On a very clear night, a star-like light flashed three times heading south overhead and vanished.My job has me working until 1:45am and I don't get home till shortly after 2. I wasn't tired, so I stayed up late to work on a computer project. I went outside to the front of my home at approximately 5:15 to have a cigarette. I was standing in the driveway of my home, facing the house (so I was facing east / northeast) and looking up at the stars. I was amazed with how clear it was. Usually I can only see a certain number of stars due to light pollution in my area. This night was incredibly clear though, and I could see constellations I only see once every so often. I noticed an airplane fly by. It was high enough so that you couldn't hear the engine, but you could still clearly make out the red and blue lights on the wings. It went off into the distance and there it was obvious there were no more aircraft in sight. As I stood there a few minutes longer admiring the stars, enjoying my cigarette, I noticed a pinpoint of light almost directly overhead. This was much different than an airplane. With an airplane (especially at night), you can always see the wing and tail lights which are often red and blue. This was a single white point of light that appeared. It flashed overhead for about 2 seconds, then disppeared. About 10 to 15 seconds later, it appeared again, heading in a southerly direction. It flashed again for 2 seconds and disappeared. Then, after another 10 or 15 seconds had passed, it flashed again. That was the last time. If I had to measure the distance between the flashes, I would say it was equal to the amount of sky that two adult hand widths would cover side by side, extended at arm's length. I followed the path of the light to see if it flashed again, but it did not. This is what made me even more suspicious because there were still stars in the sky above where the flash would have appeared that were clearly visible. There were no clouds over the house at the time and, again, I was amazed that the sky was at clear as it was. I wondered if I could have been seeing a satellite, but it didn't make sense that it would be flashing or that it would only flash three times and disappear. The brightness of the flash was about equal to the brightness of Mars or Venus on any clear night. Less than a minute after I spotted the light, I went inside to look at the clock on my cable box. I used this clock specifically because the time is set by my local cable company and it would make sense that it would be the most accurate clock in my home. The time was 5:22.