NUFORC Sighting 116724

Occurred: 2015-01-10 19:30 Local
Reported: 2015-01-15 11:45 Pacific
Duration: 10 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Freeland, MD, USA

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object

Three lights that looked like stars in perfect triangular formation, moving very slowly, then fading away simultaneously

After parking in my driveway at around 7:30 PM on 1/10/15, when I stepped out onto the driveway I happened to look up at the stars. It was extremely clear and very cold (around 15 degrees). The stars were very bright. I was looking to the southeast, and just below a familiar, sideways V-shaped formation of stars I saw three stars of equal brightness forming a perfect equilateral triangle. They caught my eye and within a second or two I realized they were moving. I had to stare very hard at them to be sure they were in fact moving because they were moving so slowly.

As soon as I was certain of this, they began to fade away. I would guess that between 5-10 seconds had elapsed when they began to fade out. It was like someone turned them off with a dimmer switch. They just faded out perfectly synchronously and were gone in about two seconds. I continued to stare at that area of the sky for about five minutes, but saw nothing else. It all happened so fast, and my! eyes were still adjusting to looking at the dark of the sky, so I cannot say whether there was a form connecting the lights, though I did not see any stars within the triangular area encompassed by these three lights. They were the brightness of the average star until they faded. Then there was nothing but the night sky. I have no idea of any distance to whatever I saw. It could have been 100 feet from me, or miles away. This is the first time I have ever been unable to easily verify something I have seen in the sky. The lights weren’t blinking. They were like the cold white light of starlight. I see aircraft in the sky every night and they do not fade away, plus their lights blink and they usually have red and white lights.

As for my background, I am a Systems Programmer/Analyst. I am 50 years old. I have a wife, 2 teenage children, 2 cats and 3 dogs. The dogs force me to be out in my yard a lot at night, so I am always staring at the stars and planets when the sky is clear.

Posted 2015-01-16