Creamy yellow, slow moving light moving N to S, high in the sky, slow turnon/turnoff, then vanished.
While observing the meteor shower from my NNW facing window, I noticed a creamy yellow light appear out of nowhere high in the sky, a few degrees WNW from the second brightest star I can see from my vantage point (possibly in the constellation Casseopia, the thing that looks like a big "W" in the sky, which is almost directly overhead and to the NNW from my view at this time of day). The light was tiny and it looked & moved like a satellite in polar orbit, but the time of sighting would seem to preclude that possibility, as the sun has been down for some six hours. It "came on" slowly while moving directly south, increased in brilliance over about 1 second, stayed lit at around magnitude -2 to -3 for about another second, then dimmed & vanished over the next second, never to reappear. I tracked its projected course until my view was obstructed by the exterior wall of my own building, and did not see it light up again. The color did not change, and no trails or tails were left behind. Once it dimmed out, it could no longer be followed. The apparent size was smaller than the head of a common pin held at arm's length. The two meteors I observed earlier this morning before sighting this object both travelled very quickly (est. many tens of thousands of MPH), on a generally southeast-to-northwest track, and were colored white and blue-white respectively. One left a blue luminescent trail for a brief time. This object was nothing like them. The speed was all wrong, the direction of travel was wrong, and the color of the light wasn't a typical "meteor" color compared to any meteor I've ever seen. Any ideas?
((NUFORC Note: At 0230 hrs. local time, no man-made satellites would be visible overhead. They would be in the Earth's shadow, and therefore not illuminated. If a satellite is not reflecting sunlight, it almost certainly is not visible to a person below without special optical equipment. PD))
While observing the meteor shower from my NNW facing window, I noticed a creamy yellow light appear out of nowhere high in the sky, a few degrees WNW from the second brightest star I can see from my vantage point (possibly in the constellation Casseopia, the thing that looks like a big "W" in the sky, which is almost directly overhead and to the NNW from my view at this time of day). The light was tiny and it looked & moved like a satellite in polar orbit, but the time of sighting would seem to preclude that possibility, as the sun has been down for some six hours. It "came on" slowly while moving directly south, increased in brilliance over about 1 second, stayed lit at around magnitude -2 to -3 for about another second, then dimmed & vanished over the next second, never to reappear. I tracked its projected course until my view was obstructed by the exterior wall of my own building, and did not see it light up again. The color did not change, and no trails or tails were left behind. Once it dimmed out, it could no longer be followed. The apparent size was smaller than the head of a common pin held at arm's length. The two meteors I observed earlier this morning before sighting this object both travelled very quickly (est. many tens of thousands of MPH), on a generally southeast-to-northwest track, and were colored white and blue-white respectively. One left a blue luminescent trail for a brief time. This object was nothing like them. The speed was all wrong, the direction of travel was wrong, and the color of the light wasn't a typical "meteor" color compared to any meteor I've ever seen. Any ideas?
((NUFORC Note: At 0230 hrs. local time, no man-made satellites would be visible overhead. They would be in the Earth's shadow, and therefore not illuminated. If a satellite is not reflecting sunlight, it almost certainly is not visible to a person below without special optical equipment. PD))
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Off
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Yes
No
No
No
No
Seattle
USA
3 seconds
3 seconds
47.61
-122.33
light
WA
Occurred : 8/12/2001 02:30 (Entered as : 08/12/01 02:30) Reported: 8/12/2001 02:57 Posted: 8/12/2001 Location: Seattle, WA Shape: Light Duration: 3 seconds Characteristics: There were lights on the object
Creamy yellow, slow moving light moving N to S, high in the sky, slow turnon/turnoff, then vanished.