Points (2) stop, hover, then fade away
While driving north on the 405 freeway (San Diego Freeway) at 5:47 AM approximately 2 miles north of the 118 freeway, driver noticed two objects "fly" in and stop at the 10:00 high position (nose of the car being the 12:00 position). Altitude was unknown, as no relative size of the two points of light could be discerned. Objects hovered for about 10 seconds before slowly fading away. As they lights faded, they appeared to have a light "halo" surrounding them. No navigation and/or anti-collision lights were seen at any time. Time was about 1:15 before sunrise, so reflected pre-dawn sun was probably not the cause, nor Iridium "flash" due to lights being two distinct objects.
Objects appeared to be about the size of Venus, only side-by-side. Neither Venus nor Mercury nor any other bright celestial body was out at that time of the morning. Further, Venus was, at the time of the sighting, in the evening sky and does not appear as two bodies. Finally Venus or Mercury would have been in the wrong part of the sky (the western part of the sky).
Area of sighting is in a very-highly traveled approach flight path to Van Nuys, Burbank and LAX airports.
Witness is a former Air Force test pilot (now civilian commercial pilot) with over 8000 hours of flight time as well as an amateur astronomer with 35 years experience in astronomical observation.
While driving north on the 405 freeway (San Diego Freeway) at 5:47 AM approximately 2 miles north of the 118 freeway, driver noticed two objects "fly" in and stop at the 10:00 high position (nose of the car being the 12:00 position). Altitude was unknown, as no relative size of the two points of light could be discerned. Objects hovered for about 10 seconds before slowly fading away. As they lights faded, they appeared to have a light "halo" surrounding them. No navigation and/or anti-collision lights were seen at any time. Time was about 1:15 before sunrise, so reflected pre-dawn sun was probably not the cause, nor Iridium "flash" due to lights being two distinct objects.
Objects appeared to be about the size of Venus, only side-by-side. Neither Venus nor Mercury nor any other bright celestial body was out at that time of the morning. Further, Venus was, at the time of the sighting, in the evening sky and does not appear as two bodies. Finally Venus or Mercury would have been in the wrong part of the sky (the western part of the sky).
Area of sighting is in a very-highly traveled approach flight path to Van Nuys, Burbank and LAX airports.
Witness is a former Air Force test pilot (now civilian commercial pilot) with over 8000 hours of flight time as well as an amateur astronomer with 35 years experience in astronomical observation.
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Mission Hills
USA
15 seconds
15 seconds
34.26
-118.46
light
CA
Occurred : 1/30/2009 05:47 (Entered as : 01/30/09 05:47) Reported: 2/4/2009 4:46:33 PM 16:46 Posted: 3/19/2009 Location: Mission Hills, CA Shape: Light Duration: 15 seconds Characteristics: There was an aura or haze around the object
Points (2) stop, hover, then fade away