NUFORC Sighting 24179

Occurred: 2002-02-16 17:50 Local
Reported: 2002-08-04 14:48 Pacific
Duration: 17:50 to 17:52
No of observers: 1

Location: Arlington, TX, USA

Shape: Orb
Characteristics: Changed Color, Aircraft nearby

Silver-White stationairy ball that gradually got smaller in size, and dissppeared.

Silver-White Ball. Spherical. Like a giant siver balloon, reflecting silver-white light reflex. I happened to look up into the south east sky at a passenger jet that had just taken off from DFW airport, that was traveling south west and that was turning further west. As I was watching the jet, the bright silver light caught my attention because of it's proximity to the jet. I thought it was a small plane and that the jet might crash into it. As I watched, the jet passed in front of it, occluding it just like one object passing in front of another one. My attention was focused entirely on the silver-white ball object that the jet passed in front of (from my perspective) at that point. Over the next two minutes, as I watched, the silver-white ball got smaller and smaller, as if it was receding in distance away from me, and it got dimmer and dimmer, and started to turn a soft shade of blue white, the same way the moon appears when seen in the sky during full daylight. It gradually got smaller and then dissapperared entirely, never changing altitude or azimuth in its relative position to my position on the ground, and then just dissappeard when it got too dim to see any longer. This was in the afternoon in full daylight, the sun was about fifteen to twenty degrees above the horizon in the opposite part of the sky. No clouds. Air traffic from DFW was clearly visible for approximately fifteen miles in all directions.

((FOLLOW-UP COMMUNICATION WITH WITNESS))

Peter,

I also sent you another report on almost the same phenomena, but observed on a different date. And that time I was ready for it with a pair of binoculars.

The first sighting was on february 16, 2002 at 5:50 to 5:52 pm. The second one was on July 23, 2002 at about the same place in the sky at 6:10 to 6:14 pm. I am an amateur astonomer and I own an 8in Celstron. I am accustomed to seeing space craft in orbit (ISS, SS, etc.) and even have seen the
atmospheric abberation shock wave of a re-entering vehicle. All of those things follow the physical laws of orbital mechanics. These lights that I saw, did not. Even if they were naked eye, and even if one was pretty shakey through a pair of 10 X 50 binonculars, they must fit into the category of
unexplained and unidentified, at this point. I really thought that they were genuine weather balloons with a radiosone attached, and that still could be the explaination, but at this point, I am confounded. So I figured it would be appropriate to put it into the database.

((END))

Posted 2002-08-16