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The sky was particularly clear last night and I noticed an extremely bright star. I thought it was venus possibly but it was too low down and was flickering craziy. That meant that it couldn't be a sattelite because they don't emit their own flashing light. So I just left it, assuming it was a close star. Then when I looked up at around 9 it had shifted to the right. I know stars move but it had only been about 30 minute since I'd last checked and it had moved across my vision. So it wasn't fast enough to be a meteor or sattelite etc but definitely wasn't a star because it was visibly moving and i tracked it throughout the night as it got lower and moved east. By 10pm it had moved all the way to the edge of my vision, I had to crane my neck to see it from the window. I had also been tracking the other stars just to check the rate at which they were moving. Orion's belt had moved a little (as expected) but obviously not as fast as this object. They were both moving in the same direction east but the object was also moving significantly south, therefore unaligned with anything I could see. After some researching I have concluded that it could have been sirius, the brightest star, south-west of Orion's belt but I'm just not believing that it would have moved that fast. So ultimately I'm sure it isn't something too whacky but are there any other explanations? :)

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    $\begingroup$ Stars don't flash either, but they do twinkle, especially when they're close to the horizon. And the amount of twinkling is affected by variations in the air density caused by temperature and humidity. Stars don't move independently of the other stars, they all rotate together around the celestial pole. So I don't think the thing you saw was a star. $\endgroup$
    – PM 2Ring
    Commented Mar 8, 2021 at 11:44
  • $\begingroup$ Exactly, it's position was relative to Orion's belt at first but I'm pretty sure they're seperate. Thank you though, any ideas of what it 𝘀𝘰𝘢𝘭π˜₯ be? $\endgroup$
    – chiara
    Commented Mar 8, 2021 at 12:20
  • $\begingroup$ Sorry, no idea. It sounds like it's moving the wrong way to be something astronomical, but it's also moving too slowly to be a plane. Maybe some kind of balloon? But that's a weird time to be flying a balloon. $\endgroup$
    – PM 2Ring
    Commented Mar 8, 2021 at 12:25
  • $\begingroup$ Exactly. Yeah we can rule out plane, star/planet, balloon, asteroid... I'll look out for it again tonight but I literally have no idea. $\endgroup$
    – chiara
    Commented Mar 8, 2021 at 13:19
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    $\begingroup$ You'll need to state date time and location (city town close enough). There are online planetarium programs which will need that info. Try in-the-sky.org/skymap.php or theskylive.com/planetarium. For satellites use heavens-above.com $\endgroup$
    – TazAstroSpacial
    Commented Mar 10, 2021 at 0:31

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