1999-08-12 - Apex, NC - Triangle

A very large triangular aray of (3) lights seen in the east and moving rapidly north north-west.

A friend an I were watching the sky for the perceids meteor shower. We were just south of Raleigh, NC. There was a good deal of light pollution but the sky was clear. We were facing east and watching high in the east sky. I noticed an orange light in the sky that at first I thought was an aircraft, but it would have had to be extremely high (I could not distinguish the red/green sides and there was no strobe). There was also no sound. It struck me that the light was moving very fast for such a height. I made a comment about it. My friend looked and was shocked. She saw a very large triangle. When she stated she saw the triangle I shifted my field of view that had been concentrating on the one point I spotted and realized there were 3 greatly separate points in a triangular shape all moving together and at what seemed to be a very great speed if the lights were as distant as they seemed to be. We both watched the triangle move to the north north-west. I tried to see if it obstructed any stars as it moved, but the light pollution was too great and the visible stars too few, I did not see it pass in front of any visible star until I lost sight of it in the light pollution to the North. The total sighting could not have been more than 15 seconds, more likely it was 10 or less. The triangle shape was irregular, certainly not equilateral. To judge it's size I compared it to Jupiter and Saturn, which were both visible at this time in the east sky. The longest side of the triangle was about 6/10 to 7/10 the distance between Jupiter and Saturn. The next side was about 4/5 the size of the longest side, while the shortest side was perhaps 1/2 the size of the longest side. It did not move with one of the points in the lead, rather it seemed to sweep across the sky with the shortest side of the triangle in the lead. The corner points did seem rigidly fixed, they did not move relative to each other at all during the observation. My friend and I are both unsure if this was one very large object or simply three lights flying in this pattern. She (very much a UFO skeptic) believes it was one object; without having seen it obstruct a star I'm unsure and more inclined to think it was 3 objects. We both agree that it moved across the sky too quickly to be aircraft at the height that aircraft would have had to be at to look like this (several miles). By itself I expect this report to be pretty unspectacular. I'm submitting it only because I realize that there may have been other sky watchers at or around the time who also saw it and may have been able to make a better observation. I hope that this report can help back up such an observation. I am not e-mailing any additional information at this time, but would be glad to do so if such were requested. I also do not check the request for a contact or collect call boxes. However, if there are other reports that this report can help collaborate, please contact me via e-mail and I will be glad to provide any information requested. And, of course, if you somehow know what we saw, please let me know.