NUFORC Sighting 84846

Occurred: 1967-07-15 21:45 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2011-10-26 03:58 Pacific
Duration: 90 - 120 seconds
No of observers: 3

Location: Sacramento, CA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Emitted other objects

Single star-like object splitting into three star-like objects and moving uniformly across the sky.

I was probably about 10 or 12 years old when the incident took place so that would place it around 1957. It was summertime, probably between 9:30 to 10:00 PM. A couple of friends and I were in my front yard talking and looking at the stars.

At one point we noticed what looked like a normal star of average intensity (not particularly bright) almost directly overhead except that it was moving around, meandering around really, in no apparent pattern, over a small area of the sky that was equivalent to about the amount of sky that you could block out with a tennis ball held overhead at arm’s length. At first we thought it might have been something like a weather balloon that was high enough to still be in sunlight even though it was dark at ground level since it wasn't that long after sunset, and was being moved around by high altitude winds.

This meandering pattern continued for maybe 30 – 45 seconds from when we first noticed it, at which point this single star-like object split into three star-like objects of the same size and intensity as the original single point of light. Within several seconds, these three points of light aligned themselves side by side by side (like three cars in adjacent traffic lanes) and were uniformly apart from each other (the distances between each of the three lights was about the width of a pencil held overhead at arm’s length). As soon as they were aligned, the three lights moved slowly off across the sky in a southerly or southwesterly direction at a constant speed, in perfectly straight lines, with the three lights staying perfectly abreast of each other and maintaining the equal spacing between each other. At no time did we hear any sound.

Posted 2011-12-12