NUFORC Sighting 75976

Occurred: 2010-06-26 22:39 Local
Reported: 2010-06-27 13:47 Pacific
Duration: 2 Minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Seattle, WA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

Strange orange light hovering in the sky seen during ISS visible overflight.

In the Crown Hill section of Seattle I was observing the Space Station flyover that started at 22:35 local time.

After the ISS reached its zenith and was getting lower in the north-east sky I observed an orange reddish light in the sky to the north. It was hovering near the constellations of Cepheus and Cassiopea. It was nearly motionless though it appeared to move vertically very slowly during the two minutes it was visible.

The orange reddish light had a flickering appearance and was slightly larger than the apparent size of the ISS and was much less bright than the ISS. My best guess on apparent magnitude would be roughly 1.0.

After two minutes the light disappeared from sight. The light made no sound and appeared to be roughly 2-4 miles away. It had no navigation lights, anti-collision strobes or landing lights like the normal air traffic in this area. The local visibility was excellent with no clouds in the sky and no haze.

The closest approximation to what I saw would be sky lanterns made from dry cleaning bags but this looked different.

Posted 2010-07-06