2010-07-01 - Ridgecrest, CA - Circle

Light flashes, dark grey "satellite", periwinkle blue and white "satellite"

It was a busy night star gazing as I saw numerous unusual sky phenomena between Scorpio and Corona Borealis. All this took place between 9 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. local time.

Around 9 p.m. I went out for my evening star gazing and watching the satellites go by.

At the start I saw what I can only describe as flashes of light in the sky. The flashes of light looked like a flash from a camera. Then I observed what I thought was a satellite until the satellite went from moving from a northern to southern direction to veering to a southwesterly direction. Satellites do not normally change their directional course as they cannot. They always move in the same direction without veering off course. This satellite seemed to be dark gray in color and was silhouetted against the night sky. I saw this with my naked eye.

Then I saw the similar flashes of light again. After this I saw another "satellite" that was moving across the sky. This time the satellite stopped, then let off a "pouf" of periwinkle to white color, then moved again.

I observed through binocs what seemed to be a lighted object with periwinkle and white lights. This satellite then moved and faded away.

Approximately a half hour later this same satellite reappeared towards the southwest portion of the sky and repeated the same set of movements and colorations before fading out.

I saw the flashes of light each time before the bluish white satellite reappeared.

This was also seen by another witness who was with me. This witness would like to remain anonymous.

I checked Heavens Above and could find nothing that might fit what we saw. Perhaps you can find something.

None of this stuff was close. It was all probably just inside the earth's atmosphere at a good guess.