2012-01-27 - Medina, TN - Sphere

Bright, fast moving white light with red/orange pulsating edges moving over Medina Tennessee.

At 8:16 PM on Friday, January 27, 2012, a friend called me from Jackson, Tennessee and described some strange lights that he and his son were watching in the sky. I live about 8 miles from him in Medina, Tennessee. After about 6 or 8 minutes I was able to find the lights he was describing. They were oval shaped lights (about 6) that were moving in a general counter-clockwise circular pattern and were in the southwest sky close to the moon's position. There were some clouds in the area of the moon that obscured it. The lights were reflecting off of these clouds. I soon identified these as lights from a spotlight since I had seen similar lights rotating in this pattern several years ago (I even drove and found the spotlight in the parking lot of a local club in Jackson).

I had called my son, daughter, and wife out to the back porch to check out the lights. Since I could identify them, I didn't grab a camera. As we were watching these lights a bright light appeared out of nowhere at approximately 8:30 PM. The light was due south of our location at about 25 to 30 degrees above the horizon. It was very bright, mostly steady, solid white but with a reddish/orange pulsating glow around it. It was traveling directly towards our position. At first I thought it might be a helicopter with its search light on coming straight at us. However, as it got closer, the light never changed even after it got directly above us. Also, it became apparent that it was actually very high (several miles) and was moving at an extremely high rate of speed. There was also no sound. It moved in a steady straight path eventually getting to 90 degrees directly above us. At first I thought that this object was the International Space Station since I have seen it pass over m! any times over the years. The white part of the light was solid and steady, not blinking, but the outer edges were glowing red and orange with a pulsating action. The size of the object was also very similar to the size of the station and had a very similar brightness. However, I have never seen edges like this on the station. After I came in, I checked the position of the station and it was over Australia.

The object continued over our heads and as it got to about 100 or 115 degrees it became reddish/orange only, began to get smaller and smaller until it just blinked out. My son got my wife's iPhone and did manage to take video of the object after it passed 90 degrees and until it blinked out. We viewed the object for about 60 seconds from the time we first saw it until it vanished.

I am confused about this because of the color and characteristics of the object. My instinct was that it was a satellite, however, I know of nothing that bright other than the space station and as I said, it was not in our area. Also, the color was very strange with the pulsating red and orange edges compared to what I have seen of satellites in the past. I will send the video.