Occurred: 2008-01-01 11:00 Local
Reported: 2008-01-01 22:34 Pacific
Duration: 8 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Shape: Other
Characteristics: Changed Colo

Bright light in broad daylight changing intermittently to black object moves slowly across sky in Sant Barbara.

ON January 1st 2008 at approximately 11 am. in Santa Barbara California I noticed a bright object in the sky at about 75 degrees above ground level if one were to consider 90 degrees directly overhead. Weather conditions were bright and clear with blue skies and some very patchy, high, thin, hazy and mostly transparent clouds. The clouds were not as high as cirrus clouds but they appeared quite high and were much higher than what one would call coastal haze.

The brightness of the object caught my attention through the window as it was quite intense somewhat like a bright star at night or the landing lights on a plane at dusk. This was however quite out of the ordinary as it was a very bright sunny day. The object also appeared to be still in the sky. After staring at it for a while and asking my friend to take a look and tell me what he thought it might be I went outside for a better view.

I was visiting my friend and asked it he had any binoculars but he didn’t so I was left to scrutinize the object with my naked eyes. I am a visual artist and an avid birder so my observation skills are fairly strong.

It was to the north of my position and the sun would have been to the south east. The object was moving in a straight line from east to west very slowly. I could observe that it was traveling just beneath the high clouds as it would occasionally dip slightly into them. When I was viewing it through the some what dirty window I noticed that it would disappear and then reappear with the same intensity. I thought that perhaps it was becoming obscured by the clouds. However when seen from outside the house I could see that when it was not shining with a bluish light it would turn completely black as in pure black and not at all grayish as it might have been if there were some atmospheric interference. In it’s black phase I got the impression that it was shaped somewhat like a very shallowly curved fingernail clipping with the con caved side down, the convex side up and pointed on the ends.

I am not an aviation expert but I believe I could safely say that no conventional aircraft could fly that slowly except for an ultra light and I don’t think that ultra lights fly at such high altitudes. There was an airliner flying above it and it’s rate of movement across the sky was much faster than object in question even thought the air liner was at a much higher altitude. I considered that if it were an ultra light the top side of the wing might be made of a highly reflective material such as a blue tinted mylar while the bottom was either non reflective or simply not catching the light. In that case it would have had to be changing it’s degree of tilt in relation to my point of observation in order to cause the on and off effect. However it’s trajectory looked straight, slow and steady.

When lighted it seemed to be emitting light just like a bright star but I wondered if it might not simply be reflecting the sun.

As the object moved far into the west and eventually went out of sight it continued to appear as thought the light were emitted from it. Im not sure if anything could change it’s position that much relative to my point of observation and still reflect the sun with the same intensity directly to my eyes. I have never seen anything like it and I’ll be watching for other reports about it.

Some brief info on me: 19 years employed at UPS as receiving counter clerk, 14 years teaching art and music in state prison as a contract teacher for arts in corrections. Well known as an artist and musician in San Luis Obispo. Graduated California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland California 1972 MFA with high distinction, major sculpture. Resided in San Luis Obispo for 35 years. My friend who was cooking breakfast and did not look at the object as much as I did is a well known musician and educator in Santa Barbara. He is a graduate of Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo where he received his teaching credential.



Posted 2008-01-21

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