NUFORC Sighting 159115

Occurred: 1974-06-01 20:45 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2020-09-03 08:47 Pacific
Duration: 3 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: New Paltz, NY, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

As a child in upstate New York Iwitnessed a bright light moving erratically and quickly in the night sky. ( I currently live in the UK)

As a 10 year old I was lying the the back of my parents station wagon on a Saturday evening with my mother driving. We were on our way home from a 7:30 church service In our town. I was dreamily looking up at the stars when I saw a star move from a stationary position, at a 45 degree angle down and to the left as I viewed it. This was some distance away perhaps 60- 80 degrees off of the horizon. The “star” then moved rapidly (blink of an eye fast), parallel with the horizon, to the right and without hesitation changed direction and moved upwards at a 45 degree angle and to the left crossing the original downward trajectory. It then vanished. To my mind it looked EXACTLY like a shooting star but as I thought even as a 10 year old, “shooting stars don’t take sharp turns nor do they “shoot” upwards”. The pattern was very tight and did not cover a great deal of the sky.

I was only 10 and a big fan of everything weird and wonderful. Having said that I remember being surprised by this as I had NEVER seen anything like it, wasn’t looking for anything, wasn’t thinking about such things at the time and had never heard of such a thing and it has remained burned in my memory ever since.

Posted 2020-09-04