NUFORC Sighting 46336

Occurred: 2005-09-16 05:49 Local
Reported: 2005-09-18 10:05 Pacific
Duration: 10 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Loveland, CO, USA

Shape: Other
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object

Bright starlike object slowly fades at initial viewing

While walking the dog early A.M. on Friday 9/16/05, I periodically looked up at the sky, as it was still dark with stars out and the barest tinge of purple on the eastern horizon. The sky was totally clear, no clouds. I was walking west on a rural road so viewing conditions were unobstructed. After one of many glances upwards, I looked back down and out of my peripheral vision noticed a light on my shoulder as if from a light source similar in intensity to a full moon. Knowing the full moon wasn't visible at that time I looked up again and in the same spot I had just observed I noticed a bright starlike object, roughly halfway between Mars and Orion (locations of both later confirmed with Sky and Telescope interactive starchart for date and that time of morning). It was white, unmoving, silent, brighter than Venus, and as soon as I looked at it, the object began to fade from view. The light I noticed on my shoulder makes me think it was even brighter before I looked up. It seemed there was a slight haze around the object as it faded and it was completely gone within 10 seconds. I watched for at least another minute and saw no other lights or objects in that spot. I kept looking up to that area every few seconds while I continued walking but saw no further objects.

If not an unknown, then conventional explanations might be a glint of light off a coincidentally perfectly positioned satellite, an orbital SDI test, or a supernova from light years away that I just happened to glance up at the perfect time for - there go my lotto odds. Any explanation for this?

Posted 2005-10-11

© 2023 National UFO Reporting Center. All rights reserved. Use or reproduction within any application without written consent is prohibited.