NUFORC Sighting 25625

Occurred: 2002-10-15 19:45 Local
Reported: 2002-10-16 10:31 Pacific
Duration: 3-4 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Lake Forest Park, WA, USA

Shape: Sphere
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby

Lake Forest Park, WA: On the evening of Tuesday 10/15/02 at approximately 7:45 PM PST, a friend and I were in his backyard changing the oil in his van when, facing south, I saw a large, glowing whitish-blue ball of brilliant light move slowly across the sky at about a 60-65 degree altitude from the horizon. I first spotted it in the sky southwest of us heading on an eastern path, which would have put it going from over Puget Sound towards Lake Washington, over the small cities of Shoreline and Lake Forest Park, just north of Seattle. The moon was out that night so we compared the size of the object relative to us and it was about one fourth the size of the moon. There were two airplanes to the south of us that appeared to change course and follow it to the east. We saw the red & white flashing lights from the planes, but never saw any flashes from the object that was quite a bit larger in the sky than the airplanes. Just before it went out of site over the trees to the southeast of us, it just vanished, like someone turned off the power. The two airplanes appeared to change course at that point and move west.

This morning, I checked satellite information for the area on http://www.heavens-above.com. There were several objects passing over around that time frame, but they don't seem to match up with the direction or brightness of the object we saw.

((FOLLOW-UP COMMUNICATION WITH WITNESS))

Dear Mr. ((deleted)),

I believe you describe the overflight of the ISS, which was docked to the Space Shuttle, Atlantis, at the time. You and I must have been looking at it at the same time, since I was out with binoculars to watch it.

Please see the following URL for details:

http://www.heavens-above.com/passsummary.asp?lat=47.606&lng=-122.331&alt=60&
loc=Seattle&TZ=PST&satid=25544&Date=37535.7916666667&Mag=

Thank you very much for the information!

Cordially,

Peter Davenport

((RESPONSE))

I agree that it is probably what we saw. It was fun to watch. My only hesitation is on the time listed at the link says it ended at 7:36 PM. I do know that as soon as the event was over, we both went inside immediately to look at the clock and it was almost 7:50 PM. Can you tell me if the times listed on that website have that wide of an error margin?

Thanks for prompt reply,

I believe the times on the website are accurate. I suspect there is a greater likelihood that the clock you looked at may be a bit "off" actual time, or else you might have stood outside longer than you estimated. However, that is only conjecture, of course.

Peter Davenport

((WITNESS RESPONSE))

That could very well be the case. Thanks for the info.

((END REPORT))

NUFORC Note:

NUFORC RESPONSE

Posted 2002-10-28