Saw a tight, open bowl shaped formation of small round dots of light move quickly across the sky.
Hi. I keep searching to find that what I saw was a Starlink train, but all of those appear to be in a straight line. I sent the following information to the head of the local astronomy club the next day, and he agreed that while it was probably a satellite grouping, he has not heard of anything like this. Since I'm not claiming to have discovered a new comet or asteroid, this seemed to be the best place to report my experience.
The event occurred on the night of Tuesday, November 1st, right around midnight going into the 2nd. I am a fan of meteor showers and was watching for some Taurid fireballs. I'm in the city so sky conditions were poor. Lowest magnitude visible was 3.5 and that's pushing it. I saw 2 nice, very bright, fairly slow meteors in about an hour session.
But then I saw a curved, open bowl-shaped formation of lights, 2nd or 3rd magnitude, approximately 8-12 points of light traveling quickly in precise, steady formation. They were tightly spaced, and I'd guess the entire formation was about 10-15 degrees wide max. I saw them first overhead as they moved from north to south, disappearing below the horizon in less than 30 seconds. No trails. Then a very few minutes later, I saw a similar formation move quickly from east to west just above the trees on my southern horizon.
The lights were small dots. White color. All identical. I can't say they looked like "crafts." They stayed in perfect formation.
I am 69 years old and have spent dozens, if not hundreds of hours looking at the night sky. I am certain of what I saw. However, I am less certain about the specific number if lights or the exact size of the formation. I'm pretty sure the bowls were open in the direction of movement, but I wouldn't swear to it.
Below, I checked the box that I'd like to be contacted by an investigator. I strongly suspect this is a known phenomenon. If so, a simple email explaining it would be great.
Thanks for reading this. I hope I'm not wasting your time.
Hi. I keep searching to find that what I saw was a Starlink train, but all of those appear to be in a straight line. I sent the following information to the head of the local astronomy club the next day, and he agreed that while it was probably a satellite grouping, he has not heard of anything like this. Since I'm not claiming to have discovered a new comet or asteroid, this seemed to be the best place to report my experience.
The event occurred on the night of Tuesday, November 1st, right around midnight going into the 2nd. I am a fan of meteor showers and was watching for some Taurid fireballs. I'm in the city so sky conditions were poor. Lowest magnitude visible was 3.5 and that's pushing it. I saw 2 nice, very bright, fairly slow meteors in about an hour session.
But then I saw a curved, open bowl-shaped formation of lights, 2nd or 3rd magnitude, approximately 8-12 points of light traveling quickly in precise, steady formation. They were tightly spaced, and I'd guess the entire formation was about 10-15 degrees wide max. I saw them first overhead as they moved from north to south, disappearing below the horizon in less than 30 seconds. No trails. Then a very few minutes later, I saw a similar formation move quickly from east to west just above the trees on my southern horizon.
The lights were small dots. White color. All identical. I can't say they looked like "crafts." They stayed in perfect formation.
I am 69 years old and have spent dozens, if not hundreds of hours looking at the night sky. I am certain of what I saw. However, I am less certain about the specific number if lights or the exact size of the formation. I'm pretty sure the bowls were open in the direction of movement, but I wouldn't swear to it.
Below, I checked the box that I'd like to be contacted by an investigator. I strongly suspect this is a known phenomenon. If so, a simple email explaining it would be great.
Thanks for reading this. I hope I'm not wasting your time.
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Bellingham
USA
Less than a minute
Less than a minute
48.75
-122.46
circle
WA
Occurred : 11/1/2022 23:45 (Entered as : 11/01/2022 11:45 PM) Reported: 12/3/2022 9:43:44 PM 21:43 Posted: 12/22/2022 Location: Bellingham, WA Shape: Circle Duration: Less than a minute
Saw a tight, open bowl shaped formation of small round dots of light move quickly across the sky.