NUFORC Sighting 35683

Occurred: 2004-03-18 21:45 Local
Reported: 2004-03-18 20:13 Pacific
Duration: 20 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Danville, KY, USA

Shape: Other
Characteristics: Changed Color, Aircraft nearby

Faint but large boomerang shaped object then small star like object turning red

A boomerang shaped object caught my eye as I was outside on my back patio smoking a cig. It was faint and hard to see. I could not tell if it was low enough to be picking up ambient lighting from the city streets here where I live, or if it was emiting a faint glow of it's own. It looked very .....well it's hard to describe how it appeared....it looked like a made object, not an animal flying. It took a very straight path in the sky and traversed the whole sky in around 15 seconds. No sound. So if it was some kind of craft or plane, and it had conventional (earthly) engines that we are used to, it was way too high for me to hear, meaning that it was indeed flying at some crazy speed akin to 2000 mph. Weird. I have never ever seen anything like that before. The faintness of this object made it even eerier. I am dumbfounded. This object traveled in what looked like a nearly perfect north heading.

45 seconds after this, as I scanned the sky wanting to catch sight of this object again, a second object came into view. Looking to my north, this object faded into view and appeared to be a shooting star. It came from the direction that the first object was headed towards. At first I really thought it was a shooting star and noticed the coincidence of it happening right after me seeing that first object. The second object seemed to move at the same speed as the first...which was really fast. The way it faded into view really lended to my thinking that it was a shooting star coming into the atmosphere. This object looked as such for about 2 seconds, but then as it got nearly overhead of me it turned red in color and changed course with what looked like a 90 degree turn towards the east. It then continued east for about 1 second and then faded quickly from view. I have never ever seen a meteor make a turn before, I have seen them come into the atmosphere and slow down, turn colors, explode leaving trails of sparkles, but never eber change course, especially a 90 degree turn.

This is the first time I have ever seen anything like this in the sky. I look up to the sky all the time because I enjoy seeing the stars, I like astronomy and science. This has left me a bit confused and in disbelief. Im waiting for a logical explanation for this.

I'm male, 39 yrs old, and sane.

Posted 2004-03-23