Flash over Edison, NJ

The report, as filed

At approximately 21:39 I witnessed a irregular flashing/pulsating point (sources). I was facing north; the location was within two fingers width held at arms length of Deneb ~ 3 or so degrees. (Very roughly I think this was 18 degrees above the horizon---using the same finger approximation). - There was no periodicity I could make out (varying between 2 seconds per pulse up to 7). - Each pulse began appeared as a light suddenly turning on, then either: (1) immediately turning off or (2) decaying over the course of ~1 second (or longer, I did not take a precise measurement). - The location appeared to occasionally change/jump within about 5 degrees of angular separation (estimated by three fingers width held at arms length). - The maximum brightness was nearly that of Jupiter at the time. - This lasted for about 1 - 2 minutes since I first witnessed it. Other notes: - It's central New Jersey; the direction I was facing was New York, the night was humid, there were light clouds close the source---in essence there was a ton of light pollution and visibility was mediocre. Originally I thought the clouds moving were causing the pulsing behavior, but on further observation it was clear this was not the case. Despite the light pollution I was able to see a couple of meteor-streaks. - The sky was littered with planes lower on the horizon (Newark airport is extremely close), and---like any good summer night around 9pm---there were plenty of satellites (I saw ~20 over the course of an hour --- mostly east-west moving, some north-south(ish); some in the vicinity of the flash). - Other than the "jumping" I described above, the source did not appear to move, even when flashing for long periods. Granted, what I witnessed was close to the horizon so that the apparent motion would be small, but I did not see any movement over the very long flashes, and satellites that passed through that vicinity were very visibly moving. - Over the course of four years, I've seen two bright iridium flares in the same area on other nights---I'm pretty confident this was not that.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #146729). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.