NUFORC Sighting 75865

Occurred: 2010-06-17 21:33 Local
Reported: 2010-06-20 14:09 Pacific
Duration: 2 min approx
No of observers: 1

Location: Riverside, CA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Left a trail, Changed Color, Aircraft nearby

Light blue object, suddely turns brilliant white, leaves trail and wake

On 06/17/2010 at 2133 hours I was on my back porch, looking at the sky before going to bed. There were no clouds, but there was some haze near the ground. I noticed a light blue object approaching from the South which I at first took to be a satellite. As I watched, I noticed it was moving much faster than any satellite I have ever seen. The object continued going North, passing overhead slightly to the East of my location. Suddenly the object went from medium intensity light blue to brilliant white, and its size seemed to increase substantially. It was not a gradual transition as with an iridium satellite, but instantaneous, as it something had switched on. About a second after it turned white, it began making a conical shaped wake which spread out from the object and dissipated. The object itself began leaving a thin, white trail behind it as well. After several seconds, the brilliant white light, wake and trail went off, and the object returned to its lig! ht blue form. After a few more seconds, it briefly switched to brilliant white again, but this time no wake or trail were visible. The object returned to light blue and remained that way until I lost sight of it as it went behind the roof line of my house to the North. The object was on a straight flight path the entire time, going from South to North. It seemed to wobble a bit after it started making the wake and trail. At the time of this sighting, there were satellites and various types of aircraft visible in the sky. I did not hear any noise that seemed to be related to the object. I did hear jet aircraft but I am sure the source was from airliners passing overhead. I watched the sky during the same time period for the next two days to see if it could have been some type of satellite, but I did not see anything similar.

Posted 2010-06-23