2020-08-11 - St. Petersburg, FL - Light

Strange Object Drifts Across Early Morning Sky

I was feeling insomnia early this morning and decided to go out for a smoke. I looked up at the sky as I often do and wondered to myself what that big bright star is in the sky. Facing East I could see the moon to my right (ESE) high in the night sky obscured by clouds as thunder and lightning played behind me (WSW). I remember focusing on the large star to the East when I saw movement to the left (ENE) of my perception of the moon. I would say it was high and very distant. It passed in front of the moon and continued in the South Easterly direction until it seemed almost to travel too far away from me, relative to my position on the ground, because it faded as though a car has driven too far away and you cannot spot it any longer. It moved very slowly and had no blinking lights. Its course was very steady, not like a flying bug or insect. It was barely a pinprick in size but was clearly visible due to sparse cloud cover and the brilliance of the moonlight. ! I knew it was not a plane or helicopter and assumed it was perhaps a satellite or the International Space Station. I watched reference videos of the ISS flybys to see if what I saw was different and I can only say that the difference to me appears to be the size of the light (The ISS appears to have been bigger light, bigger in the sense of its overall circumference, then what I witnessed) and that the object fell away from the planet. It did not disappear over the horizon. I cannot be certain if the object was in motion or not before my initial observance.