through closed lids. –Dictionary.com], but all the ones I’ve had didn’t at all look like what I experienced and didn’t last nearly as long.
Any help would be great, thanks!