NUFORC Sighting 31622

Occurred: 2001-01-01 20:30 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2003-09-19 23:58 Pacific
Duration: 20 min
No of observers: 1

Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA

Shape: Circle

Several dark objects traverse the moon on the night it was historically closest to the earth.

I don't remember the exact date but it was the night that the MOON WAS THE CLOSEST that it will be or has been in many, many years. In fact I think they had either Dr. Sky or one of those astronomers on the radio that night to speak about how the Moon was phonomenally close that night.

I have a Red Pot Bellied Telescope that I bought from Edmonds Scientific so I pulled it out and decided to take a look. I set it up in the front yard and as the moon came up in the North East, I looked at it through the telescope. It was about 2/3rds of the way up the sky well above the neighbors trees. I am guessing about *;30pm or so because it was after dinner but the housekeeper had not left yet. Since I don't remember what season it was I can't really tell the time by the darkness, but I was cold, it may have been November or December, and it was definitely dark nighttime.

While I was looking at it I suddenly saw several dark things go across the moon. It took less than a minute for them to cross the whole moon and I stared at them in amazement. It happened again maybe about 20 minutes later. I I didn't report it because I surmised that it must have been something close to the earth that came through my field of view. But they didn't flap like birds, but moved smoothly and all at the same time. When I saw them again they weren't in the same exact juxtaposition amongst themselves, but I still thought it might have been something close to earth, or perhaps satellites or something.

But when this guy tonight said that because they were in focus they had to be close to the moon, I decided to report it because they were in sharp focus. Several dark shapes against the brightness of the moon. And just as the guy said on the radio tonight, they would have been about the size of a pea if the moon was the size of a beach ball. But the optics on my telescope did not reveal any spherical nature, they simply looked like flat dark round or oval shapes, not all the same size because I remember my first thought was like a Momma and some baby birds, but they didn't have wings or appendages nor did they appear to flap.

Did anybody else report anything that night? I am sure millions of people must have been looking at the moon that night like I was. In fact that's another reason I didn't report it because I figured if there was something there, then somebody else with a stronger telescope than I had would have reported it.

NUFORC Note:

Date is approximate. PD

Posted 2003-09-24