Gossamer V-shaped object seen from Ohio
Around 11:30pm last night (the 27th, EST) I stepped outside to have a look at the night sky. I first caught sight of the planet Jupiter, rather bright and imposing, shining away in the eastern sky. Several winter constellations were also visible overhead and in the south, shining through a thin layer of haze and broken clouds. It was a rather chilly evening so I decided to leave my telescope indoors and just do some 'eyeball astronomy'.
After a couple minutes I suddenly noticed an object midway up in the east (about 50 degrees altitude) moving south. Its appearance was that of broadly V-shaped gossamer contrail, three full moon diameters wide, without any lights or form of illumination. I expected the object to begin to disperse and dissipate as I watched, due to its thin and wispy appearance. It did not! The object continued to move south steadily. I lost sight of it after twenty seconds or so when the object moved behind a bank of clouds in the south. It made no sound the entire time that I had it in view.
Being an amateur astronomer for the past twenty years has given me the opportunity to experience a good amount of sky phenomena. I have never seen anything in the night sky that I didn't have an explanation for - until now! I would be very interested in any and all plausible explanations of the object I spotted. My only explanation - birds flying south for the winter - was quickly discarded when I witnessed the object move behind the clouds.
Around 11:30pm last night (the 27th, EST) I stepped outside to have a look at the night sky. I first caught sight of the planet Jupiter, rather bright and imposing, shining away in the eastern sky. Several winter constellations were also visible overhead and in the south, shining through a thin layer of haze and broken clouds. It was a rather chilly evening so I decided to leave my telescope indoors and just do some 'eyeball astronomy'.
After a couple minutes I suddenly noticed an object midway up in the east (about 50 degrees altitude) moving south. Its appearance was that of broadly V-shaped gossamer contrail, three full moon diameters wide, without any lights or form of illumination. I expected the object to begin to disperse and dissipate as I watched, due to its thin and wispy appearance. It did not! The object continued to move south steadily. I lost sight of it after twenty seconds or so when the object moved behind a bank of clouds in the south. It made no sound the entire time that I had it in view.
Being an amateur astronomer for the past twenty years has given me the opportunity to experience a good amount of sky phenomena. I have never seen anything in the night sky that I didn't have an explanation for - until now! I would be very interested in any and all plausible explanations of the object I spotted. My only explanation - birds flying south for the winter - was quickly discarded when I witnessed the object move behind the clouds.
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Lakewood
USA
20 seconds
20 seconds
41.49
-81.80
chevron
OH
Occurred : 11/27/2002 23:30 (Entered as : 11/27/02 23:30) Reported: 11/28/2002 7:55:54 PM 19:55 Posted: 12/23/2002 Location: Lakewood, OH Shape: Chevron Duration: 20 seconds
Gossamer V-shaped object seen from Ohio