Yesterday morning, May 1, 2009, I stepped out on my back porch for a smoke, and as always, when it is clear, I look at the stars. The moon had already descended below the horizon, as I had seen it about an hour before, close to the horizon, but now, gone.

I looked up and swept my gaze, looking for any moving lights, which I like to track. Most of the time, when I see moving lights in the dark sky, I can identify them as typical aircraft, slowly moving from one part of the sky to another, and often hear a distant sound of the aircraft, though not always, if it is very far away.

It was approximately 3:00 AM, and I could see lots of stars and constellations. As I was doing this, in a part of the sky which was clear of visible stars, a light very like a star appeared and began to glow brighter than any other star I have ever seen! Within seconds, it went from invisible, to something like 5-10 times brighter than any other visible star that I have ever seen!

At this point, it began to move. The light only moved about an inch in my field of view, but it was not an illusion, I tracked the movement in relation to my garage roof, just below it. The light appeared just about due West of my position, and I could not tell if it was miles away or hundreds of miles away. It appeared to be over the city of Everett, but it might have been hundreds of miles offshore, I had no way of telling.

In any case, the whole event was over in approximately 5 seconds. A ball of light appeared from nowhere, became brighter as I watched, it moved a short distance, then it simply disappeared! It seemed to fade out, as it was moving, although I did not have the sense that it "shot off" too fast for me to see, but rather, that it "faded to invisibility".

I thought at the time, before it started moving that perhaps I had caught a supernova or something, but when it moved, I thought, "could that be airplane lights?". I've seen similar things that turned out to be airplane lights, but then it was obvious, if I kept looking, because the airplane lights would eventually travel across the sky, and they would also blink colored lights. When airplanes
"appear" to not move, I assume it is because they are headed directly toward my field of view, then I can see when they turn and the side colored lights are visible, and unless obstructed, they continue on until I lose them behind trees or something.

The event this morning was nothing like an airplane. It was WAY too bright, (although only for a few seconds), and it faded out in a clear, though dark, sky. It was also, in my opinion, too bright to have been aircraft lights, unless the aircraft were very close to me. At no time however, did I hear any aircraft noises above the night sounds and the calls of a few birds... (Yes, they do chirp at night!)

I don't know what it was, but by definition it was a "UFO", since it was unidentified. I waited for perhaps 10 or 15 minutes longer to see if any moving lights reappeared, but I did not see any other phenomenon after the light faded.

As in my last "sighting", also described in this blog on October 27, 2008, this was intriguing, but entirely too short! (I am waiting for something to report which lasts longer, so I could go grab a camera or wake up my wife to be a second witness.)