NUFORC Sighting 36233

Occurred: 2004-04-11 00:12 Local
Reported: 2004-04-11 11:55 Pacific
Duration: 15-20 secs
No of observers: 1

Location: Scottsdale, AZ, USA

Shape: Formation
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby

the lights were in formation and blinked out one at a time.

at 0012 hrs on sunday april 11 i went out in my backyard to have a smoke. i'm always looking up at the sky at night because of an interest in astronomy since childhood. something was out of place however in the sky. looking north at 30-35 degrees above the horizon i noticed two lights (white) that were moving in formation and appeared to be traveling southeast by east. their brightness was that of a large satellite or an average size star. at an arms length the formation had about 1" seperation and also at arms length traversed 6 to 9" in the sky. what really made me think something strange was happening was that the trailing or lower light started to twinkle and then went out. the leading or higher light continued to move for another 2 to 3 secs before just blinking out. there was a passenger jet that had taken off from sky harbor airport that was also in the north sky about 2000-3000 ft. and about 1 mile distant. it was heading east and began a slow turn to the north. it is when it first started its turn that the lights i was observing disappeared one by one. i never heard any noise and if i were to guess at a distance for the lights i would say they were 5 to 7 miles. the entire event lasted only 15 to 20 seconds.

Posted 2004-04-27