2002-06-09 - Seattle, WA - Circle

it was between 1000 and 1030pm - i was in my back yard with my telescope, however i did not need my telescope to see this! I live on the west hills overlooking the north end of boeing field. the back of my house faces west/the front east. i saw a big softwhite light/round (size of my thumbnail if i hold it out at arms length) with green/blue hue about it moving/comming in from the west - must of been 2 - 3000 feet up - i watched it with the naked eye, moving tofast to catch with telescope, but not fast enough for me to loose it, ran in got my binoculers on the table, was still only pure light - it continued on to the west via the south end of my house (neighbors house in the way so i ran to the front of my house) and saw it still, just going over boeing field, it was still the same color and sized, all this took about 1 min, then it shrank to half its size and turned an instant amber color/blinked out almost instantly. It was a beautiful sight. there were no blinking lights, no noise and Iknow when i am seeing a plane, helicopter, or jet, i have lived here 6 yrs and have never seen anything like this over this area, we get small planes all the time flying over us. it was awesome, i will watch every night i can now. ((name and telephone number deleted)) the object was pure light!!!

((NUFORC Note: Probably the International Space Station. PD))


((CORRESPONDENCE AND RESPONSE))

Dear ((DELETED)) ,

Thank you very much for your report. I believe you may have been witness to the International Space Station passing overhead.

Please see the following website:

http://heavens-above.com/passsummary.asp?lat=47.606&lng=-122.331&alt=0&loc=Seattle&TZ=PST&satid=25544&Date=37407.7916666667&Mag=

Its ground track is visible here:

http://platec.gsoc.dlr.de/ion/ion-p.exe?page=iss%5Cissobs.ion&lo=-122.3310&la=47.6060&t=10%2DJun%2D2002+05%3A01%3A29&zone=-7.00

It reports that the ISS passed over western Washingtong at approximately 22:26 hrs. last night. Given the clear sky last night, the ISS would have been VERY prominent.

That is only a guess.

Thanks, again, for sharing the information.

Cordially,

Peter Davenport
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((RESPONSE FROM WITNESS))

I believe your are right, it must have been, it was a wonderful sight.

((END))