NUFORC Sighting 81580

Occurred: 2011-05-29 22:00 Local
Reported: 2011-05-30 11:32 Pacific
Duration: 2.5 hours
No of observers: 1

Location: Davenport, IA, USA

Shape: Triangle

Triangle observed hovering over davenport near regional airport

I went outside my apartment at approximately 10:00 pm CST, to put my car in the garage for the night. While descending the stairs I noticed what looked like two brilliant lights in a spot where at this time of the year there usually aren’t any constellations that are visible to the naked eye.

These two lights were in very near proximity and directly over a prominent landmark, the church across the street. After putting the car in the garage, I was staring directly at the object on my walk back to the apartment from the garage. I could see the two lights in close proximity clearly and they were as bright or just a fraction dimmer than other stars in the night sky.

The North Star, directly at my back while looking at the lights in question, was twice as bright as these two lights visible to the naked eye.

The weather conditions were completely clear sky, with no visible moon. The object/ lights observed were approximately 45 degrees over the horizon line. The compass bearing to the object was 160 or nearly due South.

At arm’s length the two lights were approximately the width of my fingernail on my smallest finger. I observed the object and attempted to take photos with my iphone but it failed to capture any images of the object as it was too dark.

I went inside and got a pair of binoculars to better view the lights. Upon focusing in with my Nikon Eagleview 8-24x25mm binoculars, I noticed a third light, forming a triangle formation.

The formation the third light was dimmer than the first two and made what appeared to be a triangle object look like a long very pointed craft. The angles appeared to be 30 degrees and two 60 degree angle near what looked like the base.

The two brighter lights at the ‘base’ of the object looked as though they had a yellow tint to them, much like a car’s headlights would, not a bluish tint as the other stars around it.

The third, more dim light also had this characteristic also. The yellow color, and the proximity of the two brighter lights, and the fact that usually there are not bright lights in the sky in that area of sky are what attracted my attention.

The third, more dim light was approximately double the distance from the first two lights as the first two lights were wide. Together the three lights formed a long, slender very pointed triangle as they appeared when viewed through the binoculars.

I called the NUFORC hotline and was advised to submit a written report. I was also advised to take photos if possible. My camera is not operational, so I woke a neighbor and borrowed her camera. After taking multiple shots, I was only able to get one picture that captured the image I was viewing clearly through my binoculars and with the naked eye.

I first saw this object at approximately 10pm, and noted the time as the 10 o’clock news had just come on.

The camera used was a Casio Exilim 7.2 Megapixel digital camera. Flash was turned off, and I was zoomed in ¾ of maximum zoom. Was only able to capture one picture showing object. I tried different zooms, different settings for lighting, everything I could. I could not get another picture to show the object. It is 2 hours 17 minutes past time I first noticed object and object is still visible in sky.

From my front door, the object was showing on my iphone compass as bearing 160 degrees from true north. I extended my arm out and estimated the angle to be approximately 45 degrees off the horizon from me. The horizon is light as I was overlooking the downtown davenport to the east, which borders the Mississippi river. It was much higher than the horizon and could not have been radio towers or anything the like. There is an Army National Guard Aviation Unit flying ch-47 Chinooks was stationed out of the regional airport to the west. Looking directly at the object, the big dipper was at 298 degrees from my position, to the NW. the airport where the national guard unit is stationed is approximately bearing of 21 degrees, almost due north of my location. No other constellation was visible anywhere near the object I writing to report. Usually the Orion constellation is visible in the general area but more to the east but could not see the Orion this evening.

Weather conditions were clear. Storms were here most of the day but cleared off early afternoon. By 7pm CST all clouds had for the most part cleared off leaving clear skies. At the time of writing it is still clear. No meteorites are visible. No heat lighting is visible. I am familiar with most known military aircraft, NATO and Soviet/Russian manufacture, both fixed wing and rotary. This did not resemble any aircraft I have ever seen.

The object made no noise, and is still at the time of writing stationary in the night sky. Aircraft have passed underneath this object and have not changed course to avoid it. This object appears to be much higher than the air traffic transiting below it. Perhaps this was stellar objects that simply looked like an aircraft? Perhaps it is unidentified? Given the proximity of the 3 objects I do not know what to make of this.

Posted 2011-06-03