NUFORC Sighting 24270

Occurred: 2002-08-07 22:34 Local
Reported: 2002-08-07 22:03 Pacific
Duration: less than a minute
No of observers: 1

Location: Barrington, IL, USA

Shape:

At 10:34 P.M., I was sitting on my deck stargazing. It is cool,clear evening. I am facing north. I noticed a bright yellow satellite or aircraft type like light in the area of the lower left aspect of the Big Dipper's bowl. This light is brighter than the star Lyra.

I thought is was a high altitude aircraft. I used a 10x70 pair of binoculars to view the object and did not see the usual red and green tail lights. I then noticed the brightness begin to fade quickly after it travel about 20 degrees in the direction of the North star. It then disappeared from view.

I continued to follow what I perceived to be it's trajectory, but it did not reappear.

At 10:37 P.M. as I again returned to look toward th Big Dipper again, I observed a similar bright star-like object from the same "bowl" area. This time the object was moving in a due south direction and traversed about 15 degrees before it too, faded. Both objects were yellow, and disappeared after moving toward the zenith 15-20 degrees. I've seen many satellites blink and flash as they roll, but the are always white in color and never this bright or yellow in color.

Posted 2002-08-16