NUFORC Sighting 103791

Occurred: 2013-03-23 18:18 Local
Reported: 2013-11-01 14:48 Pacific
Duration: 8 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Yakima, WA, USA

Shape: Changing
Characteristics: Lights on object, Changed Colo

Twinkling object travels around bottom of moon after streaking through sky

On March 23, 2013 at approximately 6:18PM PST I was spending a late afternoon watching the moon rise in the East with my wife in our apartment building three stories high. I was using 10x32 binoculars viewing the moon from a large open window when I noticed what looked like a streak in the southern area of the moon, rather below the moon and to the right. I thought it may have just been nothing, it was still very much daylight out, and I barely saw anything but possible movement. The sky was mostly clear. Within 10 seconds or so another movement, more like streak, drew my attention and binocular focus to the area East almost North East of the moon. I was still not able to identify what I saw because of high speed and small area. But within 15 seconds or so I saw a bright thin blue streak traveling at about a 45 degree downward NE to SW angle “ / ” in the center of the binocular circle. The streak was short in length leaving no trail, traveling a seeming! distance of the width of the moon visible in the blue sky. The object streaked toward the East part of the moon and vanished within just a range of around or less than a No. 2 pencil width if I were to draw to size what we saw (which we have).

I shouted to my wife who was nearby that “I just saw a shooting star! I mean a meteor! It was a bright blue streak..” Were the first descriptions I could give, as I maintained watching the area the object vanished in with binoculars. In no less than 15 seconds an object appeared in the place where the blue streak ended. The object, as best as I can describe, was a twinkling multiple color silvery object that resembled a star in nature. The center was shimmering whitish silver. The size of the object through binoculars was a magnitude around that of the brightest star. I had a small moment of, I guess adrenaline and panic where at that time I called my wife over trying to describe the object and show her the object through the binoculars. I do not have 20/20 vision, but I do not need the aid of glasses, and the object was just barely visible to the naked eye, with intermittent and often twinkling that made the object distinguishingly visible. My wife could quickly spot the ob! ject which maintained its position very close to the moon, as if on the outskirts of an invisible atmosphere.

We observed the object passing the binoculars back and forth as I tried to record with a camera phone at one point, but it couldn’t pick anything up, even tried to have the camera lens to lens with the binoculars with no success. The object began to traverse very slowly downward around the bottom of the moon twinkling and shimmering, but would also fade for short times. It was easy to track as it traveled the same slow speed. As the object traveled precisely maintaining the same distance from the moon as when it first appeared, the object made a full travel from the Eastern part of the moon to the Western side where it stopped and sat exactly at the West center side of the moon. Also during this time I noticed a couple other streaks to the South of the moon while my wife used the binoculars, the streaks were similar to the second one I saw at the beginning of the event.

As the object was making it’s final approach where it stopped at the West side of the moon, it began to change. The object was a very bright magnitude now with four other objects appearing, very similar in physical description, just smaller objects. The four smaller objects appeared in a very close range of the first object, as if the smaller objects were attached or on a grid. The objects never traveled away from the first or appeared to move independently. The four objects appeared and sat around the first object, maintaining direct North South East West positions like a compass or cross “ + “ but not connected by any visible means. The five objects did not move for approximately five minutes, other than twinkling and shimmering, with the center and original object being the largest. The time was about 6:26PM when the object faded away.

I have not been able to find anything on the internet about this event, at all. The only close possibility is a picture on the internet from Sydney, Australia. But the only similarities are the date and appearance of objects’ distance from the moon in this picture may be somewhat close. But the website and description are not detailed enough. Thank you to those who took the time to read this, and to those who post what they see out there! There has to be other people who saw this too..

Posted 2013-11-11