Slow-flying crescent made up of lots of little balls flies over downtown Seattle
While observing the meteor storm from my decidedly bad vantage point (inner city, facing northwest), I noticed a slow-moving object high up in the sky. The object was crescent-shaped, colored a medium grey (judging by the color reflected from the city lights below), and seemed to have a texture like it was made from dozens of small balls or spheres.
It flew very slowly from north-northeast to south-southwest, and was accompanied by a very faint rumbling, engine-like noise which I could make out over the normal nighttime sounds of downtown Seattle. Once it was nearly overhead, it turned slowly west and faded from view, and the rumbling noise faded away with it.
The size was approximately that of a thumbnail held at arm's length, and it flew with the rounded portion of the crescent shape aimed forward. There were no light emitters of any type visible on it.
Its height could not be accurately estimated; I have only the amplitude of its "engine" noise to base any guess upon. And if I tried to guess using only that, it would have been at least 5,000 feet in altitude.
I'm on the approach path for commercial airliners, and I know what they look and sound like from varying distances. This was *not* a commercial flight.
According to my handheld GPS, I'm located at 47°36'23N by 122°19'51W. This is in downtown Seattle near the monorail terminus.
This is the first of three unidentifyable objects I will be reporting on tonight.
Incidentally, from my decidedly poor vantage point, highly restricted viewable area, and severe light pollution conditions, I still observed approximately 150 meteors between 1am & 4am; with only one being very substantial. The projectile itself glowed an eye-piercing whitish violet and was surrounded by a darker violet coma; and the long tail was green & white with violet & blue-violet along its edges. It's a fair guess it left some elements in our upper atmosphere that aren't even on the periodic table yet. All but three of the meteors I saw were Leonids.
While observing the meteor storm from my decidedly bad vantage point (inner city, facing northwest), I noticed a slow-moving object high up in the sky. The object was crescent-shaped, colored a medium grey (judging by the color reflected from the city lights below), and seemed to have a texture like it was made from dozens of small balls or spheres.
It flew very slowly from north-northeast to south-southwest, and was accompanied by a very faint rumbling, engine-like noise which I could make out over the normal nighttime sounds of downtown Seattle. Once it was nearly overhead, it turned slowly west and faded from view, and the rumbling noise faded away with it.
The size was approximately that of a thumbnail held at arm's length, and it flew with the rounded portion of the crescent shape aimed forward. There were no light emitters of any type visible on it.
Its height could not be accurately estimated; I have only the amplitude of its "engine" noise to base any guess upon. And if I tried to guess using only that, it would have been at least 5,000 feet in altitude.
I'm on the approach path for commercial airliners, and I know what they look and sound like from varying distances. This was *not* a commercial flight.
According to my handheld GPS, I'm located at 47°36'23N by 122°19'51W. This is in downtown Seattle near the monorail terminus.
This is the first of three unidentifyable objects I will be reporting on tonight.
Incidentally, from my decidedly poor vantage point, highly restricted viewable area, and severe light pollution conditions, I still observed approximately 150 meteors between 1am & 4am; with only one being very substantial. The projectile itself glowed an eye-piercing whitish violet and was surrounded by a darker violet coma; and the long tail was green & white with violet & blue-violet along its edges. It's a fair guess it left some elements in our upper atmosphere that aren't even on the periodic table yet. All but three of the meteors I saw were Leonids.
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Off
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
Seattle
USA
20 seconds
20 seconds
47.61
-122.33
other
WA
Occurred : 11/18/2001 02:22 (Entered as : 11/18/01 02:22) Reported: 11/18/2001 4:30:13 AM 04:30 Posted: 11/20/2001 Location: Seattle, WA Shape: Other Duration: 20 seconds Characteristics: The object made a sound
Slow-flying crescent made up of lots of little balls flies over downtown Seattle