2011-08-13 - Truckee, CA - Diamond

Very white, bright triangle shaped object seen near Truckee, CA 8/13/11.

The event happened on the night of Aug 13th around I think 9:30pm. My husband and I were camping in northern California near Truckee at Prosser Reservoir. We were watching the sky for the Perseids hoping to catch some before the full moon obscured the viewing too much. We were looking towards the southern horizon and there was a bright object that appeared to be heading north. Our first thought as we saw it at the farthest point from us was maybe it was the space station. However as it moved closer towards us we realized it was lower in the atmosphere than a jet plane flies and it was completely illuminated bright white like an LED. There was only one object. There were neither color lights on it nor any flashing/blinking lights. My perception was that it had a similar shape of an isosceles triangle or maybe diamond shaped. There was no sound associated to it like an echo you hear of a jet. It moved generally north almost like it were following alo! ng highway 89 heading in a direction towards Sierraville (not exactly above 89 just trying to give some map reference and direction). When we first noticed it in the southern horizon until we watched it head the opposite horizon lasted maybe 2 minutes. It didn’t move very fast and it seemed to use an easy zig-zag pattern. It’s hard to explain exactly except when we watch satellites their trajectory appears to have a constant (almost straight to the eye) course whereas this did not. It didn’t lose its brightness at all while we were watching it nor did it dim or get brighter at any time. When it was in the farthest side of the northern horizon for our view it still looked bright in the sky like a large planet or something else.

We’re avid campers and like to watch the sky for planes, satellites, meteors, etc. I’m 34 and a business analyst for a company in the area and my husband,35, is a driver for a waste company.