Large thin orange crescent with outline lights low in sky; changed size; possible mirage.
Driving west after dark we saw a large, thin orange crescent low in the sky ahead of us. At first we thought it might be the moon, but it was too large. (Had watched the new moon and Venus, just after sunset, the previous night - the crescent we are reporting was much larger, appearing to be the outline of the bottom a very large circle. It grew larger, then smaller, then vanished. There appeared to be indistinct small lights along it, and a bright orange light near the tip of the crescent (on the right).
We wonder about the possibility of a mirage, as the conditions were rather humid from melting snow, and there is a highway intersection several miles west of this location which is lighted by an orange light on a pole, on the right. If this was a mirage, it seems to have been displaced to the south of the actual location of the intersection.
Driving west after dark we saw a large, thin orange crescent low in the sky ahead of us. At first we thought it might be the moon, but it was too large. (Had watched the new moon and Venus, just after sunset, the previous night - the crescent we are reporting was much larger, appearing to be the outline of the bottom a very large circle. It grew larger, then smaller, then vanished. There appeared to be indistinct small lights along it, and a bright orange light near the tip of the crescent (on the right).
We wonder about the possibility of a mirage, as the conditions were rather humid from melting snow, and there is a highway intersection several miles west of this location which is lighted by an orange light on a pole, on the right. If this was a mirage, it seems to have been displaced to the south of the actual location of the intersection.
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West Point
USA
2 min.
2 min.
40.71
-91.44
circle
IA
Occurred : 2/19/2007 20:00 (Entered as : 02/19/07 20:00) Reported: 2/20/2007 5:00:39 AM 05:00 Posted: 2/24/2007 Location: West Point, IA Shape: Circle Duration: 2 min. Characteristics: There were lights on the object
Large thin orange crescent with outline lights low in sky; changed size; possible mirage.