NUFORC Sighting 10378

Occurred: 1999-10-17 07:55 Local
Reported: 1999-10-29 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 5 min approx.
No of observers: 3

Location: Victoria (Canada), BC, Canada

Shape: Teardrop

Very bright light observed in eastern sky. After watching for several minutes determined it was moving away from us.

At approxiametely 07:55 a friend came into my house and told me our buddy was outside looking at a bright light in the sky. I saw him standing on the street in front of my house looking east. When I joined him I saw a very bright object/light which appeared stationary low down in the eastern sky. Only by standing where the roof of a house was visible beside it could we see that it was moving. I ran inside and got my camera, a nikkon 35mm and slowly took 8 pictures using different f stop settings. The last picture should have shown the light just disappearing behind the roof of a neighbors house. When I had the pictures developed later that day there was nothing visible in the sky on any of them. I was using a 200 mm telephoto lens and the light was very bright. I do not know why it did not show up although I am by no means a great photographer. I noticed all the pictures showed a sky which appears overcast when in fact it was not. To the naked eye the object appeared out of round. Through the lens of the camera it appeared tear drop shaped with two points instead of a rounded head and a pointed trailing end. When I turned away after it was out of sight I clearly saw the planet Venus visible about 45% to the right or south of this observation. The sky was clear blue and no stars were visible. My two friends had noticed this light as they left a nearby hockey arena and said they watched it on the drive over to my house.

Posted 2000-12-02