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Paul - I saw the flashes as well. I don't believe it was an iridium flare. I suspect we both saw a large piece of tumbling space debris, the flashes were a little too random to be anything else in my opinion. I don't know for certain and will try and get confirmation, but two possibilities are debris from Fengyun 1C (a Chinese weather satellite they deliberately destroyed in an anti-satellite missile test), or the remains of a NASA Delta rocket. Both were roughly in that spot at around 19:40.
Edited: typo
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Paul - quick question. Did you see more than one flash, and if so, did you get an impression of which direction it was moving in? This might help identify what it was. Thanks.
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I saw several flashes, maybe 7 or more. Hard to describe the direction. Roughly the same as ISS but at an acute angle.
If I drew the trajectories they would intersect where the ISS came from. The flashes were still happening at 19:41.
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Paul - would you say the flashes were moving more to the south or north compared to the ISS's trajectory? I have my own opinion, but given the flashes I saw were quite random, I couldn't tell for sure. I don't want to provide my own opinion of the direction as I'd like an independent observation, hope you understand.
The flashes I saw weren't just a sudden flash of light, they may have lasted a second or so but two of the three I saw brightened and then dimmed - typical of a rapidly tumbling piece of large debris in orbit.
I double checked the iridium flare database. There was one that would have been visible from my location, but several minutes before you or I saw the flashes, so I'm confident in ruling that explanation out.
Definitely very unusual but think it was debris.
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Wow, that was a piece of luck, if it was debris.
My guess (and I checked with someone else present) is that the flashes were heading further south than the ISS.
They disagree wih my 7 flashes, they say it was less. I didn't notice it dimming
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If it was debris then why did it not burn up - or was it bouncing off the atmosphere?
When I say I didn't see it dimming, I mean it flashed on and off fairly constantly, almost like an airplane.
Lodestone: did you see anything?
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Paul - I'm talking about orbital debris, not stuff re-entering the atmosphere. Some of this debris can be very large (e.g., rocket bodies, dead satellites etc). Some of these larger pieces are tumbling and as they tumble can reflect sunlight to an observer on the ground. It's generally a very narrow beam of light which may be observed in one location but not in another a few miles away. This is what I suspect we saw last night.
As for what it was, I've asked some friends and colleagues at NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office for an ID. Hopefully they'll be able to help.
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Okay, thanks for explaining. I was reading about that Chinese satellite, what a mess!
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Awesome view from Kaloli Point last night! TomK -- thanks for bringing it to our attention.
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SoCal, did you see the flashing light just beforehand?
