NUFORC Sighting 34605

Occurred: 2004-01-21 18:23 Local
Reported: 2004-01-21 20:55 Pacific
Duration: 3 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Aloha, OR, USA

Shape: Circle
Characteristics: Lights on object, Emitted other objects

This was no sattelite!

I was on my back patio, looking through my binoculars to find my usual sattelite sightings. This was the second paticularly clear nights. I found one sattelite following it's normal West to East path, when I spotted another much fainter sattelite directly above it heading in the opposite direction. Only much much faster and farther out. I followed it for a moment, and then noticed it split into two. I shook my head and refocused the lense, and saw it again, still two. Now following parallel to each other at a speed I have never seen a satelite fly. Then it did something strange, it would come back into one, then split out into two, heading about a 45 degree angle away from each other, then come back to parallel each other. But sometimes they would jump backwards, as if my vision jumped. Only, they did it a few times. I would keep my eyes off center, and keep a major star in focus and steady to jude the movement of the objects. They were definately jerkish and would shoot out fast then come back a little then join together and head out. I followed them until out of sight, about 3 minutes in all. They made the other sattelite seem slow like an airplane, but I have been watching sattelites long enough to know the difference. Plus I fly. This thing was in my estimation about twice the distance of the sattelite I was watching, very faint, but clear enough to see it's movements. This was no sattelite. Moving at 90 degree angles, 45 degree angles in a split second. It was quite amazing. I truely hope some day, I see them again. It was remarkable. My background has included being a Police Officer-Reserve, a volunteer with the Fire Department, and trained in Disaster Response with UMCOR through a FEMA training program. This event was clearly not an airplane, sattelite or shooting star.

Posted 2004-01-22