2004-10-31 - Woodbridge, VA - Light

Looking south from my back deck, a bright "star" caught my eye last night. What drew my attention at first was how it sparkled, changing colors extremely rapidly. White, green, blue, yellow, violet. Nearly the entire spectrum. As I watched it, I would swear I saw another fainter "star" appear right next to it. Then, both points of light moved! The best way I can describe the movement would be to compare it to someone shining a laser on a wall and moving it in a very tight counterclockwise circle, at a medium-slow rate of speed. The movement was barely discernable and lasted maybe 10 or 15 seconds, then stopped. I wasn't altogether certain that my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, so I watched for a while longer, and it happened again. I don't have a video cam, or I would have filmed it, and it wouldn't have served any purpose to take a still photo, since the image would have just shown a starry sky. At any rate, I went inside and watched TV for an hour or so. Just before going to bed, I went out on the deck and had another look at the sky. That "star" was no longer there. There were plenty more stars cleary visible in the immediate area of the sky where I had seen it, so I doubt seriously that it was now hidden behind clouds. I don't have a clue what it could have been, but I thought it was pretty strange to see a "star" move like that.