NUFORC Sighting 45416

Occurred: 2005-08-01 22:15 Local
Reported: 2005-08-02 20:34 Pacific
Duration: 1 minute
No of observers: 1

Location: Santa Rosa, CA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object

Saw a very bright light on an unusual course moving at relatively low altitude without making a sound.

While walking my dog before going to bed, I noticed a bright light that was rapidly approaching from the east heading in a north-westerly direction. The elevation at that point was about 30 degree. The light was a bright yellowish-white that was brighter and larger than the ISS when it is directly overhead. There was a small strobe light to the lower right of the larger light slightly detached, that was flashing in about 1 second intervals. The motion of the light was smooth like the ISS but it was going more than twice as fast as the typical speed of the ISS.

The light moved along a left-handed long sweeping turn. When it passed to the north of my position, it was at an elevation of about 70 degrees. It continued to a point at about 50 degree elevation in the north-west. At that point, the craft must have made a course correction by making a smooth but easily noticeable turn to the south-west. As it came out of this turn, the light increased in brightness by a factor of three or four for about 2 to 3 seconds. It was by far the brightest light in the sky at that moment. It then went briefly very dim for about 2 seconds as if something structural was obscuring the light source but I could still see the glow of the light behind it. It then brightened again for about 2 seconds to the intensity it had been when it passed to the north of me. The light and even the glow then totally disappeared and all I could see the was the strobe plus a fainter strobe nearby that was about 1/2 second out of synch with the first strobe. When they receded, the strobes has a reddish hue. I was able to follow them until the object disappeared over the roof of a house heading due south. The elevation was then about 30 degrees.

The entire affair from first seeing it and then losing sight of it lasted no more than one minute. There was absolutely no sound, even when it made the turn south and it seemed fairly close at that point. There may have been other, fainter lights but I could not clearly see them because I was in an area where there were several bright street lights.

When I got home, I checked "Heavens Above" and found that the ISS will not be visible in my area until August 7th. Envisat was scheduled to be visible about 15 minutes after my observation at a trajectory SE50-ENE72-N10 at a maximum magnitude of 2.9 which is about as bright as Envisat gets. I have seen it many times and there was no comparision to the light I saw. The light I saw was at least a minus 4 or brighter.

No other satellites were listed as being visible to me at that time. I have no idea what I saw. If it was a conventional jet, I should have heard a sound, since it didn't seem to be very high in altitude. This fact was confirmed by the ease with which I could follow the strobes to such a low elevation.

Posted 2005-09-02