2007-01-30 - London (UK/England) - Sphere

Slow moving bright sphere, 5x as large as star, 10x brighter. Intense white, blue and red colours

I was the only witness as the rest of my family has gone to bed. I was watching TV but the blinds were open and a bright light appeared from behind the edge of the rooftop of the house opposite mine. The object was in view for approximately 30 minutes and then it disappeared behind the outline of the chimney on the same house opposite.

I am 22 years old and a recent Psychology graduate. I am currently studying in preparation to begin a medical degree in September 2007. I have perfect eyesight and at the time of viewing this object, I was completely sober and alert. I’m now writing this description immediately after viewing the object.

As the object appeared from behind the edge of the rooftop it caught the corner of my eye as I was watching TV. It was hard to determine the shape because it was obviously very far away, but it seemed round. I thought it might be a star but because I live in London it is unusual to see such a bright star and with the naked eye I could not see any other stars in the sky from my living room. This was partly because there is a sodium street lamp right outside my house which generates quite a lot of orange light.

I noticed almost immediately that this round bright object was pulsating. I would say it was pulsating every 3-5 seconds. Also I originally thought it was white but soon realised it was actually very colourful. It was predominantly a bright white but parts of it were blue and red. With the naked eye it was about the size of a typical large star in the night sky.

I went to get some binoculars and then the colours and pulsating were very obvious - it was quite mesmerizing. Through the binoculars I could see some very faint stars in the night sky around the object and I would say the object was 5 times as large as the stars and 10 times as bright. It was very bright to look at through the binoculars which actually caused me to become dazed after a few minutes of constantly watching it to the point that I needed a short break.

It definitely wasn't an aircraft because it was too far away and because the pulsating colours were very different from the blinking lights of an aircraft i.e., the pulses were non-uniform and the colours de-localised. I live under the flight path to Heathrow Airport, so I'm very familiar with aircraft and what they look like from all altitudes. I wouldn't say it was a star because it was moving too fast across the sky and conversely it was too slow to be an aircraft.

I thought, that maybe it was a satellite. Anyway, the object was moving South at about 1 degree every 3 minutes.

I'd be interested to see if anyone else reports it.


((NUFORC Note: We have corresponded with the source of the report, inquiring whether he might have been viewing the star, Sirius. PD))

((ADDENDUM FROM WITNESS))

Peter,

I'm glad you contacted me because I saw the same object yesterday night and realised it was Sirius. It's funny, Sirius is my favourite star and I've seen it many times but have never known it to be so colourful!

bw,

((name deleted))

((END ADDENDUM))