NUFORC Sighting 124902

Occurred: 2015-10-02 20:15 Local
Reported: 2015-12-23 21:45 Pacific
Duration: 4-5 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Copperopolis, CA, USA

Shape: Light

On the evening of October 2, 2015, in Copperopolis, my wife and I went out in our yard to watch for shooting stars. It is so dark there that we can see planes, shooting stars, satellites, etc. I was watching this area above a tree in our backyard because it was basically the same area I saw the shooting star a bit earlier. As I was looking up I saw a big round light in the sky. I noticed it because it was bright, and bigger than anything we see in the night sky. It was in the sky north and slightly west from Copperopolis, in the distant sky.

I was trying to figure out what it was, and I noticed it wasn't moving. It looked as if it was a car headlight in the sky. If you took a dime and held it at arm’s length it would have been about half as big as the dime. It was much larger than a star, satellite, plane or shooting star, and brighter.

I looked away for a second and then looked back and it was gone. I looked thru the branches of the tree thinking maybe it had gone behind the tree, but I didn't see anything. As I continued to look, now with my wife's help, all of the sudden in the same place it appeared again. It was there for a several seconds and then it disappeared again. It was as if someone turned a light switch on, paused, and then off.

All of the sudden it came back on again. It seemed to be in the same location. It was definitely in the sky, well up in the sky. Then we saw a much smaller, dimmer light go on and off in the same location a couple times, and then the big light again. My wife said it looked kind of like it had a short fat tail, not like a shooting star tail or trail, but I did not notice that.

We continued to watch for it and saw it again a little higher in the sky than where we saw it before. It disappeared once more and appeared again a little bit further south from where it was. That was the last we saw of it. The whole thing lasted over 4-5 minutes before it disappeared.

This by far did not match anything I have ever seen before. It was much bigger, much brighter, did not have a specific path and stayed in a certain spot before moving. When it did move it wasn't in a straight line. It wasn't a helicopter, there was no noise, no flashing lights in any color like a plane or helicopter. I can honestly say I could not identify it.

Posted 2016-01-05