NUFORC Sighting 70994

Occurred: 2009-07-08 20:30 Local
Reported: 2009-07-08 21:36 Pacific
Duration: 2 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Strawberry, AZ, USA

Shape: Light

Slow moving single bright light over Northern Arizona

At about 20:30 Pacific Daylight time, July 08, 2009, I was outside getting tools from my truck bed. As I reached up to close the camper shell's back window, I noticed a bright light almost directly overhead. I also noticed it was moving slowly to the Northeast. It was brighter than Arcturus, which is also about overhead at this time, and brighter than the usual aircraft which fly overhead, so I listened for the sound of a jet, which usually accompanies 'normal' aircraft that fly overhead. Although many are high altitude flights, the sound still should have been audible by that point. There was no sound, and the single point of light was not blinking, so I thought that perhaps it was something other than a commercial or military flight, perhaps a very reflective satellite - although I'd never seen one this bright - and started counting about 5 seconds after it passed the zenith. I continued counting and moving across the street as it went behind pine trees to observe it until it disappeared over the mountains to the Northeast, at an altitude of about 15 - 20 degrees above true horizon. The heading (ref'd to true north) was estimated at about 40 degrees. The speed seemed very steady throughout the sighting. Altogether the sighting lasted for a count of 127 seconds, from just past zenith to disappearance over the horizon. It took about 10 seconds to gather my tools, go inside and check the time on an 'atomic clock', which showed 20:33:45. There was no sound from the object at all, the apparent brightness was approximately between that of Jupiter and Venus in the early morning sky and did not fluctuate much, if at all. There was no discernable blinking light, just a steady white color. It did not change noticeably in brightness from overhead to disappearance, as a commercial or military flight usually does - i.e. when the forward lights are blocked by the rest of the jet or plane. The sky was clear of clouds, and although the sunset is 'officially' at 19:40 at this latitude, the mountains su! rroundin g the valley give us a sunset at about 19:15 and dusk lasts about an hour . A few of the brighter stars were just visible. Moonrise was a few minutes ago at about 21:20 (from my position).

Posted 2009-08-05