NUFORC Sighting 24928

Occurred: 2002-09-08 00:20 Local
Reported: 2002-09-08 07:16 Pacific
Duration: 10 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: New York City (Staten Island), NY, USA

Shape: Orb
Characteristics: Emitted other objects

light splits into two objects then rejoins.

It was a clear night, no wind to slight breeze, no haze. I literally had just taken my binoculars out (8x30) to just look at the stars. About maybe half a minute after I started, a very bright, well defined "greenish-white" light passed through my field of view, moving quickly, but steadily....not like an aircraft. I presumed it was a low orbiting satellite, but as I watched, it split into two distinct lights, one red, the other green. As I kept looking, the lights merged back into the original "greenish-white" light originally spotted. I also thought it might be a fighter jet just banking with respect to my line of sight, but I would have seen the green (starboard) light first, then green and red, then back to green. The first, original color was a very pale green...almost white, the "split color" a much deeper green, (alot like a navigation light). The object travelled from northeast to southwest, and was spotted about 45 degrees up from the horizon to where I lost it over the house. No sound was heard during or after the object passed, and I listened for about 60 seconds afterwards in the event it was a high altitude jet. No sound.

About 10 minutes later, I heard what sounded alot like fighter aircraft flying high up. This sighting lasted about 10 seconds from when I caught it until I lost it. I even tried running around to the other side of the house to catch it again (judging from where I lost it) but to no avail.

Posted 2002-09-13