My roommate and I can't be the only ones who saw this about a hour ago (6pm local time) but there were 8-10 lights that moved across the sky from the WNW to ESE direction.
When one was about 12 o'clock high, a new one was rising above the tree line. When they past over head, they moved slower and slower and got more faint, like they were either going up in the atmosphere/dying out. Also, it took about 30-45 seconds for them to move across the sky. I wasn't really counting
There was increased air traffic here in the no-fly zone in the DC area of MD as well.
I have been watching the local news, searching yahoo, facebook, google, cnn, the local news pages, but nothing.
Any one hear anything else? I tried to get them on my digigal camera but it was WAY too dark to film any video. I couldn't even get my hand to show up on camera.
Originally posted by ZeruelMy roommate and I can't be the only ones who saw this about a hour ago (6pm local time) but there were 8-10 lights that moved across the sky from the WNW to ESE direction.
When one was about 12 o'clock high, a new one was rising above the tree line. When they past over head, they moved slower and slower and got more faint, like they were either going up in the atmosphere/dying out. Also, it took about 30-45 seconds for them to move across the sky. I wasn't really counting
Just curious: Did they "come back down" after the 12 o'clock fading, or did they vanish up at the apogee?
Originally posted by ZeruelMy roommate and I can't be the only ones who saw this about a hour ago (6pm local time) but there were 8-10 lights that moved across the sky from the WNW to ESE direction.
When one was about 12 o'clock high, a new one was rising above the tree line. When they past over head, they moved slower and slower and got more faint, like they were either going up in the atmosphere/dying out. Also, it took about 30-45 seconds for them to move across the sky. I wasn't really counting
Just curious: Did they "come back down" after the 12 o'clock fading, or did they vanish up at the apogee?
They eventually vanished. That's how I noticed them. I walked out of my house (faces south) and I love to look up at the stars. I noticed one red light and was like "Whoa, MARS!" and then noticed another next to it. And they both were twinkling.
So, two red stars like that, so bright? And then I noticed the other ones moving across the sky and I started freaking out and asked my roommate to come outside to make sure I wasn't seeing things.
More context: The lights did look like fast moving stars, not fireballs or anything huge.
Is it possible that what you saw were satellites roaming the earth? When I go camping I enjoy looking out at the stars at nighttime because you can just see so many of those darn things that you can't see due to city lighting. Often times if you are paying attention you will see satellites in orbit.
When you can see the satellites with the naked eye they do look like fast moving stars in the sky. Not sure how lit up your area is at nighttime...or for that matter how lit up you were ;-) just thought I'd throw that in as a possibility.
I live in NoVA and they've been calling for meteor showers for some time the past few days. Barring some deep space cosmic shenanigans what's light output has just now reached us...
"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Frown and the world laughs at you." -Me.
I live like 14 miles north of the US Capitol. There is A LOT of light pollution in the night sky.
Also, I have seen meteor showers. These lights didn't leave a streak, they just looked like fast moving twinkling lights. No streaks. They moved across the sky for about 30-45 seconds then hung in the air and faded away.
I'm voting for military aircraft doing something "innnnnteresting". The speed & direction you're describing sounds like that sort of thing to me. Interesting question.
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Emma's post reminds me - We get strange stuff like this regularly out of Vandenberg Air Force base. Our local rumor-mill website always has "Is Vandenberg testing something today/tonight?" posts. Of course, the people who post there are f'n nuts to begin with, so....
I'm certain that VAFB reserves some of the stranger stuff for when the marine layer rolls in. They actually have an observatory near my work's transmitter site (4000+ ft in the Santa Ynez mountains) so they can monitor launches as they pass through the cloud cover.
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