NUFORC Sighting 03226

Occurred: 1998-04-10 05:30 Local
Reported: 1998-04-10 00:00 Pacific
Duration: ~7 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Montreal (Canada), QC, Canada

Shape: Formation

2 round objects "faded in" view as if coming from high altitude, zoomed east ~5 sec, covered ~15 deg., then faded out.

April 10 1998, ~5:30 am (EDT), crystal clear sky, pre-dawn light, only the brightest stars still visible. Cassiopea was still very clearly visible on a pre-dawn blue as it is a bright constellation. Between the North Star and constellation Cassiopea, 2 round objects of apparent size of about a penny at 20 feet 'faded-in' view as if coming from a higher altitude and coming down low enough not to be masked by the blue of the sky. The fade-in effect lasted about a second. It looked like something coming out af a fog. There seemed to be no self illumination. The color of the two UFOs could have been the reflection of the dawn Sun on a dull metallic surface. Hard to tell, apparent size was small. The color did not look even, sort of brighter in the center and brownish orange outside. Again this is more of an impression, as the size was too small for objective description of surface features. The formation appeared unmoving at first, one object was higher in altitude angle by about 2 moon diameters, azimuth North East, moved as a formation about 40 moon diameters east (towards the approaching rising Sun, which at that altitude was probably already up) and faded-out in exactly the same fashion they had come in, although they faded-out while moving rapidly east and were unmoving at fade-in. About 5-7 seconds. I am an experienced observer as an amateur astronomer for 30 years, a pilot for a few years in my teens and a general observer of nature. I don't have perfect vision anymore, I have a slight astigmatism and I was wearing my glasses. I used to be a software engineer (without a finished degree) and I now study Physics at the University of Montreal (back to school, got to get that degree). I am a skeptic. Still am, but I used to feel comfortable. My field now is astronomical optics, and I know what a sun-dog looks like, a comet, Venus, flocks of birds, nebulae, a meteorite, a galaxy, an aurora, a weather baloon, Jupiter, an airplane at high, low and medium altitude in foggy or clear conditions from up there looking down or from down here looking up. In winter and in summer. I've watched satellites go by hundreds of times, once even Soyouz in full sunlight, not penumbra as we are used to see orbiting satellites in, but if full sunlight; it glared many times brighter than Venus, quite a sight for all of 2 or 3 seconds. My point is that I am an observer, a good one, and a skeptic. This week is the beginning of spring and I saw flocks of Canada Geese, big birds, flying high enough for the birds to be the same size as the two UFO's of this report, and they flap, you see more flapping than bird actually, and even at that altitude you can hear them yak like a chikcken coop. The UFOs I saw this morning didn't yak or flap. This I am sure of: it was not two birds or weather ballons, planes or speeding bullets, helicopters, gyrocopters or Venuses. It was not any known human machine or animal. Which leaves unknown natural phenomena, ETs and SDI style research. ETs being the most unlikely of course. This is important: the movements suggested very low mass. An eerie 'easyness' about the movements which does not match the apparent size at all is what is most bizarre. Like inertia is for others. They seemed to go about the sky as droplets of water on a very hot surface. At least that's the best comparaison I can make. If anybody is interested I can make a small movie on the computer, but after the exams, in May.

Posted 2000-12-02