NUFORC Sighting 74681

Occurred: 2010-03-16 02:00 Local
Reported: 2010-03-16 14:43 Pacific
Duration: 3-5 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Skokie, IL, USA

Shape: Chevron
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object

shooting stars? - or - was it?

At approx. 2AM while facing exactly North i noticed what i first thought to be a shooting star. As i stared,... I noticed it to be 5 distinct shooting stars coming from the East going westbound. Orange/amber in color, spaced apart as if they were 'tracer bullets' in the sky moving extremely fast; uniform in direction and trajectory (or lack of trajectory - almost a straight line).

I was almost able to make out a chevron in the first, but they were so high up and moving so fast that it wasn't a vivid chevron per say, but the color did look un-natural to the night sky (dimmer but 'steadier glow' than typical stars). The formation crossed the entire night sky and I lost sight of it as it headed further west/northwest coming from the east, almost directly overhead... about 70-80 degrees.

The shapes came together or it could have been the angle, but they disappeared as they 'converged' still at approx 80 degrees.

The night sky was surprisingly clear and I immediately posted a question on yahoo answers dated 03/16/2010. I do observe meteor showers and comets when in season, but this looked nothing like anything i had observed in the past... the objects seemed to be flying extremely fast for any man made vehicle, but steadier (did not fade out) than shooting stars i've seen in the past.

The color was clearly orange amberish.

I'm no 'third kind encounter' type of individual and I felt that anyone i told would think i'm crazy... i'm very much sane and i am a systems engineer so I'm very empirical and quantitative. I could not think of an explanation of how these were moving - i've heard everything from space debris (crashed satellites) to meteors... but the 'way it was moving' seemed very much like flight.

Posted 2010-04-13