2005-11-11 - Santa Barbara, CA - Light

Bright light that vanished

At 5:00 pm I saw a bright (like that of Venus) object hanging in the sky to the North, over the Santa Ynez Mountains at about the 11:00 o'clock position (not quite overhead.) It simply vanished after five minutes. The object was brilliant white and seemed to "hang" and twinkle. Some slight motion seemed to happen, but this could have been my eyes. No shape was discernable, though it was not point-like. it seemed to have planet-like girth.

I know the night sky well and for a brief second thought it could be Polaris (was in the same general direction) but it was still too light out and no other stars were visible. When it vanished, I knew something unusual was up. It was not moving like a satellite, though I cannot rule out a large geo-synchronous object of some sort (ISS?) This could be checked I suppose.

It seemed to be lower than a star. I can't say that for sure of course, but it appeared "inside" the atmosphere. I do not have the ability to judge altitude. The sky was perfectly clear and a few planes flew near it but made no approach. After it disappeared, an old bomber looking plane flew over. That was unusual but may have no bearing whatsoever on the sighting.

For the record, it was NOT Venus or any other planet. Wrong side of the sky, way outside the orbital plane.

I'm only making this report because this was an unusal event and perhaps other people saw it...


((NUFORC Note: Given the witness's experience with viewing the nighttime sky, we agree with his assessment that the object almost certainly could not have been a celestial body, i.e. a star or planet. However, we have to address the possibility that the light might have been the landing light on an approaching a/c, possibly the bomber-like plane. However, that is just a guess. PD))