NUFORC Sighting 167711

Occurred: 2022-03-09 06:10 Local
Reported: 2022-04-30 16:02 Pacific
Duration: 180 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Boulder Valley, MT, USA
Location details: Camera at Elevation 4790 ft, 46.24 °N, 112.13 °W pointing Northeast

Shape: Oval
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Emitted beams

Very unusual light appeared above mountain ridge, stabilized then continued slowly up and out of camera view

Our weather live stream camera (plus a second camera that was recording timelapse footage) caught a large oval light, northeast across the Boulder Valley from our location, rising slowly from the ridge of the Elkhorn Mountains and up, until out of the camera view.
The timestamp from the camera footage indicates first appearance at 6:10am on Tuesday March 9th, 2022, which was 500 seconds after the camera started recording, completely disappearing before 6:14am. The sun hadn't yet come over the horizon, so the light showed up quite brightly in the left 1/3 of the sky, above the mountain ridge, which is approx 12 miles from our location.
The light orb moved very slowly; there was no way it was a jet or plane crossing at high altitude. We first thought it was a searchlight from a search and rescue helicopter. It initially seems to blink and 'tumble', then disappears momentarily before continuing. It seemed to maintain an upward trajectory. It took 180 seconds (3 minutes), from when it first blinked into view before it eventually disappeared from camera view. I don't know if it originated from the ridge, or from beyond the ridge, or if it was actually high in the atmosphere and only became visible as it got closer to our location.
This light/object appeared to be headed 'up', but if it was actually on a lateral trajectory is was travelling from Northeast to Southwest - this rules out the ISS or any other equatorial satellites. I submitted an email and the video links to NOAA and asked if it could possibly be a polar weather satellite, but they have not responded even yet, six weeks later. So I assume it isn't one of theirs??
I am an amateur weather nerd and maintain two cameras pointed Northeast to obtain weather footage that I upload to YouTube. There are two videos on my YouTube account (hunt1803) that document this sighting.
One is Youtube's archive of the 12 hour livestream, recording the sighting in real time. The sighting starts at 500 seconds into the video, then continues for 180 seconds before disappearing. The other is a time lapse recording of event, taken at 1 frame every 6 seconds, so the light naturally appears as a streak near the beginning.
In real time, the light initially blinks on, get brighter, then seems to disappear in haze before reappearing and starting its slow climb.
I've attached shortened clips that we managed to take from YouTube's archive, but after processing the quality is VERY POOR.
Much better quality for both videos is available on the YouTube account. If you are able, for the real time recording go directly to the livestream archive on YouTube, which I've cued to start just before the light appears, at: https://youtu.Be/o-um9-meb0u?T=500
The full, much higher quality time lapsed video is at https://youtu.Be/umharf3lthm
I would be interested in finding out if anyone else saw this, or if it matches a schedule for launching some kind of weather balloon, or military balloon, or what??

Posted 2022-05-31