system
A chat on 4chan
human
Not looking to prove anything, just wondering about this.

Also was completely stationary. Wasn't moving at all. Just sat there and then disappeared.
gpt
First guess would be Venus .. was it late afternoon?
Second guess is plane on approach to Reagan Airport (or Dulles, if you were out that way) with landing light on, flying towards you and descending, then either turning the lights off, which seems odd, or just turning away to get onto the final approach.

If you can share the time, and recreate the direction and your location, that would be helpful, maybe somebody could help you out.
I'll be doing other stuff over the next few days, if you get no useful help here maybe post again after Christmas.

(Venus would be to the west wherever you were, the direction of a plane would depend on where you were...)
human
Disappeared too quick to be an actual fixture of the sky. Was too bright to be a plane light, and I mean we're talking middle of the day.

My wife's reminding me it was also overcast at the time, and the light managed to shine through it. I've seen planets, and this was way brighter. It was surreal.

Here's a picture of where we were and the arrow points in the direction where we saw the light. We were just passing over the railroad bridge next to the 14th street bridge and looking south when we saw it. A building passed in the way and when we came out on the other side it was gone.

Was filled with an inexplicable fear when I saw it too, like I shouldn't be looking at it. Didn't want to look back up and see it again.
gpt
>Here's a picture of where we were and the arrow points in the direction where we saw the light. We were just passing over the railroad bridge next to the 14th street bridge and looking south when we saw it. A building passed in the way and when we came out on the other side it was gone.
>Was filled with an inexplicable fear when I saw it too, like I shouldn't be looking at it. Didn't want to look back up and see it again.
Thanks. That's totally inconsistent with Venus, so you were right, it was not that. It is, however, looking straight down the southern approach to Reagan. Which does not prove it was a plane on approach, but it was exactly in the right place for that. And you didn't actually see it disappear?

Another thought that occurs is a reflection of the sun off of a plane -- it would appear very bright, very small, might persist for a short time and would disappear suddenly as you and the plane moved to where it was no longer reflecting light at you.


Sorry, I have no explanation for an inexplicable feeling, you're on your own there. But that's an internal property to you, not a property of whatever you saw.


>Could have been an extremely distant supernova

>Are any happening right now we know of?
No, not that would be visible in the daytime (there was one that was a naked-eye object at night last year, I do not know if it is still visible and can't be arsed to go check) and if it was that, it would not disappear and millions of people all over the world would be watching it.
human
I also wondered about flares off of an Iridium satellite, but I checked and they are all gone now -- I suppose it is just barely possible that you saw a flare of sunlight off of some other satellite. The Iridium satellite flares were a big thing among satellite watchers, as the tumbling shiny satellites sent searchlight-beams of reflected light at the Earth in very predictable patterns, across very predictable swaths of land. But they have all fallen out of orbit now. I never saw one in the daytime, but they could be seen. No idea how bright they would be. Other satellites can flare, but they are less predictable and mostly less bright. But it is possible, I guess, that you got very lucky.

>She saw it again today in Pennsylvania
Saw what, another light in the sky? Be cautious not to fall into the pit of 'every light in the sky is the same UFO following us around... that way lie mental health problems. When you are freaked out by a light in the sky seen from a train, which fills you with dread, it sounds like you are kind of on thin ice there already. That is not said as an attack, it is Christmas time and I'm in a fine mood and am just not wanting you to slide down into a pit that can mess up your life.

If you want to post more details about what your wife saw (from where -- Pennstylvania is a big place? For how long? Was it moving? Any colors or flashes? Etc?) I'd be happy to give it some thought. Even if you don;t like any of the possibilities I can think of, it might be helpful to you and her in sparking some other idea that fits what you saw better. After all, you saw it, not me.

And I guess be prepared for the concept that whether it was something /x/-worthy or not, you may never know what it was. You saw a light in the sky for a short period of time, not a lot to go on in trying to nail down exactly what it was, though with the information you have you can rule out some things, like Venus.
gpt
She saw another identical bright light in the sky, same section of the sky, also going South. We were on a highway east of West Chester, PA. Here's another image with the place and direction.

I should also say I was kind of scared of it because it reminded me of the videos I've seen of the meteor falling out of the sky in Chelyabinsk back in 2013. That's how bright it looked, for reference. If I'm paranoid, so's my wife, because she got the exact same eerie feeling I did from the whole situation.