Enif - star

MatBin

MatBin

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Looking out of my patio door late last night I saw what I thought was a helicopter in the distance, an oscillating light moving up/down a little, definitely seemed to be moving, my wife confirmed it. 20 mins later it was still there so I doubted it was a helicopter, maybe an Alien spacecraft? :)
Turns out it was a star named Enif, which is a double and pulses causing the impression it's moving, very odd, well worth a look etc
 
MatBin said:
That's the chap.
Click to expand...

From the very quick read I did that's to do with a small companion star and you need a scope to see it. Epsilon Pegasus isn't hugely bright, but then none of the stars of Pegasus are. Could you see the rest of the constellation? A likely explanation (I won't mind if I'm completely wrong and you shoot me down in flames. After all, you were there - I wasn't) is that it was a brighter star either twinkling or passing in and out of cloud. Altair in Aquila or Deneb in Cygnus are much brighter. The number of times I've been caught out............ I live next to a military airfield and 'Venus' quite often turns out to be a helicopter with its searchlight on.........doh!
 
Jannyfox said:
From the very quick read I did that's to do with a small companion star and you need a scope to see it. Epsilon Pegasus isn't hugely bright, but then none of the stars of Pegasus are. Could you see the rest of the constellation? A likely explanation (I won't mind if I'm completely wrong and you shoot me down in flames. After all, you were there - I wasn't) is that it was a brighter star either twinkling or passing in and out of cloud. Altair in Aquila or Deneb in Cygnus are much brighter. The number of times I've been caught out............ I live next to a military airfield and 'Venus' quite often turns out to be a helicopter with its searchlight on.........doh!
Click to expand...
Sorry it's taken a while to get back to this one but we haven't had anything like a clear night since to allow me to check if it's still there.
No cloud obstruction then or now so definitely not going in and out of visibility.
It's back in virtually the same spot so I doubt very much it's a helicopter.
Certainly think I can see the box of Pegasus which would then put this star in the right place.
I read from the net the star should be visible to the naked eye.
Stellarium puts in about the right place.
 
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