I saw a very bright light going across the sky. Don't airplanes have blinking lights and not one bright light?

Question

this occurred last night while I was looking for meteors. It was too bright to be a star and it moved across the sky at about the same rate of speed as a plane.

Answer 1

It was a Satellite that you saw.

It might also have been the International Space Station which did make a pass over the United States last night at 9:45pm mountain time and was spectacular as it went overhead.    

Answer 2

It was one of two things. Either a shooting star or the flare that was shot out of my buttocks last night. I ate steak and baked potato and I was letting them go.  

Answer 3

No, they have consistent lights just like a cars headlights.

Answer 4

You probably saw the ISS. It's usually brighter than the brightest star, and takes a few minutes to cross the sky. Here's a website that can help you:

http://www.heavens-above.com/

Don't neglect to enter your observing location, or you'll get overflight times for zero degrees latitude, zero degrees longitude.

Answer 5

May have been a planes landing light. They are bright and usually do not blink.

Answer 6

What you describe sounds very much like the International Space Station. If you are in the U.S.A. it would have passed over twice last night at about 9.15 p.m. Central Time and again at about 8.45 p.m. Pacific Time. It would have been moving steadily from west to east.

Answer 7

  All airplanes have a single white light on the tail that does not flash.

  If you are flying a plane and you see a steady white light that is getting brighter you better make a turn.

Answer 8

A plane with his landing lights will appear as a bright light. The landing lights cover up all of the blinking lights because they are much brighter.

Answer 9

do you have an airport by you? When plans take off and land they have very bright lights to see the runway and to make sure people on the ground know they are coming.

or it could be a police helicopter, they have big spotlights

whatever it is, dont be alarmed, its fine =]

Answer 10

Swamp gas...

Answer 11

well planes have blinking lights on top to warn other planes but i think they do have 1 light near the tail that dont blink

Answer 12

It could be a reflection off of a communications satellite, although those only happen relatively quickly after the sun goes down. Also, airplanes can have quite a few lights, and it could be possible that a few were turned off or hidden by the plane itself.