Blue flashes in he sky

Hello all,
I may be way off with this theory, but what the hey!! It may be an Iridium flare caused by a relatively small communications satellite made off iridium that gives off spectacular visible reflective flares/glints to observers on the ground.
With only a normal brightness of +6 magnitude (binoculars are useful to spot it), occasionally some of the Iridium satellites provide reflective flares/glints of magnitude (-)8. For comparison, Venus can be as bright as magnitude (-)4.9, thus reflections can be up to 30 times brighter than Venus. The flares/glints can last anywhere from 5 to 20 seconds before the satellite once again becomes almost invisible to the naked eye. Some flares have been observed during the daylight hours which is very unusual for reflective glares from satellites. satobs.org/iridium.html

It may not be what ye are looking as the blue flashes described by Dave are only momentarily there and not lasting 5 to 20 seconds.

Thats a nice theory. The times i saw these where during the middle of the night far away from dusk and dawn where no satellites are visible. Could it be something coming from the sun?......this is a long shot but perhaps if u have been out under strong sunlight all day or for several days working or even 'catching some rays' then maybe at night this 'electrical static' appears in your vision because of your prolonged exposure to the sun during daylight hours......just an idea. :idea:

Hi Sean,
That is a clever theory, the only thing is that I dont remember seeing any obvious satellites after the flash event. I've seen iridium flares and they are spectacular but I dont think they would produce the light curve needed.

Martin,
If this were so, I think we would already know about it.

I'm really at a loss

Dave Lillis,
with reference to here (post #2), I reckon perhaps you should have taken the red pill instead of the blue pill...

:lol:

I was waiting for that :lol:

I was waiting for that :lol:

I know - it took me a while to think of something!!!

:lol: