Something over Virginia eve of 10/11/2012

Was on the porch with my wife, we were talking and I looked up.
My front porch faces SW, so I was looking SW and angled up.

I noticed a bright star.. First I thought it was a satellite since I've seen sats cross the skies, but when I see sats they are bright dots and they travel in my view for about 3 seconds and for a brief moment the sats get even brighter for about 3 seconds and the view of the sat is totally gone. Well that's been my experience with sats... And they (sats) travel from se to nw always, well from my view that is.

But this thing tonight was traveling from sw towards ne and it never got brighter. Nor did I see any flickering of lights with my eye, but I did see red lights in the camera view on my samsung 3, plus was quick to zoom in..
Anyway, it didn’t move like normal planes, and I live in a military community.. All kinds of planes and jets and helos all the time... My wife thought it was a flare, but I say no...

Anyway what do you think? Straight from my droid to pc to youtube...

My deep apologies with the camera movement, it was chilly so I had chill shakes….

So this thing from **eye perspective**.
1. No blinking lights or any color.
2. Traveling from sw direction towards ne.
3. This object made left to right and right to left movements (numerous times) and then it would continue straight. (again I apologize for the movement as its hard to prove left right movement. Jeesh my bad guys..)
4. There was 4 planes in the sky at the time that I could see with my eye along with this object, but the planes did not act or look like this object, nor did this object look like the other planes in the sky, this thing was the odd ball out in a sky with 4 planes...
5. Then it was gone…

reply to post by syrinx2112


Might be that asteroid people are talking about on here.

Just seen something similar over Volk Field in Camp Douglas, Wi. Was stationary the whole time i was outside though. Thought maybe it was a helicopter.

I know that the spacestation flew over the other nite and was visible...
Here's a link that you can check to see when the next time it or other Sateilites will be flying over your area.
Source

Obviously couldn't tell from video what it was but as excited as you and the other lady sounded, I'm sure it was something unusual. Who knows what it was, you said it shifted positions a couple of times? Quickly or gradually?

In you opinion, was it piloted or could it have been something natural?

reply to post by SpaceCowboy78

The movement of the object was rapid.. Rapid to the left and rapid to the right then it would travel straight, and then arc to the right some then go straight, and then move rapidly left and to the right again...

I find you strange as my old handle on many sites was syrinx.

Its a spinal problem and a name from a science fiction book...strange then




www.youtube.com...

reply to post by tekeen

Relax dude. I'm one big Rush fan, that's all..

Album 2112 song temples of syrinx.

Plus I have no idea what you wrote or where it was going..

UPDATE: Confirmed to be ISS:

ISS History for 23188

In Williamsburg, Virginia here and I saw the same thing last Thursday evening around 1900 or so. I had just eaten dinner and was outside for a smoke afterwards and noticed a very large, bright object moving towards the NE. Relative to me, it had already passed zenith (slightly north on the celestial sphere) and was moving down towards the NNE horizon.

My first thought was regular satellite, I look for them all the time and like to follow them across, but this was much brighter. My second thought was iridium flare, I love catching those when I take the time to look up the schedule, but it lasted much longer than a flare would, it was constant magnitude. I would equate the magnitude as the ISS or when I saw MIR years ago. I even considered looking up the ISS orbit to see if it was crossing, but never did. It had no other lights that I saw (never saw the red, perhaps that was due to your digital zoom device, not sure) but definitely no other lights visible to the naked eye. I can also say it was definitely not an aircraft.

What was odd is that normally when I track satellites they are in view quickly, and moving very fast, and then gone. This object didn't appear to change directions or arcs, as you described (I was late viewing, perhaps it had straightened out) but it did seem to change speed a couple times. I was thinking that I actually could have ran inside and grabbed my DSLR and gotten someone else to come take a look before it disappeared behind the trees, and I regret not doing so. When it finally did go behind my neighbor's large oak, it seemed I could still move around and see it in the same position for a while longer, like it slowed down very much before dropping below the horizon.

Anyways, I'll still be outside keeping my eyes open and up.

Singe2112

PS: Rush fan here too.

Originally posted by Singe2112
UPDATE: Confirmed to be ISS:

ISS History for 23188

In Williamsburg, Virginia here and I saw the same thing last Thursday evening around 1900 or so. I had just eaten dinner and was outside for a smoke afterwards and noticed a very large, bright object moving towards the NE. Relative to me, it had already passed zenith (slightly north on the celestial sphere) and was moving down towards the NNE horizon.

My first thought was regular satellite, I look for them all the time and like to follow them across, but this was much brighter. My second thought was iridium flare, I love catching those when I take the time to look up the schedule, but it lasted much longer than a flare would, it was constant magnitude. I would equate the magnitude as the ISS or when I saw MIR years ago. I even considered looking up the ISS orbit to see if it was crossing, but never did. It had no other lights that I saw (never saw the red, perhaps that was due to your digital zoom device, not sure) but definitely no other lights visible to the naked eye. I can also say it was definitely not an aircraft.

What was odd is that normally when I track satellites they are in view quickly, and moving very fast, and then gone. This object didn't appear to change directions or arcs, as you described (I was late viewing, perhaps it had straightened out) but it did seem to change speed a couple times. I was thinking that I actually could have ran inside and grabbed my DSLR and gotten someone else to come take a look before it disappeared behind the trees, and I regret not doing so. When it finally did go behind my neighbor's large oak, it seemed I could still move around and see it in the same position for a while longer, like it slowed down very much before dropping below the horizon.

Anyways, I'll still be outside keeping my eyes open and up.

Singe2112

PS: Rush fan here too.

edit on 16-10-2012 by Singe2112 because: Added PS

edit on 16-10-2012 by Singe2112 because: Link to ISS History

Cool, thanks... I have seen ISS as well, as it's different than normal sat views in the clear night sky...

I really can't prove it due to my movement/shaking in the video, this object veered from a straight line direction, the object did not only go straight, it veered right, left.. Again folks, I feel such like a pee-pee right now, as when I see videos with movement/shaking, I always say to myself, why is it so hard to stay still.. That's what I get I guess...

The object was traveling straight, then the object veered right, then the object would veer back to its original straight position, then the object would veer left and periodically repeat this type movement. That's what threw me, it was the veering itself, the sporadic movement, it basically very much noticeably left the straight line course. There is a point in the video where you see the peek of my house and I was steady for a moment and you can see the object veer left and right. I was steady as I put my elbows against my side ribs and this seemed to work. I then moved again as I had to walk with the object... Hope you can see my house peek (gable) and do notice the object move sporadically...