A little after 5am on January 27-2012 I went outside with my dog. It was cold ( in the -20s ) and clear, no wind. The back of my home faces North and in the sky about 20-25 degrees above the horizon a star like object where there shouldn't have been a bright star. I am an amateur astronomer and noticed the object immediately. The constellation Cassiopeia was to my right and the star Capella to my left. In a 180 degree arc of my position the object was the brightest object in the sky, it was about twice the size of Capella.After observing for about 15 seconds the object blinked out much like a large spotlight would, fading out quickly.The strange part of it was that it took my eyes a second or so to adjust to the background as it should have been. It was as if I was looking through distorted glass and then everything became abruptly clear.The dog did nothing out of the ordinary, there was no sound,no smell and no time lost. I was not disoriented in any way.....just a feeling of astonishment.I am 66 years old, live close to an airport and this was definitely not an aircraft. It was not a Chinese lantern. It was not a planet, it was not a star. It was something I have never seen before.

Images

‹ ›