NUFORC Sighting 44189

Occurred: 2005-05-27 23:59 Local
Reported: 2005-05-31 01:07 Pacific
Duration: 1 min
No of observers: 1

Location: Tacoma, WA, USA

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object

Saw triangle close up through 12 inch Dobsonian telescope. Duration of observation approximately 1 min.

I was out Friday evening May 27, 2005 looking at the night sky here in Tacoma, Washington with my 12 inch Dobsonian telescope. It was a beautiful evening, full of stars, with no clouds or haze at all. I am situated here in a great location because even though I live in the city Tacoma, it is approximately 8 miles west of downtown and located at Point Defiance which is surrounded on three sides by Puget Sound. The sky is pretty dark here except for looking eastward towards downtown.

I looked at Jupiter and notice to pairs of moons grouped tightly together on the left side of the planet. It was very interesting. CAVEAT: Because this is a Dobsonian telescope, everything is upside down and backwards, so the moons were really to the right of Jupiter if you could see them with your naked eyes. I went inside to look at my planetarium program to see which moons these were. I stepped back outside and walked up to my telescope to start viewing these moons.

I looked up at Jupiter at 23:59 when I noticed a very bright deep red light ramping up and down in luminosity at a rate of approximately 1 cycle/second 5 degrees higher in elevation than Jupiter heading S-SW toward the horizon. My mind instantly searched for familiar clues to this object. It does not appear “right”. I then quickly looked for the familiar green FAA markings. None exhibited. OK, what? All this transpired in less than 5 seconds. I immediately grabbed my telescope and was determined to not this possible once-in-a-lifetime event get away from me. I spotted it with my finder scope and somehow kept it in the main field of view of the 2 inch wide angle 32mm eyepiece that I had in the telescope at the time. It was the show of a lifetime for me! Now for my observation; First of all, what I want to state here is that it was “tough enough” to keep this object centered to the best of my ability by hand in the center of my field of view during the 30-45 second period of observation, especially in the beginning, because at the closest point to me it was at a minimum of 10 diameters of Jupiter. Because of this, I concentrated only on what “I” thought was extremely unique to this craft. These were in two areas.

1) The main deep red overpowering light in the center of the triangle.

2) The apparent surprising (to me), non-flat bottom to this craft.

Let me now expound on the "light"; Size and Intensity; This light was extremely wide. It appeared to me to be approximately 1/20th to as much as 1/10th the diameter of the bottom of the triangle. It was extremely bright when it would ramp up in 1second duration cycles. The intensity was extremely bright but soft, (diffuse). The intensity at maximum was as bright as on-coming passenger jet headlights when they are heading directly towards you, (but this light WAS NOT pointed in my direction, but was straight down 29 degrees in elevation S-SW of me). Also, there was one other small red light at the right triangle tip blinking in unison with the main one. I did not notice one on the left side, but this may be due to the angle of the craft.

Now for the Hue; Almost, but not quite, as deep red as a street blinking stop light with a “true” glass lens and “filament” type bulb. The reason I stress here a “Filament” type bulb is because it is the closest analogy that I can come up with that describes the ramping up and down of the main light at 1 cycle intervals. If you can picture one of these lights as described above blinking on and off at a 1cycle/second intervals, but never going completely out before it starts increasing in intensity again. This most accurately explains what I saw. All this is happening on a non-wavering linear repetitious cadence.

Now for the “bottom shape” of the craft; If you notice on any kind of modern jet aircraft, the main wing has a dihedral, (note; Dihedral is an angle raising the centerline of the wing tip above the centerline of the wing root).

This angle appeared to me about a similar 3 degree angle starting at it lowest point from the front tip of the craft, running straight to the rear, dissecting the rear flat edge of the triangle in half. This angle then moved upwards both to the left and right tips of the triangle. Hypothetically; I would suspect if you saw this thing on the ground in the daytime from the rear the bottom would have a chevron shape to it, (if this helps).

Now for the bottom’s “reflective property”; One thing that was quite evident in the telescope was how reflective it was. I could plainly see that the glow from ground illumination was casting a whitish soft glow to the bottom. Now for the “interesting” part of this observation that may make this light different from any normal light that “we” may know about. As bright as this center light did ramp up to, it never cast ANY portion of this to the bottom whatsoever. The light would be intensely bright but you could see right adjacent to it the glow effect from ground lighting without ANY hue change. It was quite amazing to see.

Other Observations; Apparent observed height; From the elevation above horizon (29 degrees), and it’s width of 10 Jupiters minimum, the best guess I can come up with is 1-3K feet. Very close to the ground.

An explanation of this is warranted here; I am an amateur astronomer and avid aircraft enthusiast. I know a lot of different aircraft from the WWII era to modern day. I have been a multi-year Boeing Museum of Flight member, gone to air shows for years, etc. This craft appeared to be in altitude of about in between the height of C-17’s landing a few miles south of here at McChord Air Force Base & passenger jet aircraft heading north to Sea-Tac.

Speed; I would estimate that it must have been slower than passenger jet. The reason I say this is because I have tried following passenger jets at this angle of elevation above the horizon in the past and they are too fast to track. Even with this 2 inch wide angle 32mm eyepiece that I have.

Sound; None apparent. Could be that it was too far away to hear though.

Flying Characteristics; Smooth, gliding, graceful, effortless. No yawing, pitching, front point always staying straight ahead in the line of travel.

Personal Observations; I spend every moment that I can outside for quite a few years now and never have seen anything “out of the ordinary”. Nothing, since I had when I was a child, very many years ago.

I have been listening to Jeff Rense now for quite a few years and have been hearing the “I went out for a cigarette” routine. Well isn’t it ironic that I have been patiently waiting for years for this chance and just the night before this sighting, I then finally said to myself; “Gee, for heavens sake, am I ever going to see anything myself? Then 24hours later, Wham! It almost makes you think; “Is someone reading my thoughts?”. What a coincidence, that’s all I can say. What are the odds on that? One other small thing, If only I had come out 10 seconds earlier it would have been right over my head. I kick myself over that one. The only good part of this is that I would have never been able to track the craft with my telescope. At this angle it would be too fast to track.

“Ours” vs. “Theirs” In some respects, I would think “Ours”.

Examples; Speed. Non-wavering flying. Dihedral “type” angle making you think, lift.

In other respect “Theirs” Examples; The intensity of the light. None of this light reflects on the bottom, but the glow of the street lights below, do. No FAA markings. The sheer beauty of this thing.

“Ours”? Doesn’t make sense to me; If it IS a Black Project, why fly it low over Tacoma? Ok, so you aren’t worried about someone taking a “pot shot” at the thing. Then why put the biggest, brightest, red-light in the world and stick it on the bottom, adverstising; “Look at me!” “Look at me!”

Posted 2005-06-20

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