2005-01-02 - Seattle, WA - Light

white light similar to satellite traveling high over Seattle

At about 5:17 this evening I was on my deck and as always looking up at the sky to see what was there. It was just getting dark and the stars were starting to show up, (the brightest ones first of course), were all I could see at this time. So, right by the star Capella, I believe, in the constellation of Auriga, there was a rather bright light appearing to be the same size and brightness of that star (Capella) traveling in a East, Southest direction, at a fairly slow speed. At first my thoughts were that it was a Satellite~ and it could have been I guess, however it didn't seem to act like any satellite I've seen before. First of all, it was for sure not a plane! There were no blinking lights on this object,just a white light, like a star. Usually satellites disappear quite quickly and sometimes even flash as if in rotation and reflecting light as they rotate, but this light stayed the same intensity the whole time I observed it. I actually ran into the house and grabbed my binoculars and ran back out and still found it moving in the same general direction without the binocs! So I followed it with the binoculars for a couple more minutes until it faded and finally disappeared, which was fairly close to the horizon /Cascade Mountains. It also did seem to speed up and change direction of its course although this was not real apparent, not like rapid changing or sharp angled turns. Just a sort of veering into a more southerly direction and speeding up slightly. It also didn't seem to be as high as a satellite usually travels. That is about it, nothing overly exciting but I thought it was worth writing in about. I'm wondering if anyone else saw it and might of reported it also. I'd be interested to know if you think it was a satellite.

Thanks, DC