NUFORC Sighting 09914

Occurred: 1999-09-25 19:15 Local
Reported: 1999-09-25 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 3-5 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Everett, WA, USA

Shape: Light

I watched a streak of light move in a southerly direction heading downward eventually disappearing behind the Olympic Mountains.

I live on the bluff above the North Everett waterfront. This evening I had a clear view of the south end of Whidbey Island and the Olympic Mountains behind. I was watching the sky from my window and saw a streak of light that appeared to be moving very slowly at an angle of 25-35 degrees in a southerly direction. I looked at it through my 8X binoculars, when I first saw the streak and it was near the middle of the field of view with the lower edge of the field on the water/Whidbey Island edge. (I don't know if that is helpful - it's a way to locate raptors for birdwatchers.) I was able to watch the streak through my spotting scope which has a zoom lens 20X to 50X, and it looked like dense orange burning gasses getting less dense toward the end, but not fading very much. I could see no object associated with this streak of light, just the look of roiling, burning gasses. It did not leave a trail as it moved, but moved as one entity. As the streak was moving toward then behind the mountains, it passed an adjacent mountain peak, possibly Mt. Olympus. The streak was about 2/3 the size of the silouetted slope of that mountain peak, so it must have been very large. Mt. Olympus is about 70-80 miles away as the crow flies from Everett. I am not sure about the length of time of the observation, but I had time to get my binoculars across the room, watch through my binoculars for a short while, go across the room, get my spotting scope set up, find the streak in my scope, which took a little while because I could no longer see it with my naked eye and had to check again with my binoculars to get a location, and watched the streak until it went behind the mountains. I work for Snohomish County Surface Water Management as a watershed steward for the Snohomish River basin. I have never seen anything like this before. One more thing, it probably moving westerly as well since at first I could see it without optics, then it must have gotten farther away since I could only find it again by using my binoculars.

Posted 1999-10-02