2004-03-19 - Great Smokies National Park, NC - Light

A stationary white dot was observed for 10 minutes.

I was hiking the Appalachian Trail in Great Smokies National Park, about 1 mile south from Double Spring Gap shelter. I stopped to lie down in a clear, grassy patch that overlooked the western side of the park, and Fontana Lake. I decided to watch the sky, and look for birds, as I enjoy watching birds fly from below. The sun was bright and there were no clouds in the sky. I layed on my back, and shielded the sun from my eyes. I began to focus on how bright blue the sky was, and how there were no clouds at all. There were several nearby jets, with jet-trails. Soon, my eyes focused on a incredibly tiny white dot. It was the size of a period, like this (.). Just a single white point. I thought to myself, "that's incredibly high for a plane". There were no exhaust trails. I watched the point for about 10 minutes, and it did not move. I closed my eyes, and looked away, and looked back multiple times, and the dot was still there. It was not a plane, for it did not move or have trails. It was not a speck on my glasses, as I moved my head about and the dot stayed in the same position. It was not a cloud, far too small. It was not a star or part of the moon. The moon was about quarter that night, and it was about 3:00 in the day, thus no star would be shining. It was not a receding balloon, as I've watched receding helium balloons before, and they diminish from sight much quicker. The only thing I could explain it as was a geosynchronous satellite. It had the same look, and this would explain why it didn't move. However, no satellite is visible during this time of day. Thus, I characterize it as unidentified. Finally, I looked away for about 20 seconds. When I looked back up, the dot was gone, and nowhere in the sky.