NUFORC Sighting 146447

Occurred: 2019-05-26 00:19 Local
Reported: 2019-05-27 16:07 Pacific
Duration: 2 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Grand Marais, MN, USA

Shape: Light

Bright stationary light seen above Grand Marais, then tracks slowly in the sky until it disappears

I am 46 year old professional who lives in northern Minnesota. Over the Memorial Day weekend, my friend and I were camping a state park north of Grand Marais, and at about 12:19 am on Sunday, May 26, we both saw something in the sky that appeared unusual, and which was not obviously something man-made (plane, etc.) or a natural phenomenon like a bird, clouds, etc. The sky was clear and full of stars, and the view from our campsite was mostly unobstructed except for some pine trees. We had a good view of the west/northwest and west/southwest part of the sky.

We were sitting around the campfire talking, and at a lull in our conversation, I was gazing at a bright stationary object near the Big Dipper. I stared at it for a few moments, because it was so bright. At first I thought it was a planet. I began thinking that it wasn’t a planet I was familiar with because it was near the Big Dipper, and I didn’t think that was normal. Then, suddenly it began to move on a straight track from the west/northwest to a point higher in the sky above us, generally in the west/southwest direction, but still fairly high in the sky. When it began to move, I pointed the object out to my friend, who also began watching it. We both watched it move towards the west/southwest in a straight trajectory for about 20 or seconds or so, at which point the object’s brightness began to fade until it disappeared about 10 seconds later.

Overall we watched it move for about 1 minute, until it seemed to disappear. The light just slowly faded, and we did not see it appear again along its trajectory, like we would have expected if it had gone behind a cloud or something. As far as I could tell, there were no clouds in the sky; the forecast for the evening was clear skies.

At this point, I noted to my friend that I had never seen an object that bright in the sky behave this way. We wondered if it had gone behind a cloud or a mist, but again, it was strange because it was dry and clear out. The object was high enough in the sky to seem to us to be a planet or star at first, but when it started moving and then disappeared, I was baffled.

At first we both thought it could have been a satellite, but the way it tracked across the sky wasn’t like other man-made satellites we have seen before. I didn’t think it was a meteoroid, as it did not flash across the sky quickly, but moved slowly.

Talking with my friend about it the next day, neither of us had any immediate explanation for it. I’m still curious as to what this object might have been.

Thank you for maintaining this valuable resource for the public!

NUFORC Note:

Possibly a remnant from the SpaceX satellites?? PD

Posted 2019-06-07