Return of the Sedro-Woolley Winking Star
This is a follow-up to a report filed on 8/18/03, in which my I, my wife, and a neighbor observed a winking light in the sky for 1 hour and 45 minutes as it slowly traveled in a n/w direction in the n/w quadrant of the sky.
Tonight, I went outside after 10:00 pm to observe Mars. I also scanned the n/w quadrant of the sky to see if the winking light would make a reapparance. (It should be noted that on several evenings since our first sighting, my wife and I have gone outside to see about a repeat performance with no luck.) I had been looking at the sky for several minutes when I thought I saw something flash directly above me in the sky. This was out of my peripheral vision, so I focused on the area above me where I had seen the flash. I did a mental count to 29 (as in the first sighting), and on the count of 29 was looking directly at the flash as it winked on and winked off. The flash was white in color, just to the "top" of the northern cross (i.e., if the cross were right-side up, the flash was located above the top of the cross), and the brightness was equal to that of nearby Vega, if not brighter.
At this point, I dashed inside, grabbed the video camera, and called to my wife, "It's back." I went back outside, grabbed a lawn chair and sat down, and looked up again in the sky. As my wife came out, we saw it flash once more, very bright. I started up my video camera and aimed it at the location in the sky and waited in vain. It did not reappear. My wife saw the second flash. From its location against the stars, it appeared to be traveling in a generally east to west direction.
At approximately 20:22, we saw another white flash, this time in a different location, further north in the night sky; just behind the back of Cassiopeia's chair. We focused on that area and began our mental count to 29. But only a few seconds after this new flash, we saw a second flash, which was also behind Cassiopeia's chair, but a few degrees west of the first flash. That was all. We watched the skies for almost an hour more with no luck. We did see several shooting stars, airplanes and satellites. They are all quite different from the flashing light we observed.
((NUFORC Note: We are acquainted with these witnesses, and we know them to be quite reliable, and credible as witnesses. If they are not observing the intermittent flashes of a tumbling rocket booster shell in orbit, then we do not know what it is they are observing. NUFORC has received several reports during August 2003 of seemingly unexplained "winking" lights in the night sky. Please see a second report from Vashon Island, Washington State, for August 11, 2003, at 23:30 hrs.. PD))
This is a follow-up to a report filed on 8/18/03, in which my I, my wife, and a neighbor observed a winking light in the sky for 1 hour and 45 minutes as it slowly traveled in a n/w direction in the n/w quadrant of the sky.
Tonight, I went outside after 10:00 pm to observe Mars. I also scanned the n/w quadrant of the sky to see if the winking light would make a reapparance. (It should be noted that on several evenings since our first sighting, my wife and I have gone outside to see about a repeat performance with no luck.) I had been looking at the sky for several minutes when I thought I saw something flash directly above me in the sky. This was out of my peripheral vision, so I focused on the area above me where I had seen the flash. I did a mental count to 29 (as in the first sighting), and on the count of 29 was looking directly at the flash as it winked on and winked off. The flash was white in color, just to the "top" of the northern cross (i.e., if the cross were right-side up, the flash was located above the top of the cross), and the brightness was equal to that of nearby Vega, if not brighter.
At this point, I dashed inside, grabbed the video camera, and called to my wife, "It's back." I went back outside, grabbed a lawn chair and sat down, and looked up again in the sky. As my wife came out, we saw it flash once more, very bright. I started up my video camera and aimed it at the location in the sky and waited in vain. It did not reappear. My wife saw the second flash. From its location against the stars, it appeared to be traveling in a generally east to west direction.
At approximately 20:22, we saw another white flash, this time in a different location, further north in the night sky; just behind the back of Cassiopeia's chair. We focused on that area and began our mental count to 29. But only a few seconds after this new flash, we saw a second flash, which was also behind Cassiopeia's chair, but a few degrees west of the first flash. That was all. We watched the skies for almost an hour more with no luck. We did see several shooting stars, airplanes and satellites. They are all quite different from the flashing light we observed.
((NUFORC Note: We are acquainted with these witnesses, and we know them to be quite reliable, and credible as witnesses. If they are not observing the intermittent flashes of a tumbling rocket booster shell in orbit, then we do not know what it is they are observing. NUFORC has received several reports during August 2003 of seemingly unexplained "winking" lights in the night sky. Please see a second report from Vashon Island, Washington State, for August 11, 2003, at 23:30 hrs.. PD))
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Sedro-Woolley
USA
12 minutes
12 minutes
48.53
-122.23
light
WA
Occurred : 8/27/2003 20:10 (Entered as : 08/27/03 20:10) Reported: 8/27/2003 11:26:29 PM 23:26 Posted: 8/28/2003 Location: Sedro-Woolley, WA Shape: Light Duration: 12 minutes Characteristics: There were lights on the object
Return of the Sedro-Woolley Winking Star