NUFORC Sighting 174371

Occurred: 2023-02-10 04:53 Local
Reported: 2023-02-10 06:15 Pacific
Duration: 4 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Littleton, MA, USA
Location details: Within about 250 m of the intersection of Foster St and Harwood Ave,

Shape: Star

Every 30 seconds a star-like object appeared and moved down a couple of degrees and disappeared. This was repeated 5 or so times.

Sighting details:
Today, Feb. 10, 2023, I was outside from 4:50 to 4:55 am local time. The sky was clear, no clouds, the moon was bright.
Over the course of two or three minutes, I saw star-like objects move about one or two degrees down toward the star Ras al hague a.k.a. 55 Oph located at 17h 34m 55.4s/+40d 10m J2000.0 according to my Stellarium app. They appeared and disappeared one at a time. They had no discernable shape, though my impression is that they seemed a bit fatter than stars.
One of the objects looked like a fairly bright star, brighter than 55 Oph and not as bright as Vega. It was white. It appeared, descended, and disappeared in about one second. It seemed to move slower than a meteor.
After about 30 seconds, another object repeated the same sequence in the same location on the sky.
I waited after for a couple of minutes after seeing 5 or 6 repetitions, but did not see any more during that time. I went back inside the house.
Background: I am a retired Math and Science professor. I taught at a college in Boston. I am frequently out before dawn for a few minutes to look for shooting stars, satellites, planes, etc.

Posted 2023-03-06