What am I seeing in the sky every night?

Have you asked a local?

I had a similar experience this summer, when I noticed a light in the summer sky, too big and bright to be just a star. Also, it never moved. After wondering if it was a tower with a light on top (too high) or maybe the International Space Station, I asked the Science teachers at the school where I work. They told me it was Jupiter.

I have the over-40 bad eyesight, so whenever I look into the night sky, I see every light as double. Don’t know if that is why you are seeing two lights, but let us know when you find out.

Quite often when we see a point of light in the night sky, we assume it is a single star’s light. In reality they may be more than one star lined up, or a cluster of stars. What you may be seeing is several stars closely aligned and the varying frequencies of light they are emitting being shifted by the atmosphere to make the spot appear different colors. It would be fascinating to see the light you see through a strong telescope.

Maybe it could be a satellite…this happens at a specific hour? Denno much about satellites, but I think the lights on them are always on, plus it’s supposed to move around. Weird…

@marinelife yes, their answer is, “its a star.” though I’ve yet to really speak with anyone who knows much about space so….

@majorrich I would love to as well. All I have down here is a pair of nice binoculars. But looking at it through that is interesting as well. When I train the binoculars on this light they arent stationary. At first I thought I just couldnt hold my hands steady and I was shaking a bit but I can hold other stars completely stationary. When I point it at this light its like spastic like small shaking spirals which just confused me further. The other confusing thing is if the two dots flashy light were closer together I could see the star cluster theory more but this is weird since there are two flashing lights that are pretty far apart from each other. Its possible I suppose that there are just two different star clusters, its just odd to me that of the whole sky the only two I can find are both approx NNE and not anywhere else.

@Symbeline no, no specific hour its there from the moment its dark enough to see it until the sun rises. Always in the same spot. Which is also confusing to me and makes me think satellite more than star since the stars still move positionally a bit throughout the night. Some satellites move but others stay in orbit with earth so they are always over a certain area. At least thats what ive been told.

I am able to see satellites in my night sky, being up in the hills with no city lights. I have never seen multi-colored sattellite lights though, just the blinking and movement as they arc accross the sky.

Well, clearly, the aliens are circling, looks like Belize might be their point of interest in the moment. lol

I was “followed” by a violet light once, can’t say I ever reconciled an explanation to my minds satisfaction. ;-)

Its the aliens coming back to the Mayan Ruins for 2012 :P

Does the object slowly move with the background stars, or is it fixed with respect to the horizon?

Fixed with respect to the horizon. The only time I see any moment from it is if I’m looking through binoculars and then its just small jittery motion but im still not so sure about that so I wouldnt take that into to much consideration.

Any military installations, airfields, or weather stations in that direction? Can you borrow a pair of image-stabilized binoculars? What can you see along the same line of sight in the daytime?

I have no clue, but I doubt it since I’m up in the mountains in Belize. And finding binoculars like that would be pretty unlikely as well.

During the daytime in that direction is nothing but blue skies.

Is it lined up with the airport at Belize City? Maybe an incoming plane or lots of planes.

@Tropical_Willie not really, Belize City is a lot more east. Even still, if it were planes, they would be moving and not just hanging stationary in the sky for hours.

@uberbatman It was a thought. How close to the horizon are the lights?

@Tropical_Willie uhhh I wouldn’t even know how to measure something like that. They’re far enough away that it cant be a terrestrial object but not way up in the sky either. Id wager a guess at like 30–40 degrees off the horizon.

My best guess is somebody’s backyard experiment (balloon, tall mast, etc) or else departing aircraft flying directly along the line of sight, far enough away to be invisible except at night. It’s not a pulsar—they require telescopes and very few are in the visible spectrum, nor would they change color. The presence of flashing red, white, and blue/green certainly suggests conventional aircraft.

You could call these unidentified objects UFOs, but they hardly “fly” since you say position is fixed. The least likely explanation, of course, is that space aliens are spying on you while no one else notices them. If they make contact with you, however, have them join Fluther!

The vanguard of a Martian invasion. Buy a gun.

Red, green and white lights are pretty standard for aircraft. Red is the port (left) side, green is the starboard (right) side, and the white is generally on the nose and/or the tail of the aircraft. I don’t know what you’re seeing, but I’d rule out quite a few things based on this knowledge.

Maybe you are seeing Sirius:
http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2012/01/sirius-twinkling.html

@RocketGuy I had forgotten about Sirius (and a couple other low horizon stars) being color shifters. The atmosphere does funky stuff to star points colors. Great catch!

The scintillation is kind of seasonal though. mostly to star points that pass through a lot of atmosphere to get to the viewer. Thus the lower on the horizon, the more likely you will see the shift. Especially on multi-star points because the stars may emit different frequency light and be more visible.

@RocketGuy Wow GA, dude. Also great photo in your link !

From Wikipedia article on Sirius “To the naked eye, it often appears to be flashing with red, white and blue hues when near the horizon.[48]”

Scintillation (“twinkling”) can cause stars to change apparent color as well as brightness. Who knew? I gotta get out more at night…

Ok so i figured out lights are actually directly south and the other SW at about 30 degrees. @RocketGuy I think you nailed it. GA sir. The pic def confirmed thats what it was. So, if one is Sirius, anyone know what the other is?