2001-07-02 - Cle Elum, WA - Chevron

Short sighting of chevron formation through polaroid sunglasses

On Monday, July 2, 2001 I was traveling east on I-90 from Seattle with my wife and nine-year-old daughter on a family vacation. We stopped between Cle Elum and Ellensburg at the Indian John Hill rest stop for lunch. While having lunch I was looking north toward the Mt Stuart range. I watched a jet airliner pass across my field of view eastbound above the mountains. Looking upward at about 45 degrees to see if I could spot another plane I noticed a chevron-shaped formation of small silver blobs. I was wearing polarized sunglasses and could just barely distinguish the lighter silver of the blobs from the blue of the sky. I removed my sunglasses to see if I could see the formation better but without the sunglasses, I could not see it at all. Putting my sunglasses back on I could once again see the formation but it was becoming more difficult as it moved northward toward the horizon. I guickly handed my sunglasses to my wife and asked if she could see anything. She could not and then my daughter insisted on a look. By the time I had my sunglasses back, I could no longer find the formation. In all I probably only saw the formation for ten to 15 seconds at somewhere between 1:20 and 1:30 PM PDT I am unsure how may silver blobs made up the formation, I would guess either seven or nine – one at the point and then either three or four in each trailing arm. While the chevron pointed west, the movement appeared to be to the north. At first I assumed this was a flight of geese but there was no shifting of position or movement. The formation remained rigid. I also thought it could be a formation of high flying military jets and cannot fully rule this out. I was however struck by the consistent pattern of the formation, how none of the silvery blobs shifted in relation to all the others. And of course I am intrigued that without the polarized sunglasses, the formation was essentially invisible.