NUFORC Sighting 130597

Occurred: 2016-10-11 19:25 Local
Reported: 2016-10-12 23:10 Pacific
Duration: 1 minute
No of observers: 2

Location: San Diego, CA, USA

Shape: Light

Orange light crossed the sky like a fast satellite and then dropped down at a sharp angle backwards and disappeared.

Last night my son and I were outside, setting up our telescope. We watched what seemed to be a satellite cross the sky, moving from the west to the east. It had a slight orange color, being about as bright as Mars. Its speed was a little faster than a satellite.

As it moved east, toward the moon, I lost track of it in the glow of the moon. I expected it to emerge from the glow on the other side-at the same speed but, when it reappeared, it became brighter and like a meteor, it dropped down at a sharp angle back to the west.

Then it completely disappeared. The distance it dropped was about the length of a finger at arms length.

We didn't see anything afterward.

NUFORC Note:

We spoke with the witness via telephone, and he seemed to us to be quite sincere, and sober-minded. In part because of his experience with astronomy, we suspect that the source of the report is a skilled witness. PD

Posted 2016-10-13