NUFORC Sighting 91882

Occurred: 2012-08-16 23:50 Local
Reported: 2012-08-16 23:24 Pacific
Duration: 7 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Mandeville, LA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Changed Colo

White round light becoming bright/slightly larger, stopping, turning bluish/white and fading out.

Walking dog North up my street and looking into North/Northwestern sky at a set of stars that form a triangle when a round white light caught my eye (looked to be above 20,000 ft in sky) approaching the triangle of stars. The light was slightly brighter (about 15/20%) than the stars I was looking at and was heading west along the same line of sight. I stopped walking to watch this light thinking is was probably a plane which may have changed direction and began heading toward me (as I live on a direct flight path to an international airport) as the light became brighter (10/15%)and slightly larger, then stopped, then turned a sort of slight bluish/white and dimmed as if to blend in with the stars I was looking at and finally the light completely faded out (all within about 7 seconds). I stood there on my street watching this area to see if I could locate any blinking lights afterward for about a minute and saw absolutely nothing (no white/green or red bli! nking lights) that you would find on a plane had it turned it's main light off. There are some clouds out tonight but there were none in the area of the sky I was watching. Most commercial planes not heading to New Orleans airport will follow this flight path along I-12 toward Houston as I see them all the time; however, I've never witnessed one of them becoming larger and brighter, stopping, dimming to a different color and then fading out altogether. I can rule this out as a sighting of the ISS as I have witnessed this pass over my area several times and this light was nowhere near as large/bright nor was it coming from the proper direction (usually ISS passes from my NW to my SE). Lastly, I am very familiar with the star Sirius in the sky and this light was much farther North nor is Sirius in my visibility at the hour that I witnessed this light not to mention that Sirius is also visible for hours in my area when it is out (not 7 seconds). I have seen thousands of p! lanes flying over my area both AM & PM and never had witnessed! one wit h these unusual properties.

Posted 2012-08-19