NUFORC Sighting 71861

Occurred: 2009-08-24 03:45 Local
Reported: 2009-08-25 03:59 Pacific
Duration: 2 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Neenah, WI, USA

Shape: Other

2 stars moving parallel

I walk to work every morning at around 3:45AM. It is approximately half a mile walk.

I always look up on a clear morning to find a shooting star or plane. I also watch for the ISS when scheduled. On Aug. 24 the ISS was scheduled to appear in the NW at 4:21AM.

As I was leaving my house walking north I noticed a group of 3 stars similar to Orion’s belt but this was near the north star in the sky approximately 45 degrees N in the sky. The Orion constellation at this time should be in the lower ESE sky.

Because I was walking all the stars appear to be moving but of coarse it is due to my movement. So I stopped walking and noticed 2 of the 3 stars moving east in a parallel formation. As they moved easterly they stayed the same distance from each other (about the same distance from each other as the Orion’s belt) and became dimmer until I could no longer see them approximately 20 degrees NE. Their brightness resembled a medium size star when first noticed. Not as bright as the ISS.

When the ISS appeared later in the morning it was lower in the sky (about 20 degrees) and brighter than the stars I had seen earlier but at about the same speed in the same direction.

They did not appear to be planes. There wasn’t any flashing lights. Just a steady glow as a medium star. I did see a plane in the sky but it was approximately 80 degrees E in the sky and traveling E in a much slower speed with a red flashing light. I also saw a shooting star later in my walk approximately 70 degrees W in the sky lasting only a second.

Posted 2009-08-27