2008-03-08 - Pembroke Pines, FL - Light

2 lights, possibly the front and back of one object, move in the night sky and vanish as if dimming to naught, in 8 seconds

I was lying on a blanket, outside, star gazing with the naked eye. I was just staring at Orion, when off to the left, East, I noted a star with 2 very bright companions. At first I did a double take - there had been no pair of bright stars there all night, as I had been out since 6:30pm and it was now after 8pm EST. The lights were separated consistently by the same distance, to an observer, it would be about 200 or 300 ft in length, if it were one object, with a light in the 'front' and one in the 'back'. These two lights were separated like stairs, one slightly above the other, but they moved very very slowly, and in tandem, making me think it was one object but its edges were not quite visible to complete its form. The issue for me, that made me sit up and really stare hard, was the fact that at first, I thought it was a constellation. I wasn't even sure it was moving, or they were moving. Then the distance between the two lights moving together away from a near by star made it apparent. But the distance between the lights did not alter, nor the ----- ___ stair like separation. There was no sound, but it was not that close, I would say 10,000 ft up and quite a way off. There was no blinking or other colors other than white, with a very faint hint of blue on the outside of the white lights. They moved slowly, much too slowly for a plane, and the lights were about double the size of the nearby star, but brighter by a degree or so than any of the stars in the sky or in nearby Orion. It moved very slowly from North To South for approximately 8 seconds and then seemed to dematerialize, or slowly dim and shut off. It did NOT travel far enough to dim due to distance. Not at all. And for the last two weeks there has been persistent small aircraft, general aviation Cessna, circling and circling West Lake and points right around my house, like never before, and I am a flight sim buff and can recognize most aircraft. I don't know if that has any connection to the lights, but o! ne thing did change. The aircraft for the last two weeks circled DIRECTLY over my lake, in about a 5 sq. mile circle, approximately 5,000 ft of altitude, unusual for my area, because most general aviation aircraft, A.) are lower, ready to land, or having just taken off from North Perry Airport, 2.5 miles to the southeast of the lake, and B.) traffic slows to the airport after sunset, and after 9pm, I believe only has its facility operating with the tower unmanned. It is unusual to see a Cessna type aircraft circling for so many hours, sometimes up to 4 hours, and ONLY after sunset. I thought perhaps it was nighttime IFR training for student Pilots, but I am not sure, because tonight, that plane was about 2 miles further west, and cirlcing. It circles clockwise for about an hour or so, and then reverses for a couple hours. Tonight, right after the lights I saw, the craft switched its circular pattern, from Clockwise to Counter-Clockwise, AND it shifted directly over my house, and where I was laying, on a blanket, out in the yard, much closer to where the lights I had seen, had appeared. The plane directly shifted, right after the lights. And it stayed in this pattern for another hour or so. It also shifted in the middle of that time, to the opposite heading, clockwise again. I have no idea what to think of the plane, other than the lessons theory. Unless it is an observer flight, or something? I do not know what I saw, but it had no lights like a plane (no wings, nose, rudder shape), and was so slow, no plane could have stayed up in the sky, it would have stalled. Furthermore there were no flashing lights and no colored lights. The light was about twice the size of the star near it, but several times more bright. And it was silent and moved in tandem, or was one body, with 2 lights. And it evaporated, dimmed rapidly and was no more.