NUFORC Sighting 21002

Occurred: 2002-01-03 17:55 Local
Reported: 2002-01-04 14:41 Pacific
Duration: 20 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Littleton, CO, USA

Shape: Orb
Characteristics: Lights on object

Two fixed star-like objects in Littleton, CO

I was outside talking on the phone to my nephew in Ohio trying to instruct him on how to find Saturn from Jupiter in his telescope (he was not outdoors in Ohio at the time). It was a crystal clear night sky in Denver at the time. As I was talking to him, I looked to the North of Saturn, just East of the constellation Cassiopea and saw two bright lights fixed (not moving)approximately 10 degrees apart at an elevation about 45 degrees above the Eastern horizon. They were very bright, both with the same magnitude, nearly that of Jupiter. They looked beautiful, like a wide double start system. As I continued talking I saw one light begin to fade, then about 4 seconds later, the other faded also. They both became dark. They appeared to have angular dimention, as opposed to being like point star light sources. They also appeared to be very high. When they both faded away, none of the other stars in their vicinity faded. I then, about a minute later, saw two aircraft with navigation lights flying in the vicinity (about 20,000 feet)in differnt directions. I can only surmise that I was looking at two satelites in a fixed geosychros orbit. It was about two hours after local sunset. I'm thinking the objects faded when the earth's shadow engulfed them. I wanted to look at the same time tonite (01/04), buts its snowing and overcast.

((Second report from same source.))

Two bright fixed starlike lights dimmed and faded to darkness on a cloudless evening.

I was outside talking on the phone trying to tell my nephew in Ohio how to find Saturn from Jupiter in his telescope. The sky that night in Denver was clear, about 5:55 pm, 2 hours after sunset. As I was describing this I looked to the North, just East of the constellation Cassiopeia, about 45 degrees up from the Eastern horizon, saw two bright starlike objects. They looked beautiful. They looked like a set of double stars separated by 8-10 degrees. They were fixed, not moving. Both brightness magnitudes were as bright as Jupiter. They appeared to have angular width, not points of light. It's difficult to say, but I'd estimate altitude at 20,000 feet. As I was still talking, one of the lights started to dim. After 2-3 seconds, the other light also dimmed. Both dimmed to darkness. No other surrounding stars "dimmed". Following my observation there were two aircraft with navigation lights that flew into the vicinty. My best explanation is that they are two satelites in close proximity to each other in geosynchonos (fixed?) orbits. They dimmed when the earth's shadow enveloped them?

Posted 2002-01-11