NUFORC Sighting 146729

Occurred: 2019-06-09 21:39 Local
Reported: 2019-06-09 21:43 Pacific
Duration: ~1-2 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Edison, NJ, USA

Shape: Flash
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

Irregular pulsing point source.

At approximately 21:39 I witnessed a irregular flashing/pulsating point (sources).

I was facing north; the location was within two fingers width held at arms length of Deneb ~ 3 or so degrees. (Very roughly I think this was 18 degrees above the horizon---using the same finger approximation).

- There was no periodicity I could make out (varying between 2 seconds per pulse up to 7).

- Each pulse began appeared as a light suddenly turning on, then either: (1) immediately turning off or (2) decaying over the course of ~1 second (or longer, I did not take a precise measurement).

- The location appeared to occasionally change/jump within about 5 degrees of angular separation (estimated by three fingers width held at arms length).

- The maximum brightness was nearly that of Jupiter at the time.

- This lasted for about 1 - 2 minutes since I first witnessed it.

Other notes: - It's central New Jersey; the direction I was facing was New York, the night was humid, there were light clouds close the source---in essence there was a ton of light pollution and visibility was mediocre. Originally I thought the clouds moving were causing the pulsing behavior, but on further observation it was clear this was not the case. Despite the light pollution I was able to see a couple of meteor-streaks.

- The sky was littered with planes lower on the horizon (Newark airport is extremely close), and---like any good summer night around 9pm---there were plenty of satellites (I saw ~20 over the course of an hour --- mostly east-west moving, some north-south(ish); some in the vicinity of the flash).

- Other than the "jumping" I described above, the source did not appear to move, even when flashing for long periods. Granted, what I witnessed was close to the horizon so that the apparent motion would be small, but I did not see any movement over the very long flashes, and satellites that passed through that vicinity were very visibly moving.

- Over the course of four years, I've seen two bright iridium flares in the same area on other nights---I'm pretty confident this was not that.

Posted 2019-06-20

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