NUFORC Sighting 133013

Occurred: 2017-03-06 12:15 Local
Reported: 2017-03-07 06:07 Pacific
Duration: 20 second
No of observers: 2

Location: Lisbon, ME, USA

Shape: Fireball

A bright light that was stationary, then split into 2 lights, and faded away.

Talking with friend on outside kitchen steps and was discussing how many planes fly over at this time of day, from roughly East to West.

(I have an App on my IPad showing their departure and arrival times and speed and altitude, called "Plane Finder".) I was telling him most of these were flying anywhere from 30 to 40 thousand feet and often times they were starting their decent over us, depending on their destination.

Anyways; I looked up at one of these planes that was just beyond overhead and flying West and saw a very bright light that was in back of it, yet at a much lower altitude, so I could perceive. This light was not moving. The sun was overhead also, although positioned slightly southwest and more westerly than the plane.

The light looked like a light from a very bright flashlight. I asked my friend. "what's that light?" He had to turn, He was facing North. He looked and as we both saw it, it split into 2 lights (splitting from East to West) not too far apart and then gradually faded away.

We could not determine the distance to this light, although I would guesstimate from 1/2 to a mile, although I am guessing more than I actually know.

When it started to split, I rubbed my eyes, not knowing what I was seeing, thinking that I was seeing something that was not there. It was there.

The time I saw this light until it started to split was about 8 to 10 seconds, how long it was there, I have no idea.

The time it took from when it started splitting was about 10 seconds, before it faded away.

The distance between the 2 lights, after they split was about 5 to 7 times the width of the original one bright light.

For example if the original light was say five feet wide (it appeared round), the split lights were roughly 25 to 40 feet apart. This measurement seems to be an interpretation of possibly the height of this light, in my mind, not sure?? It was very bright, so much so, that even with the sun shining on us from a more southeasterly direction, it was as bright, if not brighter but much smaller.

I only wish that I could have had a better perception of its altitude or distance from us.

What did we see?

Posted 2017-03-10