I saw something unusual last night

Last night I was standing behind my apartment and saw something that I've never read about before. I'm still not sure what to make of it, but perhaps posting about it will bring up some logical explanations. Or not.

It was between 1:05 AM and 1:10 AM. I made sure to glance at the clock when I saw what happened. The back of my apartment faces north, and what I spotted was north and slightly west from my location in Grand Haven, Michigan.

Okay, I'll try to describe what I saw the best I can. Imagine if you saw the brightest star in the sky falling toward the horizon. But rather than streaking down it had more of a strobe effect. So it was a series of bright dots, one right after the other, progressing VERY quickly from the sky to the horizon. It was, as I mentioned, almost like a strobe effect. I know it wasn't a meteor or "shooting star" because I've seen those. What I saw had NO tail, no streak, nothing like that. And I know it wasn't a satellite because this was moving FAST, not the slow steady and straight way a satellite moves. It started at about a 45 degree angle above the horizon and went straight down to behind some trees that were obstructing my view. And the distance away from me would be hard to determine. The time it took for this to happen each time was probably, at most, less than a second.

I should mention that the trees only became an issue at the end of what I saw. The start of it was a clear line of sight.

So, to review... I bright dot falling straight down, without a streak, and looking more like a strobe effect rather than any typical atmospheric entry that has a heat trail. I think I saw 6 or 7 dots as it fell...meaning the strobe effect (I wish I had a better way to describe that).

I didn't hear anything unusual. I did stand out there for a while to see if anything else would occur. But no luck.

Any ideas?

Here is an animation I just put together to demonstrate what I am trying to describe.

reply to post by John_Q_Llama


Well your description matches what I have seen on several occasions over the UK. However there was one time when the strobe I saw did have a trail. It was more of a solid line though as the object was moving very fast, the line was blue in color and only stayed there for a split second after the object was out of sight.

I would sure like to find some more information on these objects. Good luck on your search.

The animation is pretty much what I have seen on a few other occasions.

reply to post by John_Q_Llama


Out west, I have seen many falling stars that do not leave a trail. They look exactly like what you described and animated. More than likely, you saw a falling star.

reply to post by psycho81


psycho81, thanks for your input. I'm glad to hear that someone else has seen this type of thing.

reply to post by kidflash2008


kidflash, that's good to know. I wonder what type of circumstances would make a meteor or falling debris look that way. Maybe once it is out of the atmosphere the tail is gone? What struck me as odd about what I saw was the strobe-like effect. I just assumed that any falling object would create a path that the eye would see as solid rather than dotted. Plus this thing had a white color and not the orange/yellow color I've come to associate with "shooting stars".

reply to post by John_Q_Llama


Sometimes the falling stars look like a star darting across the sky. I do not know why they all wouldn't leave a tail, but I have seen many (the West is very clear at night), and most did not have a tail. The strobe effect could be caused by the meteor spinning while it is darting across the sky.

reply to post by kidflash2008


Oh yeah, good point. If the material was reflective on only a portion of the surface, then it would seem to flash.

One other thing that made this different for me, compared to past personal experiences and sightings, is how it fell straight down. I've not seen anything do that before. I'm not disagreeing with you however. The meteorite explanation is definitely the one that most easily seems to satisfy what I saw. But I still can't help wondering if it was something else.

Did you know the star actually fell, billions of years ago, and you just now are seeing the light from that?