Strange Star
Hi everyone, something really strange happened to me while I was stargazing around 4 AM and I wanted to ask if anyone knows what this could have been.
I was observing the constellation Grus from Ceará, Brazil, and suddenly I saw what looked like a bright orange/reddish star appear out of nowhere. It was not near the horizon and it looked much brighter than the surrounding stars for about 1 to 2 seconds, almost comparable to Sirius or Betelgeuse in brightness and color.
The weirdest part is that it looked completely stationary, like a normal star, but then it simply disappeared. No visible movement, no long trail, nothing. It literally looked like a star turning on and then vanishing a second later.
I was fully dark-adapted and actively observing the sky when it happened, so I’m pretty sure I actually saw something and it wasn’t just a quick glance or reflection.
Could this have been a head-on meteor, a satellite flare, an atmospheric effect, or something else?