NUFORC Sighting 84203

Occurred: 2011-09-28 21:18 Local
Reported: 2011-09-29 00:50 Pacific
Duration: 1 minute
No of observers: 1

Location: Evergreen, CO, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

Two bright lights that changed formation in NNE sky.

I was working on my book on the computer and our Dachshund Gracie was Grrr-ing at me like "Come On Dad, I really need to go outside right now". Dad was working on edits, but she persisted, so I put on my sandals and headed out the front door with her. There was an airplane flying over in the Northeast, so I looked up. There, at about 70 degrees up in the north north east what caught my eye were two very bright objects, brighter than Venus and larger in apparent diameter, and with a bit more of a yellow white color to them, similar in color to incandescent car headlights or aircraft landing lights. They were moving slowly, significantly more slowly than an average satellite, and flying due north about the width of my thumbnail (at arms length) apart in direct line with each other, both equal brightness and one directly behind the other following the exact same course. My first thought was that it was as bright as an Iridium Flare, but the Iridium satellites do not fly in clo! se formation, they are distributed around the planet for good satellite phone reception.

Well, what happened next pretty well cinched it. They both dimmed down together, not at the same spot but at the same time, and then the dimmer "satellites" changed formation, with one moving off to the side and catching up with the other while moving from it's 6 o:clock position to it's 4 o:clock but keeping about the same relative distance. So, obviously at least one of the two objects changed speed and direction, unless it was actually one LARGE object that changed orientation. Either way, it wasn't normal! I checked the time when I got back on the front porch and got some light on my watch and it was 9:20 PM MT Thursday, Sept. 28th, so it happened between 9:18 and 9:19 PM, observed from my front yard in Evergreen, CO. I came in and checked Heaven's Above, and there were NO Iridium satellites visible at all from this location this evening. It is pretty early in the evening for a "Satellite" to go dark that high in the sky, the terminator (Earth's shadow) should still be farther east, (unless they were much lower and in the atmosphere) and they were still visible though much dimmer for another 30 seconds or so. The only published satellites anywhere close to this time are these, and neither was in the proper direction, anywhere near high enough or bright enough.

Milstar 3 3.9 21:16:53 10° SW 21:21:33 28° SSW 21:21:33 28° SSW NanoSail-D 4.2 21:20:46 10° NNW 21:21:18 14° NNW 21:21:18 14° NNW It could be unacknowledged military surveillance craft flying in formation for stereo photos, or some unacknowledged craft in the atmosphere, but the way they changed orientation after being in perfect formation pretty much rules out conventional satellites.

Tis a mystery,

Posted 2011-10-10

© 2023 National UFO Reporting Center. All rights reserved. Use or reproduction within any application without written consent is prohibited.