2010-08-07 - Glen Echo, MD - Sphere

Stationary metallic like sphere over the Washington DC area

We were at Glen Echo Park in Glen Echo, MD, near the nation’s capital on Saturday August 7, 2010. At 3:20 pm I purchased ice cream for my daughter at the Glen Echo Café and then after walking around, maybe for 10 minutes we sat at a park bench facing the main building area. My son was with me as well.

I looked up at the sky and saw something that appeared round remaining in the same spot. It was high above the clouds. I heard a helicopter near by and also saw a plane. I looked again to see if it was a helicopter but realized that it was too high for me to hear any sound from it. I remained seated with my kids but chatted with them taking my eyes off what I had seen.

After a few minutes I thought I would take another look and sure enough it was in the same spot. Not knowing what it was-it did look like an unusual speck-I grabbed my camera and took a picture of the sky where I saw it thinking I just might be able to magnify the picture and see it better later at home. Three minutes later, I zoomed in and took another picture. I also did a short video clip with a description of what we were looking at.

My children did not see it at first but I brought it to their attention by directing them to look in an area in between and above two red turrets and then to follow up the sky to the last cloud. They did locate it at that point. I would have to say we were there for at least 10 minutes and it had remained in the same place.

When I got home, I was convinced I got nothing but then when I pulled up the picture, I located the spot in the picture and with interest magnified it. It turned out to be what looked like a metallic sphere reflecting the sun.

I am sending a Google Earth picture of the area showing exactly where we were sitting. I am also including the clearest snap shot with magnification. On the original picture with the cloud, you cannot see the spot too easily but once you locate it and magnify it, you can view the sphere.

The best way to find it is to look at the cloud, move your eyes to the part on the bottom that resembles the map of Italy. From there look to the right and once you reach the far right side of the cloud, you will see a tiny dot-don’t ask me why I even noticed it on such a bright day.

I have no idea what it was-a weather balloon?-but as shown by the pictures I took, it had not moved in the space of three minutes. I just wonder if any one else in our area saw this thing.