NUFORC Sighting 36914

Occurred: 2004-05-14 22:30 Local
Reported: 2004-05-13 18:12 Pacific
Duration: 4minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Melbourne (VIC, Australia), , Australia

Shape: Orb

Stationary light turns and moves away a high speed

Having a smoke on the landing I looked up at the sky and noticed one star which appeared particularly bright and a little bigger that venus. We are in the souther hemisphere and this was about 20 degrees north of vertical. I thought it was a bit odd so I looked at it for about a minute or two. Their were two or three stars around it so I could determine it was stationary or possibly moving away from me. Then it dimmed significantly and began to move directly north looking much like a satilite does when in sunlight. It disappeared after travelling across the night sky for about 30 seconds. This was even stranger as satilites that are commonly seen in Australia always travel from West to East and are never stationary then move. I can only speculate that it was a stationary satilite that conducted a burn to move into a higher orbit ?

Posted 2004-06-04