NUFORC Sighting 57739

Occurred: 2007-07-20 00:51 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2007-07-20 10:33 Pacific
Duration: 45 min
No of observers: 2

Location: Chesapeake, VA, USA

Shape: Changing
Characteristics: Lights on object, Emitted beams, Changed Colo

Multiple objects visible at miles over Chesapeake VA Near Cornland park

I was dropping my girlfriend off at here house near the North Carolina boarder and saw a bright object in my peripheral vision. It was significant to me because of the magnitude of the object and its proximity to Jupiter, which was low to the horizon and getting ready to set for the night. This object was brighter than the star Vega, and varied in magnitude and color. I grabbed her attention when I noticed it was moving very fast and erratic. It appeared to have several multicolored lights and was flashing at an inconsistent pace.

The object would do zig zag patterns and ascend and descend at a rapid pace. The most interesting thing is it almost never moved in a strait trajectory, and if its path seemed to be somewhat strait it would vary its speed, moving in a non fluid motion as if it was jerking. I know this was not the asteroid Vesta or comet C2006v13 due to the comet being near Draco and Vesta has not reached this kind of magnitude, and the motions that this object made do not follow modern conceptions of astrophysics.

The most interesting thing is, as this object would decrease in magnitude to the point that It could not be seen there where 10 or more objects around and spread out across the horizon that would flash and get bright, these objects would then dimmer and the "Main" object would increase in magnitude. At times up to 4 different lights would be visible and would appear to triangle shaped and at times would appear to be cylindrical. This is hard to tell due to the fact that the object was at a great distance. At times you could see a flash of light that illuminate thin clouds near it and always seemed to be in the direction of other objects that you could see flash light at the main object.

Over the period of 45 minutes the object had moved from about 40 degrees altitude in the eastern south eastern horizon to about 15 degrees, back up to about 30 degrees. In our time of observation four lights were distinguishable, and multiple colours from white, blue, red, and green lights. The objects were still in the sky when I left to head home around 01:40. At that time I had a friend from California on the phone listening in on the event and trying to observer using the stars an Jupiter as a reference. He could not see anything telling me it was localized in nature and was within our atmosphere.

I am an amateur Astronomer and part of an Astronomy club that is a non profit educational group. This was unlike any event that I have ever seen. In astronomy we are very attentive to objects in the night sky and see some things that cannot be explained. Satellites and the ISS move fast and with a standard trajectory. This seemed to move with intelligence behind it, interact with other objects. This was the most significant thing I have ever seen in the night sky.

At its brightest point it would reach around A magnitude -1.0 and dim out to where it was not visible. Most of the time it would reach around a magnitude +1.0 . In some cases it would cover areas of around 30-40 arc minutes in a matter of seconds in a jerky motion, at times doing circles and ans S patterns in the sky.

NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate. PD

Posted 2007-08-07