NUFORC Sighting 23601

Occurred: 2002-07-04 21:20 Local
Reported: 2002-07-04 22:04 Pacific
Duration: 3 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Murrieta, CA, USA

Shape: Light


Erraticly wandering star-like object travels from north to south at a consistent, slow pace

At 9:20 pm my husband and I were standing on the roof of our house watching fireworks displays in the Temecula Valley in Southwest Riverside County, California. I noticed he was looking up. As I looked up he said, "Do you see that light, or am I not seeing right?" I looked in the direction he was peering and noticed a star-like light in the sky. It had the luminosity of Mercury or Mars (certainly not as bright as Venus or Jupiter). If it had been still it could have easily been mistaken for a star. However, it was its type of motion that distinguished it from a star, a terrestrial aerial vehicle or a satellite. It was heading from north to south and traveling quite erratically. It wobbled on an irregular basis from left to right, sometimes speeding up and sometimes slowing down. Sometimes the wobble was a long slow move to the right; sometimes it was a quick, short burst. Sometimes it went a short distance backwards, but mostly it moved forward. If it had been someone driving a car I would have said they were drunk as a skunk, weaving all over the road. It did not move in a straight line with a consistent speed as a satellite; we heard no sound and there were no other lights (i.e. wing or landing lights) as an airplane. Its average rate of speed, although erratic, was generally consistent and not very fast. It traversed 40% of the sky in 3 minutes, and if one held his or her fist out at arm's length, it would have traversed the width of the fist in 10-12 seconds. The object was too high up to ascertain any detail other than it was a point of moving light. We watched the object for approximately three minutes until it could not longer be seen because of the haze of light pollution.

Posted 2002-07-26

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