NUFORC Sighting 180273

Occurred: 2024-02-03 23:43 Local
Reported: 2024-02-03 22:48 Pacific
Duration: 6 minutes 35 seconds
No of observers: 1 - Military

Location: Colton, NY, USA
Location details: My driveway, was walking to garage and noticed bright white light in distance towards west-northwest

Shape: Circle
Color: White-Multicolor
Estimated Size: Small dot with full camera zoom
Viewed From: Land
Direction from Viewer: West-Northwest
Angle of Elevation: 40
Closest Distance: Hundreds of miles, hard to discern
Estimated Speed: Slow, but erratic
Characteristics: Emitted other objects, Changed Colo

Noticed bright, white planet sized object in west-northwest sky just above treeline in my backyard moving erratically.

Went outside to head to the garage and noticed how clear the night sky was, out of the corner of my eye I caught what looked like a very brght planet just above treeline. I stopped and held still then noticed it start to move erratically in the sky. It appeared to go up and down then side to side, almost like a wobble at times. I realized I had my phone in my pocket so I took a video. I kept trying to zoom in on it and lost it halfway through the video. I was looking west-northwest from my driveway just in front of my garage. There weren't any lights on in the garage, house or yard and my property is very dark due to rural location. It appeared that the bright object was slowly moving towards the horizon and I eventually lost sight of it after almost seven minutes. On the video it appears the object is spinning and is multicolored. It was hard to zoom and keep my phone still but a good portion of the video has the object on it. I had my keys in my hands and other stuff I was to put into my vehicle in the garage, so i was slightly distracted, but this object was not stationary. I saw it with eyes first, saw it move erratically, and then remembered I had my phone in my pocket. The video is taken with an iphone 11 pro max, a slightly older phone. I would love to know if it was just venus close to the horizon and the movement was just atmospheric gases making it appear to move erratically? Regardless, it was pretty cool. I kept having to step back to keep the object in view above the tree limbs. The tree-line is approximately 60 yards behind the house with some large eastern white pines in the surrounding yard. It was a perfect viewing night sky, and the stars were brilliant. I had only been outside a minute before I notice the object moving. It was definitely not satellites, I have seen starlink before too, and this object looked more like a planet than a man made object. It also appeared to have a streak of light emenate from it, almost like a spark at one point in the video. Anyway thanks for listening, I have the video if you are interested.

Posted 2024-02-15