2004-01-28 - New Orleans, LA - Light

Satellite in sky over New Orleans?

Jan 28, 2004. At 7:20pm, while taking my dogs outside, I looked up at the moon which was approx. 70 degrees in the western sky at the time, and I noticed what I thought was a satellite traveling across the sky in an easterly direction.

The object appeared to me to be the same intensity as an average star and was not blinking. I noticed it in the western sky, and watched it move under the moon (about 3 inches under moon from my perspective) and across the sky, heading toward Orion's belt.

I watched the object for 1 min before opening up the front door and calling to my boyfriend, who was on the computer at the time. I told him I thought there was a satellite and he should come check it out. While he was on the way outside, I watched the star-like object pass through the constellation Orion and start to fade out, as if high, thin clouds were passing over. By the time he made it outside, I could no longer see the object in the sky. I pointed out the direction (southern sky) of where I last saw the object to my boyfriend, but he didn't see anything.

I continued to watch the southern sky to see if I could spot the object again. My boyfriend was watching the sky to the NNE and spotted an object that looked like a star moving fast across the sky in a southernly direction. The object moved at first in a straight line, then moved erratically, and back to a straight line. The object seemed to him to leave sort of a small trail as it moved across the sky. I looked up to where he was seeing the object and I did not spot it. He lost sight of it soon after and also seemed to lose interest, as he went back inside. The duration between the time that I first spotted my object to the time that my boyfriend went back inside was approx. 5 mins.

I stayed outside watching the southern sky in the direction where I lost sight of the object I was viewing. I watched for another 5 mins. or so and spotted the object again, in the same place where it seemed to pass behind the high, thin clouds, as if it had stopped and started moving again. This could have been another object, I am not sure. It was still traveling toward the east, but the intensity of the light was not as bright as before, still suggesting the cloud cover. I immediately called for my boyfriend to come back out. When I looked back up to the sky, I could no longer see the object.

It was a very clear night, with high, thin clouds starting to appear from the SSW on the GOES-12 infrared weather satellite (I checked this 30 mins. later), but no clouds were visible from my perspective.