Tuesday, 5 August 2014

observation - What would this moving point of light be?

Tonight (10:00 PM EST Middlesex County, Mass.) when looking at the mostly clear sky I observed what I at first believed was a meteor. This point of light was moving east to northeast and that would be in the vicinity of the Lyrid meteor shower. In the app Star Walk for iOS it says that the "n-Lyrids" meteor shower peaks on May 9th. However information I found online about this meteor shower says it already peaked back in April. (I did see a bright meteor a couple weeks ago.) Can anyone offer insight on possible meteors right now? I highly doubt that this was a meteor though, because it lasted way too long, probably two minutes. My next guess was the International Space Station but NASA's Spot The Station did not show any viewing times for my area today. The Star Walk app also showed the ISS well below the horizon. This leads me to conclude the object was a plane, however there were no blinking lights and the only time its light changed was when it passed behind a thin cloud. Just did some more research and it turns out it could have been satellite glint such an Iridium flare. I did not see the beginning of the light's appearance, so it is possible I missed the flare. However flares do not last for minutes, but glint from solar panels or other satellites may last this long. This is likely what I say. If anyone has had similar experiences, any information would be appreciated.

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