NUFORC Sighting 96754

Occurred: 2013-03-22 19:53 Local
Reported: 2013-03-23 13:17 Pacific
Duration: 2-3 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Alexandria, VA, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Changed Colo

Object turning from bluish-white to yellow-orange seen crossing nighttime sky in Fairfax County, VA

SUBJECT: Unidentified Flying Object I’m located in Northern Virginia, just below the I-495/95 beltway, on the south side of Washington, DC.

I was seated in my van, facing approximately NNE, at approximately 8:53 PM, Friday, 23 March 2013.

The air was lit up to the left (and West) of me by the stadium lights at the nearby Hayfield High School.

As I was backing up in my parking space (at the curb in front of my house) in order to clear another vehicle parked immediately in front of me, some movement in the sky to my upper left front caught my attention. Something was moving across the sky low, from West to East, but not particularly fast.

Suddenly, it turned yellow-orange and then disappeared down behind the trees (and house) to my right front.

I think it was flaming out as it disappeared, but I’m not 100% positive! It was visible for a few seconds, although it seemed longer at the time! PARTICULARS I was facing N 47 degrees, 06 minutes 15 seconds E (according to my house plat!) I was looking up at approximately 10 degrees (from horizontal) at the center of my field of view (FOV).

I noticed the object at 30 degrees to the left of center line of FOV.

I lost the object at 35 degrees to the right of center line of FOV.

Trajectory was fairly straight, at angle of 3 to 4 degrees to my horizontal, up on left to down on right.

Trees in front on me were about 480 feet away, at right angle to centerline of my FOV. The house behind which I lost sight of object is about 145 feet away (2-story, split entry model).

Time was approximately 8:53 PM.

NOTEs: I got into my van as I was heading to local 7-11 store to purchase lottery entries (Mega Millions and PowerBall), which I do at about the same time every Tuesday and Friday evening.

When a police officer came to the neighborhood at approx 8:11 PM and we were IDing the time of my observation, he said his Sergeant had sent out a message at 8:54PM to all officers alerting them to be on the lookout for anything unusual.

I had reported the sighting, but because of the altitude, color and speed I thought it was something local (i.e., something other than a meteor) because all I had ever observed were shooting stars and meteorite showers! I offered to the police that I thought it might have come down not to distant from me! Therefore, we didn’t want to rule out possibility that it was a nearby event! Later on 10 PM news (local FOX, Channel 5) they reported that there had been a meteor event, seen from North Carolina to New England, and someone had report seeing it from Frederick, Maryland.

The news added that it was not unusual for observers to think meteors in the atmosphere are than they actually are, but meteors usually stop glowing before reaching 5 miles high because they have slowed so much by then.

This morning, on the NBC news (local Channel 4), they showed a still B&W photo from Maryland and reported that it had been seen from Florida to New England and the colors were bluish and greenish to bright orange in Maryland.

I concluded that I picked up the object as it was slowing from higher speed (whitish-bluish) and turning to yellow-orange. So the observer in Frederick, MD area and I were likely seeing the same thing.

I think the news gave the time as being around 8 PM.

I served 23 years in U.S. Army and have now worked 24+ years as Defense Contractor (hold high security clearance.

Posted 2013-04-12

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