2020-08-19 - Lihue, HI - Circle

Circular white object with “Halo” and appears to have 3 dimensions,

At 0430 hrs 08/19/20, while taking my dog outside to relieve herself, I looked up into the sky to see the stars. I did not have my prescription glasses on, but an odd “light” caught my eye, appeared to be circular and have a “corona-type” flare all around it, in the southeastern sky.

I went back inside to grab my iPhone 7plus and my glasses. I proceeded to focus on the object with my phone camera and increased the magnification to 10X. I took 5 photos at 0432, 0433,, again at 0433, 0434 and 0435. At no time did this object move, it appeared to be just “suspended there. I will be uploading my photos in order of taking them. Afterward, I went inside the house, back to sleep. After I woke up, I re-magnified the clearest of the photos (photo #6). This took place at 0859 hrs. I posted my findings on Facebook.

I then researched and found that both Jupiter and Saturn were visible in our Hawaiian Sky until 0313, and 0353, respectively, only until this morning -08/20/20. To verify that what I saw, was or was not a planet, I “checked” the sky at 2130, 2230, 2340, last night (0819/20) and again at 0230 this morning (0820/20).

Whatever I had captured on my iPhone camera the night before, was no longer there.

One of the things that puzzled me about this event, was that in the past I have attempted to photograph the full moon, with this same iPhone camera, and have been unable to even come close to the clarity I achieved while taking photos of this phenomenon.