2003-11-08 - Colorado Springs, CO - Other

Backlit by the nearly eclipsed moon, my husband and I saw a dark, fuzzy boomeranged shaped object moving slowly.

On the evening of Nov. 8, 2003, during the lunar eclipse, my husband and I were viewing the moon from our front yard with the naked eye. The eclipse was nearly complete with just a sliver left of regular lunar reflection, around 6:40 Mountain Time. We both saw the boomerang shaped object which was backlit by the eclipsed moon. It appeared in the lower right-hand quadrant of the moon, slightly inward on the radius between the 6 and 5 o'clock positions and moving in a slight arch downward and out of the moon's light. It took at least a minute to traverse this space. In size from side to side of its shape, we estimate it to be around 1/6 the moon's diameter. It was impossible to tell where in the viewing space the object could have been located. It could have been anywhere in our upper atmosphere or in the space between the moon and ourselves as we viewed. The outline of the dark object was more fuzzy than starkly defined as well. After at least a full minute of viewing as the object moved extremely slowly, it disappeared into the surrounding blackness of the night sky. Our atmospheric conditions on that night were absolutely crystal clear and we are located at above 7,000 ft. altitude.

Could it have been an owl we saw backlit by the moon? The movement was archlike so it may be a possibility. The lines were so diffuse around the edges of the object, however, and the shape of the object so consistently formed that we doubted an owl could have produced such an image. The curved longest side of the boomerang had an unnatural curvature totally unlike that of an owl's lines in flight and the speed was too slow to account for an owl's closer distance in our viewing field. Could it have been a plane? No, unless our government is working on a new class of secret boomeranged shaped craft. Always a possibility.

I am a former teacher and my husband owns his own business. We were clear of mind and had not imbibed any alcohol or altering substances. We are in our late 40's.