NUFORC Sighting 69247

Occurred: 1963-08-10 22:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2009-03-17 20:40 Pacific
Duration: 30 minutes
No of observers: 5

Location: Fresno, CA, USA

Shape: Other

An apparent star in the night sky which exhibited anomalous behavior

I had this experience as an 11 or 12 year old child, but I have always remembered it precisely. I have long thought that I should submit a record of this to someone who would add it to the data on this topic, and I am finally doing it.

Let me preface by saying that through the years, I have observed several objects that people who were with me at the time thought were UFO’s, but I knew they weren’t because I knew what they were. One was a weather balloon, one a jetliner near the airport (when they have their landing light on at sunset, it is a striking sight), one a meteor close enough to hear the roar and light up the night sky and one a military missile in an inexplicable location. However, the one sighting I can’t explain was the least visually striking. I say all this to demonstrate that I have a decent amount of knowledge in explaining explainable sightings.

One soft summer night which I believe was 1963, but may possibly have been 1962, my father, my three sisters and I went out on the patio to watch the Perseid meteor shower. It was sometime in August. We had a rollaway bed out there, and we all lay down on it sideways and side by side with each other. We scanned the sky for shooting stars, which appeared at the rate of about one per minute.

One of my sisters said, “look, two stars are colliding!” We all looked where she indicated, and indeed, you could see two stars moving toward each other. As we watched, they did, in fact, meet and merge into one, only to separate again after a few seconds. After that, everyone else went back to looking for shooting stars, but I kept observing this phenomenon. After a couple of minutes, I realized that only one of the two stars was in motion. It kept moving on its steady path, and I kept watching.

My first thought was that it was a satellite. Some months earlier, forewarned by a news broadcast, we had gone out to watch one of the early manmade satellites pass overhead. It looked just like a moving star. I suppose it reflected light from the sun, which enabled us to see it. It had a steady progression across the sky and kept a fairly steady level of brightness. After ten minutes or so, I realized it couldn’t be an orbiting satellite. I noticed its apparent path across the sky was noticeably slowing. I kept watching, and the next thing I noticed was that it was dimming. I kept watching for perhaps half an hour, and it gradually slowed until it was essentially motionless in the sky, and it gradually dimmed until finally, it slowly became impossible to make out. At first sight, it had the appearance of a medium to medium bright star.

It was clearly not a satellite or a meteor. The only scenario I’ve ever been able to think of that matches my observation is that of a space ship in the process of leaving Earth’s orbit. In 1963, we had no space ships which left Earth’s orbit. What I saw was truly an unexplained flying object.

I would be glad to answer any questions concerning this.

NUFORC Note:

Source of report indicates that the date of the incident is approximate. PD

Posted 2009-03-19