NUFORC Sighting 159394

Occurred: 2020-09-17 20:00 Local
Reported: 2020-09-17 08:36 Pacific
Duration: 2 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Walnut Creek, CA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Aircraft nearby

Ball of bright, white light 4-5x larger than a star tracks accross the sky for 2 minutes and shimmers out and vanishes before horizon

My wife and I go on a half mile walk around our neighborhood every night after dinner. As we finished our walk and were returning to our driveway around 8:15 PM, I am enjoying the view of the stars for the first time in weeks, as there has been terrible smoke cover for over a month due to the wildfires. As I'm looking south at the stars, I noticed one of these stars is moving across the sky. It looked JUST like a star, very bright, white light; however, it was 4-5x larger than a star typically looks. We observed carefully as it tracked overhead for 2-3 minutes; there were definitely no flashing lights or any changes in the brightness; however, it did appear to veer from side to side changing course several times (although this could have been imagined, I don't know for sure). About 75% accross the sky towards the opposite horizon, the light begins to shimmer into more of a reflection, and slowly vanishes in clear view, long before reaching the horizon. While! I am not saying that this was 100% a UFO, I am confident it was NOT an aircraft, missile, or satellite. It had no flashing lights, red or white; it made no noise, and was WAY too high to be a helicopter. It was dead quiet out, and if it was a plane, we can always hear their engines several seconds late. I will say that I do have a personal interest in UFOs, so it may be a confirmation bias; but at the same time, it was a very strange light that I've never seen anything like before, and did look very similar to other videos I've seen that made a strong case for being a true unidentified flying object.

When checking off Characteristis below, this triggered a memory; about 2 minutes before seeing this light, i noticed an airplane with solid, yellow lights on the bottom in a triangular shape. I made note of this to my wife as it seemed odd to see a plane in flight with solid illumination lights on the bottom like this, in addition to their flashing red/white traffic lights. I am not sure if this is related or not but figured I should mention. It was travelling in the same direction as the ball of light, about 1-2 minutes before the ball of light was seen. This plane did not make a noise either (I guess we can hear planes if they are low enough/increasing elevataion? Must've been at cruising altitude but strange to see it close enough to make out these details and not hear it).

Posted 2020-11-05