Strange Light In The Sky

[Dave Homewood]

My mate rang be about 20 minutes ago to say he was out the back of his place in the dark, having a cigarette, and noted an ATR flying north to south, and as he was watching it, another light caught his eye. He said there was a white light that flashed. And then 20 seconds late it flashed again, and again in another 20 seconds. He called his missus out and they watched it several more flashes before it disappeared. He said it was travelling from the west of Cambridge to the east.

He said it looked to be pretty high up, and there was no red or green wingtip lights that you'd normally expect with an aircraft. Also there was no sound, and if it was a plane he would have expected to have heard the engine/s. He also said when the flash wasn't happening you could see nothing. He was adamant it wasn't the ISS or a satellite.

I immediately jumped on Flight Radar 24 as we were talking, and there was nothing showing in the region he described, and the only thing that had been flying over Cambridge was a Piper that he'd also seen earlier but by this time was now north of Hamilton.

We wondered if it could have been a military drone, or if perhaps it might be a U2. I think I read that a NASA U2 was returning to NZ this month, but I cannot recall for certain where I read that.

Any thoughts please?

[Antonio]

Just joshing with ya     

[oj]

Too long a flash rate for anticollision lighting and the operating height of a U-2 would preclude naked eye visibility of any regular lighting from such source. Could be some sort of special project ...
That's an easy cop out explanation.

[Dave Homewood]

Exactly OJ on the light's flash rate.

I have just seen on Facebook in an unrelated post that they is a Five Eyes meeting in Queenstown right now, so I cannot help suspecting there may be some connection. Possible a long range drone as part of the security package?

[FlyingKiwi]

Probably the planet Venus. Or a weather balloon.

Although based on what you described it doesn't sound like an aeroplane, it is worth noting a lot of GA aircraft still don't have ADSB transponders and don't show up on FR24. I don't think any of Ardmore Flying School's C-172s do yet and they do night cross countries to Hamilton somewhat regularly.

[Dave Homewood]

Yes, I am aware of that with the lack of ADS-B.

Maybe it was squid boats?

[TS]

A squid boat in the middle of the North Island above sea level? That's some weird shit going on there. Beam me up Scotty...

[pepe]

At about 6.30pm last night, approaching Te Kuiti airfield on State Highway 3, I spotted what I thought was an aircraft on a long final for Runway 34. It had a rotating beacon and landing lights, all of which were very bright, and it also appeared to be quite close. I assumed it was one of the local Crescos returning home from the south.
But as we drove past the airfield and into Te Kuiti, I realised the lights were not moving and the "aircraft" remained fixed at its long final position. Perhaps a helicopter I thought, but just then it was obscured by some quite high cloud which makes that unlikely.
I am still unsure as to what was and perhaps it is connected to Dave's report?

[Dave Homewood]

Interesting Pepe.

[retiredav8r]

Do they use helicopters in the area for frost protection? These choppers fly low and slow and also looking in the right direction, can look to be not moving.

[Dave Homewood]

Surely they would not be doing frost protection flying in spring, and not at 6.30pm at night?

By the way Pepe, Mike read your message and he told me, "Yeah - definitely not what I saw, but interesting none the less!"

[machina]

U2s come to NZ?!?!

[scrooge]

Space station? As it spins you get intermittent flashes from the solar panels.

[Dave Homewood]

Machina, U2's have been visiting NZ since at least the 1970's. NASA sometimes brings one of their ones over.

I suggested that Scrooge. He has seen the space station a number of times and said he did not think it was the same. Does anyone know if it passed overhead the Waikato last night?

[machina]

Sept 15, 2022 23:22:17 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Machina, U2's have been visiting NZ since at least the 1970's. NASA sometimes brings one of their ones over.

I suggested that Scrooge. He has seen the space station a number of times and said he did not think it was the same. Does anyone know if it passed overhead the Waikato last night?

Thanks Dave, had absolutely no idea! Anyway to see them? Where do they land etc?

[Dave Homewood]

Actually it is an ER-2 rather than a U-2 apparently

nzcivair.blogspot.com/2014/06/nasa-709.html

[planecrazy]

We have been seeing a lot of satellites lately, some knowledgeable locals believe they are Eon Musk's Starlink satellites?

[Bruce]

There is the phenomenon of the "Flashing satellite", which is more commonly now spent boosters and other space junk. they are in unstabilised, decaying orbits, often spinning. When the sunlight hits them (and just on sunset is the prime time for it) you'll see flashing lights as various bits of structure catch the sunlight. I saw it myself when the spent booster from the Chinese space station came overhead one evening before re-entering. We've had a lot of space launches in the last few weeks so it could possibly be a dead upper stage booster on its way to the pacific ocean space junk dumping site...

[lesterpk]

This site is great for showing you upcoming satelite passes, you can put in your location and you'll get a streetview view showing you where in the sky to look in relation to constellations.
james.darpinian.com/satellites/

[chrisr]

Sept 14, 2022 20:50:18 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

We wondered if it could have been a military drone, or if perhaps it might be a U2. I think I read that a NASA U2 was returning to NZ this month, but I cannot recall for certain where I read that.

Any thoughts please?

Where did you read this? Having an ER-2 in NZ again would be amazing.


On topic, I have seen the type of light you refer too more than once. Never figured out what it was though.

It's not Starlink for two reasons. 1: Starlink is a long chain of lights which do not blink with a flat trajectory. This means it looks like a alien worm crawling across the sky. 2: The lights on Starlink satellites have been dimmed after complaints from astronomers.