2008-02-20 - Penn Valley, CA - Light

Strange Light Appeared At Time Of Lunar Eclipse

My family and I were viewing the lunar eclipse, the conditions were overcast but clearing. The eclipse was hard to see with some clouds interrupting the view, and so we were gazing about at the stars looking for satellites to watch. We saw several satellites and shooting stars. Sometime during the eclipse, I’m pretty sure it was past the halfway point, someone noticed something and said, "They look at that!"

I looked up at approximately 10:00 in the sky, above the height of the moon, but southeast of it. I saw what appeared at first to be a bright star, a point of bright light. At first I thought it was a star, then it grew larger and brighter then all the other stars in the sky. Although it was growing larger, it remained stationary.

My next thought was that it was a helicopter, with it's spotlight on, pointing at, and coming directly towards us. It made no sound as it grew brighter, then it appeared to turn away and head south. As it turned, it dimmed considerably. This I would expect from a searchlight beacon. Then it dimmed more, until it was no brighter than a star, and no larger. As it continued moving south it’s path became erratic, the way a star looks through a telescope as you’re trying to center on it. It moved up and down, in a jerky motion. It continued this way, worming it’s way through the backdrop of stars until finally it was too dim to see. The whole sighting event lasted about three minutes. The bright spotlight effect lasted about 20 seconds before the turn or the dimming, whatever it was, happened.