2000-10-19 - Sherwood Park, AB - Unknown

6+ beige colored objects, flying in a triangular formation, followed by a wispy column in the night sky over Sherwood Park, Alberta.

I was standing in a pipeline right-of-way with my ten year old son and my six year old daughter , while we were exercising our dog. I was facing south, when I looked up into the sky and noticed an object moving west to east. It was very bright compared to the stars, but had the twinkling light quality of a star. I thought that it probably was a satellite (or perhaps the space shuttle). It moved quite fast across the sky and disappeared within 15 - 30 seconds. Then from behind my son and I (from the north) a triangular formation of six or more objects moved at a very fast speed toward the south (observable for only 2 - 3 seconds). There were no lights on these ojbects. They were a beige color and did not contrast very well with the dark sky. They struck me as looking like a formation of geese, except they moved way too fast and were very high in the sky. In my memory, the object at the head of the formation was a degree or two out of line with the other objects following behind it. I didn't see them long enough to make out their individual shape, but they were uniform. At first, I thought I was seeing a spot light from the ground and so I was expecting the pattern to sweep back across the sky to the north, but the objects disappeared into the south. It was then that I noticed a wispy vertical column moving at a comparable speed to the triangular objects, track across the sky in the same north to south movement. There was no sound and and no light emanating from either the objects or the wispy column that followed them. I watched the sky for a couple of minutes after the column disappeared into the south, and tried to figure out what it was I had seen. I also was hoping that there would be more activity, but no other unusual effects or objects appeared. The pipeline right-of-way is located within 1/2 mile of the Strathcona Industrial Park where several large refineries create a considerable amount of light pollution, as do the housing developments that border the right-of-way on the east side. Still, the sky was cloudless and dark enough that the big dipper was clearly visible when I was facing north in the right-of-way, as were the stars to the south. It was also very easy to track the movement of the "satellite", that I describe above, as it moved from west to east. I am curious if I saw a natural phenomenon, a light effect or a formation of military planes on a manouever? What do you think? My son saw all of these things as well, although when I asked him a few minutes afterward he couldn't describe any details. He has the opinion that the objects may not be so easily explained as I think they probably are. Thank you for providing this wonderful service. I didn't realize the skies above Sherwood Park could be so exciting! Interestingly, the Canadian military base in Edmonton seemed uninterested. They told me to call the RCMP. The RCMP weren't able to help either - "What do they want us to do? Chase it?" was the response I got from them. Hopefully, this is interesting to you.