NUFORC Sighting 176139

Occurred: 2023-06-07 20:20 Local
Reported: 2023-06-08 14:37 Pacific
Duration: About 5 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Panama City, FL, USA
Location details: North Bay, looking East

Shape: Light

Thought it was a star until it moved around and disappeared.

I was walking my dogs down our driveway, eastward, toward the bay, and I noticed two large, bright, colinear stars above the tree line. They were relatively close to each other, about the width of my palm held at arm's length, and to my eyes, they were identical in size and intensity. Then I realized the star on the left was actually moving. Slowly, it drifted down, diagonally to the left, and then it disappeared completely. I kept watching, trying to figure out if a cloud had obscured it, or if it had really vanished, noting that the star on the right remained entirely visible. The left star reappeared in different spot, slightly above and to the left of the last position. It did not move, but the light from it seemed to pulse/flicker. It stayed in that position for a few seconds, and then disappeared again. The star on the right remained static. In a few seconds, the left star reappeared, this time, much less bright and smaller, as if it had quickly traveled away from me to the East, it seemed. Its position had lowered to about the midpoint of the other two positions. I lost it soon after because it blended in with the other stars at that point. All of the different positions would fit behind a post-it note held at arm's length, so the movement was noticeable only if you were paying attention. I have no idea how close or far away it actually was.

I immediately checked a Flight Radar app, and there was nothing even remotely nearby. We do have AF bases in the area, but I've never seen anything that could emulate a star.

When I walked back up the driveway, I did notice a very low, very long, slender streak of cloud below the two stars, so it's possible that the pulsing/flickering was a result of a thin cloud passing in front of it. This cloud covered a much wider area than the distance between the two stars, so I feel like if it drifted across the left one, it would have also changed the appearance of the other. The star on the right never changed.

Posted 2023-07-10