Mom, I need a flowchart.
Sorry honey, we’re all out, but I think there’s a btree in the pantry.
Are there 3-4 in a row? Starlink sattelites.
Or iridium flares
So what if it is the ISS but nobody is waving? How are we supposed to know?
Then it’s an artificial satellite. And, tbh, isn’t the ISS just a specific, very large artificial satellite?
They’re missing a lot of items here like missiles, ufos, and wind mills.
swamp gas
If it’s foggy it can also be reflections from ground-based stuff
first time ive encountered “bolide”
Where does gamma ray burst fit into this binary tree?
“Do you have a neutrino detector?” Yes/No
Comets don’t move I guess
I think that’s fair. Comets don’t appear to move across the sky unless you’re observing for a long time…and anyone observing for that long needs a more complex diagram.
One important one: is it more than an hour or so after sundown, or less than an hour or so before sunup? If so, it’s not a satellite, and is probably a plane.
Well that settles that then.
I once saw a slow moving light just above me. The town I live at covered in mist at the time. Turns out it was a small aircraft flying just a few meters above my apartment building. A few meters away from disaster.