NUFORC Sighting 42534

Occurred: 2005-02-27 00:00 Local
Reported: 2005-02-27 01:43 Pacific
Duration: 1 hour + 25 min
No of observers: 2

Location: Reno, NV, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Changed Colo

A color-changing, spark-like migrating light in the western sky -- seen in Reno, NV

At midnight, I was standing outside facing west and noticed a bright light that seemed to be a star. I watched for several seconds, as the brightness intrigued me. It seemed that the "star" was changing colors: red, blue and white. I went and got my binoculars. Looking with binoculars, it appeared as a bright light, changing colors routinely from red, blue, white and occasionally all white, and then back to red, blue and white. My husband came out to view it at my request at this point. He noticed that it also appeared to be changing shape and size. When it changed size to smaller, the lights tended to converge. The object at first appeared to remain stationary in the sky (while still changing size). I stood in one spot on my deck and made note of the surrounding background (i.e., a neighbor's pin-oak tree, where I noted the object in relation to the branches, and to determine whether it was moving.) My husband and I continued to view this from 12 am to after 1:15 am. After the first 15 minutes of viewing, it gradually "migrated" further to the right, so that after 1 am, it was far to the right of this pin-oak that I had used to "measure" this "star" and give relevance to its location. It started to become more red and orange in color, and around 1:25 it was gone, seeming to have "migrated" beyond the mountain range to the west of Reno. We made note of the other stars and the moon in the sky. During the entire time of seeing this light, the position of the stars and moon had changed slightly, but the light was moving more gradually than the stars and moon, by far.

NUFORC Note:

Possibly Sirius. PD

Posted 2005-04-16