NUFORC Sighting 112857

Occurred: 2014-08-24 21:30 Local
Reported: 2014-08-24 23:57 Pacific
Duration: several hours
No of observers: 2

Location: Vancouver, WA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Emitted other objects

Weird star like light heading west from east, possibly a second one.

I was sitting around a campfire with a neighbor, when we saw something moving across the sky heading west from east. It had weird movements, as it would have semicircle movements at some points, straight line at others. Once it got close to directly overhead, it had a habit of just staying in place. It seemed like any of the stars, with nothing remarkable. I tried to record it with my iPhone, but not even the campfire was showing on the trees(light from the campfire. Trees were not on fire. Just making sure).

We were dumbstruck on what it could be. I tried to rationalize it every way I could. I'm an avid amateur astronomer and a total fan of physics in all it's forms. I could not find an explanation. I tried to think as it moved, if it could be a satellite. But to my knowledge, a satellite does not have sudden stops in movement. I then tried to think weather balloon. But a weather balloon wouldn't be visible even at the maximum height it could achieve at that time of night. I then figured maybe a weird hyper-velocity star. But to no avail, I could not rationalize anything about it.

I tried blurring my eyes to pin-point what kind of light source. At one point, I could pick out a total of three light sources from the one source of light. At one point, seemed as a light source came from it and faded away. Then another light source(one west and one SSW[being the second one]) came into view. Once the second one was visible, both came to a sort of full stop. They made movements, but never left the spot. They stayed there up until I grew tired of watching them (23:15), and are probably still there since I came inside. The movements even when they were relatively in one spot just seemed weird. It'd be weird semicircles and full circles, but not covering much distance. Sometimes would move different directions, but same area.

I've seen a couple of strange things in the past, but this is a new pattern I saw. Usually they disappear after a certain point. I've never seen anything move so fast and cover so much space, to just stay at one point. I have no explanation for what I saw.

Posted 2014-08-29

© 2023 National UFO Reporting Center. All rights reserved. Use or reproduction within any application without written consent is prohibited.