NUFORC Sighting 20756

Occurred: 2001-12-09 19:00 Local
Reported: 2001-12-10 11:46 Pacific
Duration: 30 minutes+
No of observers: 5

Location: Calistoga, CA, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Lights on object, Changed Colo

Erratic movement of single light which split into two and back to one again repeatedly, as well as hovering.

Around 7pm, in Calistoga, California, our attention was drawn to a blinking light in the vicinity of the North Star. My brother-in-law was familiar with similar sightings and drew our attention to it. It was blinking at a steady rate (not like a natural star), and not moving. After a moment, it began to move slowly through the sky. Unlike a satellite, or aircraft, this light was moving erratically through the sky: left, right, up and down - very abrupt movements. The movements were at times slow, others fast with no apparent pattern. It would come to a complete stop for as long as 5 minutes. It would begin as a single blinking light (white), and then would appear as two lights, regardless of the direction it was moving, and then back to a single light. When it would move quickly, the lights appeared orange-red in color, when stationary, white. At times, the lights would be synchronized, others alternating. Viewing through binoculars, I was unable to determine the shape (I would try to focus on brighter stars behind it to determine if they were two separate craft, or one when the two lights appeared. It did appear to be a deeper black in between the two lights, but it was too difficult to hold the binoculars still enough to determine for sure). However, when the lights were brightest and blinking, it appeared that it might possibly be triangular in shape from the way the light would reflect out. The size of the lights would change giving the appearance that the craft was moving farther into space and then descending again. There was absolutely no sound in the quiet countryside to lead us to believe that this was a commercial jet, or aircraft of some kind. It was a very clear, very cold evening and the stars were very visible in contrast to this light. We also saw two distinct satellites cross the path above the lights. My 10 year old wondered if perhaps the satellites may have taken a picture from above??

Posted 2002-01-11