Star appearing to move ping pong like rapidly

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the phenomenon of a star appearing to move rapidly in a ping-pong manner over a short period. Participants conclude that the object was likely not a star, but rather a result of atmospheric turbulence, reflections, or possibly a drone. Key factors influencing the observation include the observer's location, atmospheric conditions, and the object's brightness and movement pattern. The Autokinetic effect is also mentioned as a potential explanation for the perceived motion.

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  • Familiarity with the Autokinetic effect and its implications in visual perception
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Bm23
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TL;DR
Read a thread similar to this my self and 3 others watched what looked like a star move rapidly ping-pong like what could have caused that illusion?
My self and others are curios what could have caused what look as if it was a star suddenly and multiple times with in a 5 min period to ping-pong around rapidly and what looked like it had to be over vast areas of space i read a thread where some one asked the same question but it was several years old and now closed
 
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Hard to say without knowing the details of when and where you were, where you were looking, etc.
To take a guess, I'd say it either wasn't a star, or you were looking through severe atmospheric turbulence.
 
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There was very light clouds none seemed to be in the area of what we were seeing i had thought it might be some kind of reflection of light through the atmosphere but it was like any i have seen before though i can't think of anything that could move that far that fast if it was a star it would have had to move millions if not billions of miles under a second really only make sense it was something curving the light just wonder if anyone else has seen it happen
 
A drone perhaps?
 
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Bm23 said:
There was very light clouds none seemed to be in the area of what we were seeing i had thought it might be some kind of reflection of light through the atmosphere but it was like any i have seen before though i can't think of anything that could move that far that fast if it was a star it would have had to move millions if not billions of miles under a second really only make sense it was something curving the light just wonder if anyone else has seen it happen
It's almost certainly not a star that you were viewing. Possibilities include reflections off of something in your line of sight, such as glass if you were viewing things from inside a building, drones, and probably a lot of things that I can't even think of at the moment. It's nearly impossible to narrow things down without having been there and seeing it for myself.
 
Can you describe the experience in more detail?

How dark was the sky?
How time of day/night was it?
How far from the horizon was the sun?
Were other stars visible?
Where were you standing? Inside? Outside? In a park?
How clear was the horizon? Clear all the way? Houses/trees?
What direction were you facing?
How high in the sky?

How bright was this object?
Was it just the one?
Was it a point like a star? Or a disc like a planet?
How long was it still before moving?
How many times did it jump about before stopping?
How far did it jump across the sky (measured in hand-widths or finger widths)?
Anything else about the pattern of movement (time/distance/angle/frequency etc.) would be helpful.
 
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