high altitude flyover?


Message posted by anonymous on June 30, 2011 at 5:32:54 PST:

I was outside @ about 3:35 AM in NW Las Vegas trying to ID a star and a planet. The star is Fomalhaut, the planet Jupiter. As I was outside scanning the ecliptic going from what I think was Mars, to Jupiter and then to Fomalhaut, I saw two objects approaching Fomalhaut from the North (my right).
As they 'transited' the star they became momentarily bright, as if they were reflecting angular sunlight, and then they dimmed again, heading South. They seemed to be moving relatively slowly as they took at least ninety seconds to cover about 50 degrees of arc. They seemed to be in formation the whole time --one almost straight ahead of the other but slightly offset. I lost them in the light pollution from the strip.
I'm not an Area 51 enthusiast but I surfed this site when I moved here in the winter. After I lost sight of the aircraft I came in and looked online and of course - almost a new moon. In case you're wondering I'll add that if I hadn't been looking at the right spot at the right moment I never would've seen them.
What possessed me to post here is the apparent slow speed at which they crossed the sky - it seemed like whatever they were they were at a very high altitude, for what that's worth. Is it possible I saw something out of the ordinary?


Replies:



[ Discussion Forum Index ] [ FAQ ]