Mysterious flashes in the night sky perplex locals, but the lights may continue over the next few days

MYSTERIOUS lights crossing the night sky over Camden and Campbelltown this week are most likely flashes from iridium flares — and they could be visible for the next few days.

An iridium flare captured in a 30-second shot in 2014 with a Canon 5D MkII using a Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens with an ISO1600 setting. Picture: Tony Law

MYSTERIOUS lights crossing the night sky over Camden and Campbelltown this week could be flashes from iridium flares — and they will be visible to anyone in the right place at the right time.

Sightings of flashing lights, some with a greenish tinge, over the weekend have been reported from across the region with some residents speculating they were shooting stars or UFOs.

Camden resident Jason Mack spotted the lights over Ingleburn while driving on the Hume Highway and posted his sighting to a community noticeboard on Facebook.

“It was a strange flash like a meteorite, the kind you’d see in a movie,” he said.

“It was pretty much over in two seconds but it looked like it was falling to earth, it would’ve landed out of my sight line.”

Macarthur Astronomical Society president Tony Law said the lights could be explained by a range of phenomenon including falling space junk, meteors or flashes from iridium flares (a flash of light from the solar panels of iridium satellites in orbit around the Earth).

International website Heaven’s Above, which tracks iridium flares, reports there will be a series of visible flashes over Camden in the coming days.

“There’s so much space junk up there now that it could be anything,” Mr Law said.

“We haven’t had any meteor showers we’ve been keeping an eye on recently but there were some a few weeks ago, we only really look out for the larger ones.

“NASA keeps track of all the space junk out there which is human-made material falling to the Earth, if you look at a map it’s like it covers the earth.

“There’s something falling to Earth all of the time.”

A series of iridium flares (listed above) that will be visible in Camden over the coming days.

Mr Law said iridium flares were commonly seen in the night sky.

“They are very common and happen all the time but you’ve got to be in the right place to see them,” he said

Mr Law took a 30-second photo (pictured) of an iridium flare back in 2014..

“You can very visibly see the tail of the satellite in the 30-second shot,” he said.