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Astronomers use the word to describe any extremely bright meteor (or fireball), especially one that explodes in the atmosphere. [4] Some astronomical definition specify an apparent magnitude of −4 or brighter. [11] A superbolide reaches an apparent magnitude of −17 or brighter, [11] [12] which is roughly 100 times brighter than the full moon.
Flare is particularly caused by very bright light sources. Most commonly, this occurs when aiming toward the Sun (when the Sun is in frame or the lens is pointed sunward), and is reduced by using a lens hood or other shade. For good-quality optical systems, and for most images (which do not have a bright light shining into the lens), flare is a ...
Because quasars are extremely distant, bright, and small in apparent size, they are useful reference points in establishing a measurement grid on the sky. [67] The International Celestial Reference System (ICRS) is based on hundreds of extra-galactic radio sources, mostly quasars, distributed around the entire sky.
This list contains natural objects up to apparent magnitude 3.5. All objects are listed by their visual magnitudes, and objects too close together to be distinguished are listed jointly.
An Earth-grazing fireball (or Earth grazer) [2] is a fireball, a very bright meteor that enters Earth’s atmosphere and leaves again. Some fragments may impact Earth as meteorites, if the meteor starts to break up or explodes in mid-air. These phenomena are then called Earth-grazing meteor processions and bolides. [1]
Comet McNaught as the Great Comet of 2007. A great comet is a comet that becomes exceptionally bright. There is no official definition; often the term is attached to comets such as Halley's Comet, which during certain appearances are bright enough to be noticed by casual observers who are not looking for them, and become well known outside the astronomical community.
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Flash blindness is an either temporary or permanent visual impairment during and following exposure of a varying length of time to a light flash of extremely high intensity, such as a nuclear explosion, flash photograph, lightning strike, or extremely bright light, i.e. a searchlight, laser pointer, landing lights or ultraviolet light. [1]