July 18, 2009Saturday, 6:31 a.m.Object observed from 0631 to 0636 hours CDST.I have filed previous reports and will only do so if what I witness is extraordinary, as I feel this is. I am hoping someone else saw this.I woke early and at 6:30 a.m. I let the dogs out and checked the rain gauge, as it had rained shortly before. The sun was moments away from inching over the Eastern horizon. The sky was light blue and bright withthe early morning sun. We had just received a 1/2 inch rain, so there were storm cloud banks to my south, same to the west and a few puffy clouds above. That is when I noticed a bright light slightly to my SW at approx.80 degrees AGL. This light couldn't be Venus, as Venus and Mars are "morning stars" now, rising in the East. Jupiter was about 20-25 degrees above the southwest horizon and not visible. Whatever this was, it was almost directly overhead.I retrieved my binoculars, which were adjusted for viewing stars at night(infinite). I had to re-adjust my binocs for closer viewing, in order to focus on this bright object. The object appeared to be a perfectly round, white glowing disk, at least 3 times the size of Venus at it's closest and brightest, if not larger. It looked like a huge spotlight, high up in the sky. From my perspective and with the naked eye, it was the size of a .22 pellet. With 7x35mm binoculars it appeared the size of a very large pea. No extraneous lights observed. I lost sight of the object when it was obscured by clouds. As the clouds drifted away, the object was gone.No sound, no discernible movement, constant illumination (bright white).I could not estimate the altitude of the object other than to say that it was well above the clouds. If I had to guess, I would say at least 50,000 ft. My exact thoughts at the time, "Oh, crap." I am enclosing a photo I took moments after the object disappeared. I havedrawn in a representation of how the object appeared to the naked eye. The only reason as to why I did not attempt to take a photo of the object when I saw it, was that I "knew" the object would disappear as soon as I took my eyes off of it.

Images

‹ ›