Craft seen in Kent, Wa.
Tonight I was over at a friend's house stargazing as we do often when the weather permits. The weather was warm and clear. The moon was 3/4 full with Jupiter off to it's right. Three of the four moons of Jupiter were visible. My friend's house lies under the flight path for planes going into Seatac when they have to fly south to circle around to land going north. It's also under a flight path for planes that are going to Boeing Field from the south. Needless to say, we see a lot of planes on any given night that we stargaze. We also usually see one of the Guardian helicopters from the King County Sheriff's Department flying around, so we are both very familiar with the aircraft in this area.
At approximately 1:00am when Coast to Coast took a commercial break, my friend went into his house to use the bathroom. A few minutes later I decided to stand up to stretch my legs. We sit on his porch facing due East, so when I stood up, that's the direction I was facing. I saw a bright pulsing light directly ahead of me. My first thought was that it was a private plane with it's landing lights on heading in my direction. Private planes' landing light pulse on and off as they come in for a landing, but the color was wrong and I couldn't detect any forward motion. The color of the light was sort of amber yet at the same time it was like a mixture of red and white light, but not pink. As if the red and white light was swirled together. I could detect both colors at the same time although it appeared as one light. The motion that I could detect was a gentle back and forth motion and at the same time a gentle up and down motion. It was erratic yet seemed under control. I grabbed my binoculars, Celestron Skymaster 15x70s, and looked at it. It appeared much closer, but otherwise appeared exactly the same. I was pretty sure that this wasn't a plane, so I flashed a small flashlight at it. I didn't notice any reaction from the object. I then grabbed my friends big flashlight which I believe is a 2.5 million candle power light. I flashed it twice in the direction of the object. I'm not sure if it was coincidence or not, but the object moved slightly to the right behind a tree. I had to move to my left a few feet to be able to see it again through the tree.
After about 30 seconds the object started moving to the left. When it did this I could see that the pulsing light was a white light at the rear of the object, based on direction of travel. There was a non pulsing white light at the front of the object and there were 3 non pulsing red lights visible. As the object came out from behind the tree moving North, I flashed the big flashlight at it a couple of more times. Again, I don't know if it was coincidence or not, but the object accelerated. It was a very quick yet smooth acceleration. This is when I realized that the object was not as far away as I had first thought. I had been thinking that it appeared to be very far away, but now it appeared as if it was only a few thousand feet away, perhaps closer. Without knowing the size of the object it's hard to tell at night.
As the object moved what appeared to be North, I would lose sight of it for a few seconds as it went behind trees, but I quickly realized that it was now heading West, or perhaps WNW towards Tukwilla. It accelerated again, very smoothly, and I lost sight of it when it went behind a neighboring house.
When I looked at it with the binoculars as it was traveling westerly, I was looking at it from the side, so I could not tell what shape it was, but I got the impression it was triangular. I saw no wings and no tail section and it was totally silent. From it's apparent size and distance, I should have easily heard it. Guardian One at that distance would have been very loud and easily identifiable as we have seen it on many occasions fly by at that apparent altitude and distance. The only problem is that whatever this was, was way faster than Guarding One and made no noise. As a matter of fact, Guardian One just flew over my apartment as I am writing this. It was quite noisy and can be heard a great distance away.
It was also much too fast for a private plane, which we had fly over us not very long before this sighting. Again, the private plane was easily heard and identified. For it to have been a commercial plane, which we see several every night, including tonight, the pilot would have had to have been making an emergency landing since he was only flying about 20 degrees off of the horizon. At the estimated distance a a few thousand feet, it would have been incredibly loud. I also estimate that it was only a few hundred feet in altitude.
I feel like I'm rambling, so I'm going to end this.
Tonight I was over at a friend's house stargazing as we do often when the weather permits. The weather was warm and clear. The moon was 3/4 full with Jupiter off to it's right. Three of the four moons of Jupiter were visible. My friend's house lies under the flight path for planes going into Seatac when they have to fly south to circle around to land going north. It's also under a flight path for planes that are going to Boeing Field from the south. Needless to say, we see a lot of planes on any given night that we stargaze. We also usually see one of the Guardian helicopters from the King County Sheriff's Department flying around, so we are both very familiar with the aircraft in this area.
At approximately 1:00am when Coast to Coast took a commercial break, my friend went into his house to use the bathroom. A few minutes later I decided to stand up to stretch my legs. We sit on his porch facing due East, so when I stood up, that's the direction I was facing. I saw a bright pulsing light directly ahead of me. My first thought was that it was a private plane with it's landing lights on heading in my direction. Private planes' landing light pulse on and off as they come in for a landing, but the color was wrong and I couldn't detect any forward motion. The color of the light was sort of amber yet at the same time it was like a mixture of red and white light, but not pink. As if the red and white light was swirled together. I could detect both colors at the same time although it appeared as one light. The motion that I could detect was a gentle back and forth motion and at the same time a gentle up and down motion. It was erratic yet seemed under control. I grabbed my binoculars, Celestron Skymaster 15x70s, and looked at it. It appeared much closer, but otherwise appeared exactly the same. I was pretty sure that this wasn't a plane, so I flashed a small flashlight at it. I didn't notice any reaction from the object. I then grabbed my friends big flashlight which I believe is a 2.5 million candle power light. I flashed it twice in the direction of the object. I'm not sure if it was coincidence or not, but the object moved slightly to the right behind a tree. I had to move to my left a few feet to be able to see it again through the tree.
After about 30 seconds the object started moving to the left. When it did this I could see that the pulsing light was a white light at the rear of the object, based on direction of travel. There was a non pulsing white light at the front of the object and there were 3 non pulsing red lights visible. As the object came out from behind the tree moving North, I flashed the big flashlight at it a couple of more times. Again, I don't know if it was coincidence or not, but the object accelerated. It was a very quick yet smooth acceleration. This is when I realized that the object was not as far away as I had first thought. I had been thinking that it appeared to be very far away, but now it appeared as if it was only a few thousand feet away, perhaps closer. Without knowing the size of the object it's hard to tell at night.
As the object moved what appeared to be North, I would lose sight of it for a few seconds as it went behind trees, but I quickly realized that it was now heading West, or perhaps WNW towards Tukwilla. It accelerated again, very smoothly, and I lost sight of it when it went behind a neighboring house.
When I looked at it with the binoculars as it was traveling westerly, I was looking at it from the side, so I could not tell what shape it was, but I got the impression it was triangular. I saw no wings and no tail section and it was totally silent. From it's apparent size and distance, I should have easily heard it. Guardian One at that distance would have been very loud and easily identifiable as we have seen it on many occasions fly by at that apparent altitude and distance. The only problem is that whatever this was, was way faster than Guarding One and made no noise. As a matter of fact, Guardian One just flew over my apartment as I am writing this. It was quite noisy and can be heard a great distance away.
It was also much too fast for a private plane, which we had fly over us not very long before this sighting. Again, the private plane was easily heard and identified. For it to have been a commercial plane, which we see several every night, including tonight, the pilot would have had to have been making an emergency landing since he was only flying about 20 degrees off of the horizon. At the estimated distance a a few thousand feet, it would have been incredibly loud. I also estimate that it was only a few hundred feet in altitude.
I feel like I'm rambling, so I'm going to end this.
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Kent
USA
2-4 minutes
2-4 minutes
47.38
-122.22
triangle
WA
Occurred : 7/11/2009 01:05 (Entered as : 07/11/09 1:05) Reported: 7/11/2009 3:32:41 AM 03:32 Posted: 8/5/2009 Location: Kent, WA Shape: Triangle Duration: 2-4 minutes Characteristics: There were lights on the object
Craft seen in Kent, Wa.