2010-09-27 - Canon City, CO - Cigar

cigar shape object reflecting the sun's light

I am 55 years old, a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant at local hospital. I grew up in Colorado and so have knowledge of unknown lights and objects in this state as many were published in local newspapers, especially during the 70’s. I have seen one strange object back in the 90’s but it would be very difficult to describe and so I won’t even bother. But last night I was surprised at my father’s home on his back deck. The sun was very low on the western horizon and may have even slipped behind the hills. I saw a very bright light in the western sky - I could not make out any fuselage or wings or blinking lights or contrail, but I did quickly decide it was reflecting the sunlight because it changed to a sharper metallic brightness and then the light was gone. The object had moved beyond the reach of the sun’s rays as it traveled in a southeastern direction.

I watched this object with some difficulty because it was a faint white, cigar in shape, but not clearly defined. It was nearly invisible in the pale sky, but I continued to watch the course of it until it finally just faded altogether. It seemed to be sailing along very smoothly without any wobbles or directional changes. I cannot tell how fast it was traveling, but it covered about 130 degrees of the dome of the sky in 25 - 30 seconds. I think it was very high in the air but I cannot substantiate that opinion. It seemed to gain altitude as it traveled west to southeast because it became so faint and hard to distinguish. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that I first saw it at 1,000 feet.