Re: Flashers

[Arne Henden <aah@nofs.navy.mil>]

George Turner's suggestion of cosmic ray hits is the most
likely answer.  Faser's events are all possible, but with
low probability.  Tom's idea of plane lights won't work (you
would see the parallax between two cameras).  I also assume
that you see this in only one of the two cameras, right?
Arne

Fraser Farrell wrote:
> Tom Droege wrote:
> 
>>Are there many stars that flash?  I keep finding stars with one bright
>>point. 
> 
> 
> 
> TASS Press Release : the Mark IV discovers gravitational lens events....  :-)
> 
> 
> Three of the four astronomical possibilities that come to mind can all be 
> dismissed:
> 
>  - Pulsars. Not bright enough (optically), and they would flash many many 
> times during a single Mark IV exposure.
> 
>  - Gamma ray burst's optical counterpart. This might explain those occasional 
> "seen once and never again" stars.
> 
>  - Dwarf novae outbursts typically go on for hours, sometimes days. Lots of 
> these potentially detectable by TASS. But if you're taking many images per 
> night of a dwarf nova, you would see it "bright" on several consecutive 
> images.
> 
> The fourth possibility is red dwarfs that are Flare Stars. These are 
> detectable as occasional outbursts of light & radio waves that last 10-30 
> minutes. Proxima Centauri, for example, can brighten from its usual mag 11 up 
> to mag 9 during a flare. Quite a sight if you're lucky enough to see one!
> 
> 
> cheers,
> 
>