NUFORC Sighting 36776

Occurred: 2004-05-07 21:15 Local
Reported: 2004-05-07 21:14 Pacific
Duration: 1 minute
No of observers: 1

Location: New Orleans, LA, USA

Shape: Light

Tonight at 9:10pm central time, I took my dogs outside. While waiting, I looked to the northwest and noticed a satellite heading southward. I moved around in the yard quite a bit to keep the satellite, Cosmos Rocket 1943 or 1697, in my view and I watched it until I could no longer see it.

I continued to watch the sky to the west. At 9:15pm, I saw a brief pulse of white light out of the corner of my eye which made me turn my head to the right slightly. About 60 degrees west, I saw the pinpoint of light pulse one time for approx. ½ second, then go out, then reappear 3 seconds later a tiny bit further to the northwest, stay lit for ½ second , then go out again. I watched this process for approx. one minute until I could no longer see it due to trees blocking the view. The object was heading northwestward. The color of the light did not change and was only visible when it would pulse. The duration of the pulses of light were always ½ a second long, but duration between pulses ranged anywhere from 2 to 7 seconds. The magnitude of the pulse was that of an average star, well below that of Venus, which was clearly visible to me in the western sky. I observed 2 aircraft heading eastward and was able to determine that the pulses of light were not like the aircraft in anyway. I checked Heavens Above.com and there were no satellites at this time heading northwest. The object covered ¼ of the sky in about one minute.

Posted 2004-05-10