2008-05-20 - Lee, NH - Light

Off white, yellowish orb, eratic behavior, seen in sky.

At approximately 23:50 I stepped outside on my porch for a cigarette. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed what appeared to be a bright off white light moving from south north east at a very slow rate of speed. I had to lean my head back for a moment as the object appeared nearly right over the top of my head. It made no noise, and travelled very slowly and silently for about a minute and a half, and suddenly, rapidly accelerated at speeds I could not identify with any other aircraft I have ever seen manuver before, due east directly above the tree line. At that point, startled, I ran into the house and woke my mother from a dead sleep to validate the peculiar object. We both proceeded outside to which we witnessed it move back and forth, up and down, changing in brightness, and at times what appeared even to be in shape for several minutes. There was extensive cloud cover on the horizon above the tree line, and enough overcast to create a haze over the ret of the objects in the sky, however this peticular object remained extremely vibrant. I then proceeded to go to my computer and check my online star charts on Worldwide Telescope for the current time and date while my mother stayed outside and observed its odd behavior. Nothing celestial even matched the intensity or positioning of this object. Note: I am an avid astronomer of over 8 years, fluent with many of the night sky's celestial content. Towards the end of the sighting I called the mufon hotline and reported the object as both my mother and I observed it... it later faded out, either disappearing, or moving behind cloud cover... and seemed to independently illuminate the clouds as it left from view. More importantly, this is the second time I viewed this object, and woke my mom to validate the first sighting I witnessed, but did not report nearly a week ago...