NUFORC Sighting 166571

Occurred: 2022-02-04 18:11 Local
Reported: 2022-02-04 19:55 Pacific
Duration: 5 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Contreras, NM, USA
Location details: I-25 Northbound Mile Marker 173

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

Light moving L to R in sky above mountains, NNE of my location. After a short bit it just vanished.

My wife and I were driving NB on I-25 near Contreras, NM. I noticed a white light at about 020 relative position from my direction of travel. It was at about 20 degrees above the horizon and above the mountains to the NE. I thought it to be a small plane, but there were no flashing lights, just a steady white light. I felt my windshield and distance might be why I saw no flashing lights. My wife noticed it about five minutes after I first saw it. She thought it might be an early evening star, but as she started asking me about it, it just vanished. We both felt it was very odd and we could still make out the mountains, so we know it didn’t go behind them.
It seemed to bright and slow to have been a distant satellite, which we see a lot of from our home in Upper Michigan.

It may be nothing, but it was odd enough for me to report, just in case there are other reports from this time period or a similar described sighting. I was driving, so I was unable to take a picture. It seemed normal up to the moment it disappeared.

Posted 2022-03-04