Anyone see the brief flash in Orion last night?

[bahamagreen]

Naked eye viewing clear sky a little before 3AM Central time I saw a "star" appear a little below and in line with the sword, only lasted about three seconds, no lateral movement, about the same brightness as the belt stars... then was gone. Roughly about 3:55-3:56AM Central.

Line of sight moving meteor? Satellite sun reflection? I've seen those before and this did not really look like either of those...?

 

[russ_watters]

Type the information in here and see if it can be identified as an iridium flare:
http://www.heavens-above.com/

No lateral movement doesn't fit but if it is low in the sky when it happens, the movement might be too small to notice in 3 seconds.

 

[BruceLeet]

Naked eye viewing clear sky a little before 3AM Central time I saw a "star" appear a little below and in line with the sword, only lasted about three seconds, no lateral movement, about the same brightness as the belt stars... then was gone. Roughly about 3:55-3:56AM Central.

Line of sight moving meteor? Satellite sun reflection? I've seen those before and this did not really look like either of those...?

dangit I was checking out Orion for about 3 minutes JUST PRIOR TO THAT... argh! I think around 3:40am CST... I just missed it :\

can you mark where it was on this chart here with like an X marks the spot in white or something? :)

I got a strong idea where you meant but was wondering if you could pin it more exact... if you don't want to that's cool :)

I doubt it was a satellite if it didn't move... unless the momentary apex flare theory... but three seconds and no movement doesn't sound like satellite... LOS meteor sounds a more likely theory although that's also intriguing if it didn't move any arcseconds whatsoever then that is EXTREMELY LOS lol... a bird illuminated by city lights is probably also unlikely... so yeah that is intriguing indeed... did it move in any direction that you can recall sir?

astronauts have alleged that cosmic rays passing through their heads cause pinpoint lights in their field of view but I wonder of what brightness... truly pinpoint or expanded I wonder... maybe an LOS cosmic ray hitting you in the retina? haha only partially kidding :)

 

[2Dana]

Occams razor principle leads me to believe that it was like 4 or 5 similar observations I've made: "tumbling space junk".

 

[bahamagreen]

It was about half way between Iota Orionis and Saiph (between the tip of the sword and the hunter's right knee).

Your picture shows a very faint dot on the inner edge of the red/black transition there,...