Strange Sighting

Other planes cross the same path going to Tampa and they don't have their landing lights on yet.

Wasn't referring to landing lights, of course, nothing saying some pilot couldn't have turned them on or off for some reason or another...though I think the satellite and reflection idea is pretty sound too, and would explain the visible/not visible aspect...

Here's a star chart for the Cosmos 1437 rocket, which seems to be a close fit.
Magnitude = 4.2 , Starts 22:04:17 N, Ends 22:06:54 SE.

From Seattle proper, it should be visible well past Ursa Minor, but that might vary with a different location.

Originally posted by eaglewingz
From Seattle proper, it should be visible well past Ursa Minor, but that might vary with a different location.

EXCELLENT!

Now this picture makes A LOT of sense. Same direction of flight and the dashed line shows where the shadow would have kicked in and the object winked out (no sun reflection).

My thanks to everyone though. I knew we had some smart, thoughtful people here. I kind of like this thread where something gets figured out (or absolute best guess with science) rather than pure speculation.

Originally posted by Gazrok
It could have been a military plane. I live pretty close to MacDill AFB here in FL, and I see extremely high flying military planes all the time...

I saw a sweet view of an F16, very low altitude, head towards St. Pete Clearwater Airport, then bank sharply left and head back...just on my lunch break today. Very nice.

Again though, probably just a military plane, and at such altitudes, you rarely hear any kind of jet noise of course, on the ground.

I live in the same area, and have seen some pretty amazing, but explainable, sightings. I've seen some F-16s dancing out there in the sky, along with an entire assortment of military aircraft.

I actually remember going inside part of the base as a kid with my father, who was working for Xerox, and being amazed at such incredible planes.

Anyway, even though it seems that the sighting has been identified and explained, I just thought I'd share that, adding also that I had seen something similar about three nights ago. Most likely a satellite as well though..