2007-09-08 - Reno, NV - Unknown

UFO flutters, makes right angle turn and accelerates to impossible speed.

While waiting for the Reno Balloon Races to commence, I spent my time watching for satellites. After spotting a couple of normal ones, I saw a very unusual one. This one’s flight characteristic seemed to be like a butterfly in a strong breeze except very, very high up (high up enough to reflect sunlight at about 4:15am). It appeared to be climbing in altitude quickly also. It was headed in a southerly direction and headed into Orion. As it climbed, it seemed to slow and then just lazily move towards the westerly foot (star name = Rigel) of Orion. I pointed this out to a passing stranger who showed no particular interest. As it reached Rigel, it slowed to a stop and reversed course. It was as faint as a smaller satellite at this point, and proceeded slowly in a northern direction past Meissa (Orion’s head), past Mars and to Triangulum. At approximately the star Perseus, the object made an abrupt 90 degree turn to the east and started to slowly accelerate at first. A couple of women with their 2 children came to sit next to me and I pointed this out to them, they focused in quickly, and the object accelerated to the point that it went from almost straight above us to the horizon in about 2 seconds while the apparent size grew from a small, dim star to a large size star.

I have watched the stars since I was a child, and have studied astronomy for decades. The flight characteristics of this object matched no known aircraft that I have ever heard of as far as fluttering, ability to make an instantaneous 90 degree turn at high velocity, or speed. To go from straight above to beyond the horizon at that altitude constitutes speeds that NASA could not duplicate in their wildest dreams.