NUFORC Sighting 71078

Occurred: 2009-07-13 00:20 Local
Reported: 2009-07-14 07:39 Pacific
Duration: 3 hours
No of observers: 2

Location: Commerce Township, MI, USA

Shape: Light

Bright light appearing low in Southeastern sky. Wobbles and tracks across the sky for hours. Been watching it for 2 weeks now.

My wife and I have noticed a bright white light in the southeastern sky almost every night for the past 2 weeks. It is low in the sky. From my second story bedroom it appears just above the tree line. The trees are about 20-25 feet off the ground. Not every single night but probably 60-70% of the time. It appears around 11pm-12pm and appears as a bright light. At first, I thought it was a bright star but as we studied it, it appears to wobble, move up and down and side to side. I am a very novice star watcher but I am not aware of a bright star in the low southeastern sky. This all happens as it hangs in the sky basically in the same location for long periods of time – hours. I watched it until 3am a few times before going to sleep. I started watching it again last night. I picked a land based reference point and watched its movement across the sky. Over a 45 minute period it moved very slowly across and higher in the sky appearing to stop along the way and continuing to wobble. The movement was very subtle but it is definitely moving – miles – very noticeable distances over the 45 minutes. I can’t estimate the distance because it is so far away. I have been thinking it is a star but based on my limited experience, stars don’t track across the sky this fast (based on the Earth’s rotation) It is not like watching a constellation like Orion or anything like that. Also, it appears much closer than a star. It is above the cloud deck but appears to be well within the atmosphere. My wife thinks it’s a satellite but again, based on my experience; it seems much closer and again does not move like the satellites I have observed crossing the night sky. It appears in almost the exact same spot every night we see it. Not sure what it is but it definitely is something we have not seen before. We have been living in this location for almost 8 years now and I have been observing the sky out my bedroom windows at night for years now. It’s something that I have never seen before. We ar! e colleg e educated professional people and its bizarre enough that I felt I needed to notify you. If you have any type of explanation for this I would love to hear it.

Thanks.

Posted 2009-08-05