Mystery in the Night Sky

On August 6, 2022, at 3am, I was sitting on a dock in Northern Minnesota. It was very still and very dark. I’d been sitting there for an hour and my eyes had acclimated to the stunning scene above me. All the stars were out, it was glorious.

And then I saw a flash of light beams. Longer than a second and less than two. They were clear and hard edged, like laser beams. They did not glow and did not hurt my eyes. Each beam had black lines unevenly spaced, like a barcode.

 And that was it. I thought, “wow, that was amazing”, and went back to gazing at the stars.

When it was light out, I sat in the same spot on the dock and drew what I saw.

Night Sky ©Susan McDonnell 2022

When I got back home to my studio, I painted what I saw and then emailed the image to the Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics at the University of Minnesota. I asked if anyone could tell me what I saw.

Night Sky © Susan Mcdonnell 2022

A Professor Emeritus replied and asked some questions. What direction was I sitting? East. How far away were the trees? About forty feet. And yes, the beams were in front of the trees, so they were quite close to the dock.

I also told him I had recently had my eyes examined. No retinal tears or other malfunctions.

He said he was “stumped” and would send the image along to some “heavy hitters”.

A couple months went by and I got this reply:

“Not a definitive answer for you, but the general opinion is that you probably saw debris from a satellite/launcher re-entering the atmosphere and breaking up.” 

Space debris breaking up as it re-enters the atmosphere.

Not what I saw. I thanked him very much for following through.

It remains a mystery. I do like having the painting. It reminds me of how big the universe is and how small I am.

“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.” -Bill Watterson

 March 4, 2023