Blinking light: SF Bay area

[RTM]

While out for a walk tonight I noticed a light blinking, I assumed it was a plane and when I looked a few seconds later it wasn’t where I expected it to be. It blinked again about 20 seconds later and I saw it again a few other times with a gap between blinks.
I managed to get a video. Taken around 8 tonight in the San Francisco Bay Area, facing approximately North.
I think that is Orion’s belt in the mid left, you should see the object blink at approximately 12 seconds, it should be almost in the center above the small wisp of cloud.
Does anyone have an idea what would blink at long intervals? It didn’t “seem” to move location.

 

[flarkey]

looks like the clouds are being illuminated by a light on the ground. Could be a moving spot light at a concert, show or event. If you look on a map and draw a line heading north from your location you might be able to work out where it was.

(Also it's definitely not Orion's belt if you're looking north.)

 

[Duke]

Reminds me of the strobe on the Loon balloon I saw.

 

[RTM]

looks like the clouds are being illuminated by a light on the ground. Could be a moving spot light at a concert, show or event. If you look on a map and draw a line heading north from your location you might be able to work out where it was.

(Also it's definitely not Orion's belt if you're looking north.)

You’re right, I think it’s more South. I hope I don’t ever get lost in the wilderness.

 

[Eburacum]

I'm fairly sure this is just an ordinary star, possibly 57 or 48 Eridani, which is becoming visible temporarily as the visibility changes. Can you isolate one frame where the light appears and put a ring round it?

 

[RTM]

I have it circled in blue, thanks.

 

[Eburacum]

Ah, yes. I see it now. The light only appears in two frames.

I've made a star map; there is no star in that location.

 

[Eburacum]

This might be a very high aircraft moving slowly, a geostationary satellite catching the sunlight, or (as Duke suggested) a balloon with a strobe light. Two flashes in 20 seconds is very slow.

I would suggest a 'hot pixel' or electronic glitch, but you say you saw it visually as well.

 

[RTM]

I noticed it a few times, I’m sure the explanation is very ordinary. I tend to have a look at the sky a lot while walking. I have seen the starlink flares, and a few very quick glimpses of what I would describe as fireballs/meteors. The latter may have been starlink launches but it was literally, blink and you miss it, but it does show me how easy it is to fill in blanks and extrapolate from short sightings.

 

[AmberRobot]

This might be a very high aircraft moving slowly, a geostationary satellite catching the sunlight, or (as Duke suggested) a balloon with a strobe light. Two flashes in 20 seconds is very slow.

I would suggest a 'hot pixel' or electronic glitch, but you say you saw it visually as well.

If it were a satellite I would think it extremely unlikely to be a geostationary satellite.

 

[Eburacum]

I would think so too, but if the satellite stayed in the same location for more than a few seconds it would need to be geostationary. Incidentally, the blinking light was almost exactly on the celestial equator, which is exactly consistent with a geostationary satellite.

On the other hand, even geostationary satellites move slowly with respect to the fixed stars, moving across the sky once every 24 hours.

If you look at the clip, the blinking light appears in only two frames, and is at different intensities each time - perhaps it is two unrelated events, or an electronic glitch happening at random. Or a balloon, or very, very high drone with a light that flashes at ten second intervals.

 

[AmberRobot]

I would think so too, but if the satellite stayed in the same location for more than a few seconds it would need to be geostationary. Incidentally, the blinking light was almost exactly on the celestial equator, which is exactly consistent with a geostationary satellite.

On the other hand, even geostationary satellites move slowly with respect to the fixed stars, moving across the sky once every 24 hours.

If you look at the clip, the blinking light appears in only two frames, and is at different intensities each time - perhaps it is two unrelated events, or an electronic glitch happening at random. Or a balloon, or very, very high drone with a light that flashes at ten second intervals.

I wouldn’t expect a geostationary satellite to “blink”. Its geometric orientation with respect to the sun and earth changes very slowly. They are also 36000km away and would likely not be bright enough to be seen that easily.

 

[Eburacum]

No, but they are visible occasionally. Usually the visible flare lasts longer than a single frame, though.

 

[jarlrmai]

If we can get date/time/location preferably in UTC we can check flight trackers and common satellites.

 

[RTM]

Sunday March 3rd, 03.58am. Martinez, CA

 

[AmberRobot]

No, but they are visible occasionally. Usually the visible flare lasts longer than a single frame, though.

Ok. It seems that geostationary satellites are typically too faint to be seen by the naked eye but can on occasion under favorable geometry brighten up enough to be seen near 5th to 6th magnitude (still quite dim under modern skies). That being said, I am doubtful the phenomenon would resemble the kind of “blinking” described above.

 

[Eburacum]

I doubt it too, but here we have a repeating phenomenon near the equatorial geostationary band, which could be a very high balloon with a light on a ten-second repeat cycle, or a geostationary satellite flashing every ten seconds. Perhaps it was rotating on a ten-second cycle.

The orbital parameters of these satellites are published; I don't know how to do it, but I think the satellites in this location at this time of day could be identified.

If we can get date/time/location preferably in UTC we can check flight trackers and common satellites

Exactly. There about 580 of them; less than two in every degree, separated by an average distance greater than the width of the Moon.

 

[AmberRobot]

I doubt it too, but here we have a repeating phenomenon near the equatorial geostationary band, which could be a very high balloon with a light on a ten-second repeat cycle, or a geostationary satellite flashing every ten seconds. Perhaps it was rotating on a ten-second cycle.

the kinds of geo birds I am familiar with wouldn’t be rotating. Or rather there might be a diurnal movement of the solar panels to track the sun but not high frequency rotations

 

[Eburacum]

the kinds of geo birds I am familiar with wouldn’t be rotating. Or rather there might be a diurnal movement of the solar panels to track the sun but not high frequency rotations

That's right. A rotating satellite would presumably be one in some kind of failure mode, or performing some other manoeuvre.

 

[Eburacum]

There may be balloons flying at very high altitudes that have very dim or infrequent flashing lights. Some hobbyist's balloons fly quite high, and they might not flash very frequently, if at all.

High altitude, nearly stationary balloons might be useful for certain commercial and government applications, too (not necessarily US government, of course).

 

[NorCal Dave]

Note, @RTM says he was in Martinez. That's smack in the middle of the Bay Area, so quite a bit of light pollution I would think, even at 3.00am:



Looking south from Martinez is SFO, Oakland International Airport, San Jose International Airport and dozens of smaller regional and General Aviation airports.

I've certainly seen blinking lights that appear and then disappear. When they re-appear for long enough, they usually, eventually become small aircraft. In other cases, I can see that they are small aircraft first before they become just random looking blinking lights. I've noted that small planes in the distance can appear as just a light, or a blinking kinda light, but when they turn they disappear. Sometimes they reappear, sometimes not. In all these cases I'm talking about small planes far enough away, that they just appear as a single point of light. They're too far to make out the red and green lights.

This is just anecdotal from many a night out on the patio in a more rural area looking out over the northern (north of Sacramento) valley.

 

[AmberRobot]

Also near airports the airplanes tend to follow very similar paths in the sky so it wouldn’t be strange to look up see a light then see another in the same place when you look again in a little bit.