NUFORC Sighting 05665

Occurred: 1999-02-22 20:00 Local
Reported: 1999-02-22 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 15 Minutes
No of observers: 3

Location: Point Marion (near, 60 miles south of Pittsburgh), PA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object, Changed Colo

Two lights similar to planets but with unusual coloration and slow but discernable motion. Each eventually faded from sight.

Approximateley 20:00 local time, approximately due West, approximately 30 degrees above the (distant) horizon: I observed two fairly bright lights separated nearly vertically by about the width of two full moons. The lower was considerably brighter than the upper. They looked exactly like two planets and I assumed that is what they were. About 10 minutes later I noticed them again but perhaps 20 degrees above and slightly further north on the horizon. The spacing appeared to be exactly the same. I realized planets would not be moving this fast so I grabbed my 10 power binoculars for a better look. Through the binoculars the upper light had a pronouced orange coloration similar to a sodium vapor lamp. The lower light appeared to be an almost bluish white, then on longer inspection it seemed to be cycling through several colors. It was considerably brighter than the upper. At this point I called my wife, Debby, who has low vision but with her monocular observed the two lights. She describes one as brighter and possibly changing color. I steadied my binoculars on a porch railing. I was now able to just barely make out that the lower light was composed of either two white lights one above the other or a verically elongated white light. Between the two lights (or at the center of the elongated one) and barely to the left (south) was a red light flashing once every second or two. Apparently this is what I mistook for changing colors. I now called my uncle Tom, to grab his binoculars and look. No more than a minute can have passed but when I got back outside, the lower and previously brighter light had faded to near invisibilty (it was no longer visible to me without my binoculars). While I watched, it continued to fade until it was no longer visible (about 30 more seconds). So Uncle Tom only observed the upper light, but he also felt it was moving very slowly. I now concentrated on the upper light. The color and brightness were unchanged but as I watched, it appeared to slowly elongated vertically to a length that was still a small fraction of the width of the moon (maybe 5%). This may have taken half a minute. It then began to fade. Over perhaps another 30 seconds it faded to near invisibility and I lowered my binoculars. Maybe 15 seconds later I raised the binoculars for one more look and it was again visible but at only about half its original brighness. It then slowly faded away. Through all this its color never changed. Occasionally during this period I swung my binoculars to various stars. They all were clearly point sources of light, unlike the unknown objects that appeared to be slightly elongated. Yet the elongation of the upper object was so slight I kept wondering if it could have been caused by a trembling of the binoculars. Still I did not see it on stars. Still I repeat, although the lower light was tiny, even through binoculars, I could clearly distinquish an elongated white light with a flashing red light slightly to the left and centered vertically. There were no stars clearly visible as near the horizon as the objects but toward the zenith the stars were clear and bright. I am familiar with the sight of airplanes at night. I am 60 miles south of Pittsburgh PA and there are almost always one or two visible in the night sky. The unknown objects moved far two slowly to be airplanes and the lights were simply not the same. And although I obsereved airplanes elsewhere in the sky during this period, I never saw any near the objects. They were not LEO satellites. They moved far two slowly and they were much too bright. I am absolutely certain they were not celestial objects. The colors, the motion and the fading demonstrate that. I have seen many objects in the sky that were unusual at first glance but that I was eventually able to identify. Prolonged observation proved these objects to be more and more strange. I have no idea what it was that I saw.

NUFORC Note:

NUFORC: Several planets were positioned quite closely to one another in the southwest sky during February 1999. The fact that the observer does not cite the other bright objects in the western, or southwestern, sky, in addition to the objects he observed, suggest to us that he may well have been looking at the conjunction of four planets.

Posted 1999-04-02