2001-01-15 - Vancouver, WA - Changing

Bright object seen in sky north of Vancouver Wa.

((NUFORC Note: We believe that the witness describes here the star, Betelgeuse. It is very bright in the southeastern sky, and it "twinkles" vividly. PD))

On the night of Jan.,15,2001 I was driving to a friends house when I first noticed the object in the sky. Since I was almost to his home I didn't give it much thought although I did think that it looked out of place or strange since it seemed brighter than any of the stars around it or even other aircraft lights that I could identify. I spent about 45min. at his home and then left. on the way out his driveway I saw that the object was still in the sky but seemed to have move to the south of it's original position where I had seen it earlier. this peaked my interest enough to stop my vehicle and watch it from a stationary position. I thought to myself that a aircraft would have been long gone by now unless it was a rotorcraft that was hovering. After watching this object for mayby two to three minutes I was convinced that it was not behaving in a familiar way. It would move periodicaly in a direction (up,down,left,right) and than stop. The movement was rapid and the distance traveled was not great, but it was difficult to tell just how far it was moving. After it would move I could see a small cloud of something appear where it had been then this cloud would disappear in just a moment,it looked like a small patch of fog. With the naked eye the object looked like a ball of light very bright in intensity and periodicaly I would notice red and green colors also. I returned to my friends house hoping that he might have a pair of binoculars that I could use to help identify this object. My friend had both a pair of binoculars (10X) and a spotting scope (20X to 60X). Both myself and my friend along with his wife and daughter went back outside to observe this object with the above mentioned items. Once in a position where we cold see the object it was clear to my friend and his wife that this object was nothing that they have ever seen before. We all agreed that we could not positively identify it with the naked eye. The binoculars were too unstable to get a good solid look at the object. My friend drove his truck up to where we were to use as a rest for the spotting scope. When the scope was on target it was even stranger looking at 60X magnification. To me the object looked like a single cell organism as seen with high power microscope. The color was easier to see with the spotting scope, it appeared to be changing slightly in intensity between white,green,red,and yellow but none of the colors ever completely went away. even with the help of optical magnification none of us could identify this object. My friend and I continued to watch this object and at about 8:50pm it faded than disappeared behind some hills. During the time that the object was observed it traveled in what I would say was a southwest direction. I have been a professional firefighter for 15 years. My friend is self employed as a welder/fabricator and his wife is a local 911 dispatcher.