2005-08-06 - Wheaton, IL - Sphere

Sighting of bright orb in sky, following an unusual path, reversing directions twice

At 6:55 PM on Aug 6th, in a sunny, cloudless sky, I noticed a white speck of light in the Eastern sky, rising up slowly at about 2 o'clock arc due East, but heading due West at about the speed of a jet or a sattelite.

At first I thought it might be a jet, since it was moving at about the speed of one roughly at 25,000 feet--but this looked different from a jet or conventional aircraft of any type: I could see no appendages, it appeared to be internally luminous, not like the reflected light off of a plane, and though high up, appeared round.

As it continued rising, about 30 seconds into this, I noticed that there was another pinpoint of light in the sky that was also roughly 2 o-clock east, but reddish in color like that of Mars (except of course this was daytime, and it was a bright blue sky at the time)--and this one was standing perfectly still. I watched as the first orb continued on in its path and by passed by the other reddish orb, fairly close by, and which also seemed to be internally lit, like a soft glow, rather than reflective. I lost track of that second one as I continued focusing on the first orb,which gradually made its way almost directly overhead, though about 1 o'clock northward.

By about the time it reached zenith (or a little bit north of that), which was a few minutes into the sighting, it had slowed down, and now remained completely motionless for about five minutes straight, almost directly overhead of me.

Then, at about 7:00 or 7:05 PM, it began slowly backing up and going *backward* in an easterly direction, roughly along the same pathline from which it came, but somewhat more northeastly in arc this time. It was continuing very, very slowly, and about five or ten minutes into this movement, it stopped once again and remained motionless in the sky at about 2 o'clock NE. It seemed to be getting smaller as if it were ascending higher, and it was hard to keep track of it.

Then, at around 7:20 or 7:25 PM, it began going Westward once again, slowly climbing back as it had the very first time but in a somewhat more southwesterly arc this time, but more or less to where the same general area spot it had reached and reversed direction at earlier. This time, it finally reached the zenith of the sky at roughly 7:30.

At this point I continued watching as it moved very, very slowly further West, but covering only a small arc of sky as it grew smaller and smaller in size, and I lost track of it around 7:40. At last sighting it was located about just a few minutes in westward arc from zenith.

The entire sighting lasted almost exactly 45 minutes, as I looked at my watch both at the beginning and end of the sighting. (The other times cited are more iffy.) In short, the overall trajectory formed a kind of "Z" pattern (but more as begun from the bottom right of the Z and up, rather than the upper left and then down, if you know what I mean.) I have no idea as to its size, but I would guess just based on various factors (see below), this object was anywhere from 50 to 100 feet across; if so, then it's safe to say that it was roughly at 30 to 40 thousand feet high--or more--especially towards the end. (By way of reference, at one point a jetliner flew across the sky, heading in a Westerly direction, coming close to crossing the path of the orb, probably at around 25 or 30 thousand feet--and the orb seemed much higher to me, based on its luminosity and the atmospheric haze over each body. Pure guesswork, of course, but worth mentioning. )