Stargazing Star appearing to move ping pong like rapidly

[Bm23]

TL;DR Summary

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

 

[Drakkith]

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.

 

[Bm23]

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

 

[Motore]

A drone perhaps?

 

[Drakkith]

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.

 

[DaveC426913]

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.

 

[glappkaeft]

Sounds like it could be the Autokinetic effect (WP).

 

[DaveC426913]

Sounds like it could be the Autokinetic effect (WP).

Yep. Quite possibly.