NUFORC Sighting 156518

Occurred: 2020-05-13 00:00 Local
Reported: 2020-05-17 23:49 Pacific
Duration: 10-15 minutes
No of observers: 4

Location: Manson, WA, USA

Shape: Light

This first appeared to be a star that got MUCH brighter, it was moving very slowly, SE to NW and got dimmer/smaller as it moved

I, my daughter, and two of my adult granddaughters were vacationing on Lake Chelan this past week. We'd rented a vacation home there (we were SO over the stay home orders and lockdown and needed a break). Wednesday night we were down on the beach and had built a fire in the fire pit. It was a beautiful clear night and, due to a lack of light pollution, we could see the Milky Way.

We were listening to music, enjoying the fire, our conversation, and just being together when we noticed a really bright star that got brighter as we watched. We were facing SE on that beach., the lake was calm and reflecting the lights of the homes across it like a mirror.

We soon realized it was not a star, because it was moving slowly toward us. It was quite large and brighter than Venus, which planet had gone out of sight a bit earlier that evening, when we first spotted it. At first it got larger and brighter, then as it moved toward the NE it slowly dimmed and appeared to get smaller and smaller until it disappeared from our sight, as if it had gone into space or just disappeared.

It moved quite slowly but steadily. and was in view for about 10 minutes, perhaps longer. We are avid sky watchers and are familiar with satellites, planes, choppers, the space station, and drones, it was none of those; it was much slower than any of those move across the sky and we could hear nothing after turning off the music to check. All of us kept saying to the others "Are you seeing this?" and of course, we all were.

I'm not exactly certain what time it was; obviously, it was after 9 PM, because it was full dark and Venus had gone behind the hills to the NE quite a bit earlier. It was before midnight because my daughter headed to bed at midnight and that was at least an hour after the sighting. Nor am I absolutely certain how long it remained in view though it seemed to us to be about 10 minutes, but none of us are very good at judging the passage of time, so it's merely a guess.

Posted 2020-06-25