NUFORC Sighting 130933

Occurred: 2016-10-31 22:35 Local
Reported: 2016-10-31 20:04 Pacific
Duration: ~5 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Charlottesville, VA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

What pulsating bar light on craft, apparently, with no sound...

Outside smoking and checking out the sky, like I do every night. Been a while since I've seen anything worth reporting. I live a 20 minute drive from a major airport, so I'm constantly seeing commercial and personal aircraft coming and going all over the place. This thing was not one of those things.

There was no sound. I only noticed it because I was looking up at the few stars I could see through the lite cloud cover. First saw it right above me, and it had to have been at commercial aircraft level, so it was quite a ways away. At first I just thought it was a commercial flight that had just taken off, but the lights weren't anything I'd seen before. Maybe it's something new, I don't know. But instead of the usual flood-lights in from and small blinking white and read lights, I saw one long bar of white light pulsing at a steady, moderate, constant rate that did not change, accompanied by a pulsating round red light to the left of the white bar.

I've never seen a white pulsating bar on any aircraft in my life. So, I kept watching, wondering what it might be, and as it moved away, I noticed it appeared to sort of wobble left to right as it went, but it's extremely hard to tell when it's so dark out. That could very well have just been my eyes not having any focal points. I've seen stars appear to jump and wobble, so I can't say it was wobbling for sure.

Other than that, it was on a fairly straight path North to South. Right from the direction of the airport (North.) As I watched it, that's when I realized I heard no sound. There's no way I would have missed sound from any commercial or private aircraft. Just doesn't happen. Any time I see a plane, I know the sound will hit after the usual delay. Or I hear the plane and know where to find it by the sound. This thing... no sound at all... none. Not normal. And it was moving at a pretty slow pace compared to major aircraft leaving the airport. About the speed of a small aircraft.

Unfortunately, in the dark, I couldn't tell how high it was, or what its size might be.

Another I'll mention because it was very odd, although it may not be related at all... earlier in the day I heard a helicopter outside hanging around for a while... at least 3-5 minutes. I've lived here for a year and half and in this city for nearly a decade now, and I've never seen or heard any helicopter do that. Every helicopter I've ever seen was headed somewhere and never hung around. Maybe not be related, and it was at least a couple hours before I saw these lights, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Posted 2016-11-04