Slowly pulsing light observed at very high altitude visible in broad daylight
While watching a crow harrass a bird of prey, I noticed what at first appeared to be an extremely bright fixed point of light in the sky in broad daylight.
It appeared to be a star, planet, or possibly an iridium flare (although the location in the sky that this occured and speed/movement would rule out all three of these possibilities) that shined extremely bright for a period of approximately 15-20 seconds at a time before slowly fading out of visibility. After another 15-20 seconds of invisibility, it slowly increased brightness until it was easily visible again with the sun shining bright and still plenty high in the sky (more than three hours before sunset).
It was far too high in the sky to make out a shape. There was no apparent color (just white light). It moved approximately twice the distance of pinky to thumb spread as far apart as possible on an outstretched arm in the duration of our observation - approximately 15-20 minutes. This distance was somewhat consistent with the movement of some light clouds at high altitude in the jetstream, although it moved slightly slower than the clouds. The cloud cover was very minimal (less than 5% of sky).
Location in the sky was due north, very close to the location of the North Star, moving from east to west.
While watching a crow harrass a bird of prey, I noticed what at first appeared to be an extremely bright fixed point of light in the sky in broad daylight.
It appeared to be a star, planet, or possibly an iridium flare (although the location in the sky that this occured and speed/movement would rule out all three of these possibilities) that shined extremely bright for a period of approximately 15-20 seconds at a time before slowly fading out of visibility. After another 15-20 seconds of invisibility, it slowly increased brightness until it was easily visible again with the sun shining bright and still plenty high in the sky (more than three hours before sunset).
It was far too high in the sky to make out a shape. There was no apparent color (just white light). It moved approximately twice the distance of pinky to thumb spread as far apart as possible on an outstretched arm in the duration of our observation - approximately 15-20 minutes. This distance was somewhat consistent with the movement of some light clouds at high altitude in the jetstream, although it moved slightly slower than the clouds. The cloud cover was very minimal (less than 5% of sky).
Location in the sky was due north, very close to the location of the North Star, moving from east to west.
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Shoreline
USA
20 min
20 min
47.75
-122.33
light
WA
Occurred : 6/10/2009 17:55 (Entered as : 06/10/2009 17:55) Reported: 6/10/2009 8:36:02 PM 20:36 Posted: 8/5/2009 Location: Shoreline, WA Shape: Light Duration: 20 min
Slowly pulsing light observed at very high altitude visible in broad daylight