Reported: 2006-09-01 11:35 Pacific
Duration: 50 secs
No of observers: 1
Location: Port Barre, LA, USA
Shape: Circle
Object displays remarkable variations in speed high in the night skies over Louisiana
On the night of Aug 31, 2006 at approximately 20:40hrs I was outside sitting on the steps of my home waiting on my son to return from the neighbors. While attempting to make a phone call I began staring at the moon (it was waxing at a half crescent). I cancelled the call and scrolled the sky until I was at about an 80 degree angle just north of the moon. A brighter than usual star (maybe -1 mag.) caught my attention. It was moving east to west at a fairly high rate of speed. It was circular in shape and white in color. There was no trail what so ever. I assumed it was a satellite and decided to watch it until it disappeared from the horizon. After several seconds I was astonished. The object slowed and than at that instant, it made a 90 degree direction change and accelerated to an astonishing speed. It was out of sight in a second or fraction of. As for my background, I have a BS in biology and chemistry and currently work as an analytical chemist for a local company. I have NEVER experienced any "sightings" before and though I support MUFON (probably the only Louisiana member) I am a scientist and I try to take an unbiased look at everything. In the case of this sighting, scientifically, it could have possibly been a meteor being "deflected" in the atmosphere but there was NO BURN TRAIL and the way it varied its speed was just remarkable.
NUFORC Note:
Artificial satellites do not have a westerly component to their groundtrack, so the object could not have been a satellite, if the estimate of direction by the witness is correct. PD
Posted 2006-10-30
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