NUFORC Sighting 173931

Occurred: 2023-01-13 17:53 Local
Reported: 2023-01-14 16:59 Pacific
Duration: approx. 5 min.
No of observers: 1

Location: Bemidji, MN, USA

Shape: Light


Bright light just below Venus, just disappears

Walking home from work on a cold clear late dusk/early evening and was almost home, I glanced up in the sky and noticed a bright, stationary light like a star, just about a finger’s length down towards the horizon from Venus. (Later I verified that the star was indeed Venus, which was visible about 3 degrees above horizon, in W -SW direction.)

The bright light was very noticeable, since it was about the apparent brightness of the star above it (Venus). Then, a second or two later as I was gazing at the light, it just seemed to dim, then darken and then disappeared completely from view. It did not seem to move as it did this, it just disappeared. Thinking there might have been a passing cloud, though as I said I could not see any clouds in the sky. Curious to see if it would reappear, I watched for several minutes more (approx. 5 min.), but light did not reappear. Strangely enough, I could see the stars coming out, verifying to my sense that it was indeed cloudless. sky.

We live in a small city located in a rural area, so there is not a lot of light pollution. Other than it disappearing, it did not do anything else anomalous. I have seen other anomalous lights in the sky in our area, so am curious what this might have been. I have seen plenty of meteors, but this did not behave like I would expect a meteor to (unless a meteors coming in directly head-on towards a viewer’s position on Earth would look this way, or perhaps I was not looking up when the comet flew across the sky to the point I observed it at? I think I would have seen something of the comet’s tail, in that case)

Posted 2023-03-06

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