2015-05-01 - Deep Cove, BC - Light

Bright flash/pulse of light travelling across the sky and changing direction several times.

My girlfriend and I were sitting on the ocean shore in Deep Cove (North Vancouver), B.C., facing 60 degrees NE and looking up at the stars/planets and identifying some of them with an iphone app that I have on my phone. The sky was clear and there was a very bright, almost full moon to the east of us.

At aprox. 21:55, I was gazing out across the water when my girlfriend exclaimed "What is that!!??" She was pointing up to the sky almost directly overhead. I saw nothing and asked her where and what she was talking about. She again exclaimed "There!!!" and was pointing towards the handle of the Big Dipper. I still saw nothing... then a few seconds later I saw a bright pulse of light in the sky...it was the size of a star...but much brighter than any star in the sky. The pulse/flash lasted maybe half a second. A few seconds later it flashed again, but had moved further NORTH in the sky....holding my hand out at arms length I would comfortably estimate the distance between "flashes" to be 2 inches in the sky. I thought that perhaps it was space junk or the space station glinting sunlight but then a few seconds later it pulsed again but now it had moved 2 inches to the EAST. It was very high up in the sky...from our vantage point, if it had stay! ed illuminated, one would have thought it was just another star in the night sky. It was not a plane or drone or anything of that nature. A few seconds later it flashed again but now it had moved 2 inches SOUTH of it's previous position. A few moments after that, it flashed again but now it was 2 inches WEST of it's previous position. Essentially it had done a circle.... then the weirdest thing happenened... From it's last position there was a streak or line of light in a northward direction from it's last position. I have seen many meteors and this was not that! As a meteor moves across the sky, it's tail moves with it... this was different... the light traveled about an inch or inch and a half across the night sky (with hand held at arm's length)but the starting point to finish point stayed illuminated in the sky for a brief second.... like a "line of light" in the sky. A few seconcs afterwards there was another pulse/flash of light aprox 2 inches to the NORTHEAST of where the "line of light" had ended. The whole experience took place over a 2-3 minute period.

We watched the sky for about 10 min longer but there was no more activity.

My girlfriend said that the first time she noticed it (before I did), it had made a "line of light" in the sky but that it seemed so unnatural she didn't believe that she had actually seen that... then she saw the pulse/flash in different spots across the sky a few times before I picked up on it.

I can't emphasize enough how srange and bizarre the "line of light" was. I don't know how that could be replicated... You could physically see the bright object moving, but its start point remained illuminated in a line all the way to the finish point..then it all disappeared at the same time before the final flash to the northeast.