2006-10-01 - Seattle, WA - Teardrop

Very large yellow teardrop-shaped disk or meteor dropping several or many miles East of Seattle, Washington - watched for 12-14 seconds

Date: 10 October 2006 Time: 20:34 on 24-Hour Clock (8:34 or 8:32 P.M. P.D.T.).

Object: Possibly a Meteor coming down to Earth, teardrop shaped (round with short pointed tail).

Coloration: very bright yellow (with duller yellow blotches).

Size: nearly the size of the Moon (which was in the Southern sky), possibly 3/4 to the size of a full Moon.

Azimuth: Using North as zero (0°), to South (180°), and therefore East (90°), the object was at first spotted at nearly 100° and by the time it disappeared over the horizon, it was perhaps 95° azimuth (Left to Right, it was just slightly more to our Right from straight ahead).

Angle of Elevation: closer to 35° than 30 when first spotted, and dropping to about 25° or 20° behind the horizon.

Duration: It was a couple of seconds before I discounted it as not being a reflected glare, and then close to 12 seconds of active watching (while driving, as there was no place to pull over and it was easy to watch while driving as it was so low now and just right of straight ahead). The distance was impossible to tell, but it had the illusion of dropping out toward North Bend or Lake Sammamish.

After: As it disappeared from sight, I called a friend who lives on the West shore of Lake Sammamish to see if they were ok, and to see if they had seen it. They had there back to the east deck window and had seen it get very bright and then turned to see it glowing over the East horizon. As they went outside, they heard neighbors talking on their docks asking each other, "What the heck was that?" Reporting: I called information for ideas of who to report this to ... I left a message at a Meteor organization in Kent, and then called and left a message at the University of Washington Astronomy Department in Seattle, and then called and spoke with Jennifer at KIRO Radio (710AM) in Seattle, who suggested I also report the event to the folks here at UFOCenter.com (and thank you for your kind call!) even if it was a meteor or such, as it had not yet been identified as such.

POV: My point of view was driving Easterly on the Evergreen Bridge (Hwy 520) from Seattle, Washington toward Lake Sammamish just East of the center of the bridge when I noticed one very large yellow circular shape appearing to drop from the sky slightly to the East-Southeast side of the bridge, but still almost as high as the moon which was in the Southern sky. I moved my head around a bit to be sure it was not simply a glare on the windshield, but it kept its path in spite of my dramatic movements. My passenger was also astonished at what we were seeing; as it was so large and not shooting "across" the sky as stars sometimes do (my passenger is an adult female, about my age).

Personal Info: My name is Tim Oldfield, I'm 51 years of age ... back in college to work toward my Masters Degree ... just got my eyes checked at the optometrist 3 weeks ago and they are fine and unchanged (and I have fresh contacts on). My email is TimO@WayneResearch.com and my mobile phone number is 505 650 0223 (New Mexico number, but I live back in the Seattle area). Too bad cellular phone cameras give such poor results and are so slow to access ... too late.