Have you seen the 2 red flashing stars? what are they?

Question

ok, i live in new york, around exit 21 off the thruway (catskill). the past 2 nights, ive seen a red flashing star in the northeastern sky. i know stars flash and twinkle, but this one was different. then last night i saw the star in the same position as it was in last night, but now i saw another reddish twinking star a little below the other one. what could this be?

Answer 1

The first star you seen could be a red giant ( dyeing star ) That would explain the color. The twinkling is a result of pore atmospheric conditions that destorts the light. you'll notice in winter the atmosphere is cleaner and the stars don't twinkle as much. The second star you seen if it is in a new position and was not seen before is a planet ( I would guess Venus ).Very cool!

Answer 2

Your location is useful but to be able to identify the star(s) or planets we also need the direction and the time(s) at which you saw it.

Jupiter is visible in your evening sky in the south at present.

If you enter your location in the sky chart at the site below and set it to the time you made your observation you should be able to identify the object.

(I am assuming the objects were present in the sky for a long time and therefore were probably not satellites. If that is not the case the same site also has information on satellites.)

Answer 3

Difficult to say without more info.

Time, direction, how bright (compared to other stars), how red (compared to Aldebaran, for example). How close is the 2nd star to the first.

The only bright star in the NE around midnight is Capella, a blue star: it can appear reddish when close to the horizon.  But there is not a 2nd star of comparable brightness in its immediate vicinity.

Answer 4

Based on your time and direction info, it was most likely Capella, (which is actually a blue-white star, however, when low in the horizon, the "flashing" you describe is often very prevalent and can cause color distortion,  but without knowing approximately how high it was in the sky, I can't be certain.  but I am confused as to the "two stars" bit...  unless there was a significant difference in magnitude.

Answer 5

I saw an unexplained flashing star many years ago. I never figured out what it was. Just another Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO).