NUFORC Sighting 100958

Occurred: 2013-08-08 22:48 Local
Reported: 2013-08-08 23:23 Pacific
Duration: 2-3 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Chemainus (Canada), BC, Canada

Shape: Light

Redish Light following closely behind the ISS as it passed over British Columbia Canada

Hello, I am responding to a request I heard on Coast to Coast AM tonight. I believe the guest was Peter Davenport but I’m not certain. He reported an object following the International Space Station. I can report I indeed saw this object clearly.

When Peter gave his report, I checked the location of the ISS using astroviewer.com. It was over Australia, but I noted that it’s trajectory would take it over the region where I live, slightly to the North. I live on Eastern Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, roughly 49 N, 123.45 W. I am on the outskirts of a small town on a three acre property in a relatively rural area, surrounded by ocean and trees. There is only one street light in the area a few hundred meters away which it is hidden by trees. Vancouver is over the horizon in the North East and obscures the stars near the horizon. Other than that there is very low light pollution and no lights were visible other than from my home. I could see the glow of the local spiral arm faintly but clearly.

As the graphic on astroviewer.com showed the space station approaching I went outside to watch the Western sky. I have watched the ISS come over before. Soon I saw it, eventually passing overhead at 10:48 p.m. PDT August 8, 2013, and slightly to the North, from West to East. The ISS was bright white, far brighter than any star in the sky. Trailing behind it was a distinctly reddish light. At first my eyes drew a line between the two lights as if there was a cylinder joining them, but as it went higher in the sky I could see they were two distinct lights. The trailing light was not as bright as the space station, several orders of magnitude less probably, but it was still as bright or brighter than the brightest star in the sky. I held my arm out. It trailed by about the width of the tip of my little finger held at arm’s length. Both lights were very distinct, separate, and clear. It was not an optical illusion or a result of blurred vision.

I would presume it is a Soyuz or Dragon capsule.

Posted 2013-08-30