Posted: August 12, 2008
Date: August 6, 2008
Time: Approx: 9:30 p.m.
Hi, Brian, I've been sitting out on the patio in my back yard, facing north, this evening. After a hard day, I thought it might be nice to sit and enjoy a small pot of tea as the air cools and the night sets in. I first went out at twilight, around 9:30. I have a good view of the eastern and northern sky. Portions of the western sky are blocked by trees. My house blocks the southern sky. Directly overhead was one of the bright stars of the constellation Draco, the first star in my field of view bright enough to be visible. It was still too bright out for other stars to be visible. As I relaxed and watched the sky, I thought I saw a flash or twinkle in the northern sky, almost due north, about 40 degrees up. Perhaps the sun glinting off a satellite, I thought, or maybe the navigation lights of a high-altitude jet aircraft crossing the country. Intrigued, I scanned for signs of an aircraft. About half a minute later, I saw it again, in exactly the same place. That ruled out a plane a satellite or, at least, the same plane or satellite, but what are the chances of two of either reaching that same spot within half a minute? Could be my eyes playing a trick on me, can't rule that out. Half a minute or so later, another flash or twinkle. A few minutes later, same thing. Always in exactly the same spot, near as I could tell.
I got distracted for awhile by some things in the yard and inside the house, but was back watching the sky a little before 10:00. By that time, it's dark enough that I could make out more stars. There was no star visible where I saw the twinkle. There would be a couple of stars in the constellation Camelopardalis that would be visible in that area most nights, but it's still too light out to see any stars around there at 10:00. Toward the northeast, one of the brighter stars of Cassiopeia was now visible. Further east, I saw a light aircraft with flashing navigation lights flying level, headed due west. I watched the small plane cruise through the sky, noticing that there's another small plane flying a parallel path to the south. I figure one of them, probably the slower and more southerly one, is Saskatoon's police patrol plane, which is out most nights. The more northerly plane approached the part of the sky where I saw the strange twinkling earlier. Suddenly there was another flash of light from the same spot as before, but this time it was much brighter. The shape was not like a twinkling star, but more like a line or thin cylinder or dumbbell kind of shape, consisting of two very bright twinkly points, shining momentarily like sparklers on a birthday cake, with a straight, thin bright or shiny line joining them. The two bright points were maybe three degrees apart, about the width of my little finger at arm's length. The phenomenon lasted only a fraction of a second, maybe an eighth to a quarter of a second at most, but long enough that it was unmistakable. It made me jump. I watched the sky for several minutes, but did not see any other twinkles or flashes. Frankly, the whole episode began creeping me out once the bright flash occurred, and I packed up my tea and lawn chair and came into the house by about 10:15.
For what it's worth, nights when I work late in my office, which has a north-facing window, I am sometimes distracted by flashes of light coming from that part of the sky. I've always assumed it was just my eyes playing tricks on me or, more likely, the sides of my eyeglasses reflecting various light sources within my office. That is still the most plausible explanation, but now I'm not so sure. By the way, there were no sources of light outside that could have caused reflections in my glasses outside this evening. What I saw in the sky definitely was really there.
If I'm feeling less creeped out, in a little while, I might go set up my camera on a tripod just to go shoot that area of the sky. Perhaps if I'm lucky, I might get a shot of that phenomenon.
Thank you to the witness for the report.
Brian Vike, Director HBCC UFO Research and host of the Vike Report UFO Eyewitness radio show. email: hbccufo@telus.net Website: http://www.hbccufo.org http://www.brianvike.com, http://www.hbccufo.com, http://www.hbccufo.net HBCC UFO Research International: http://www.hbccufointernational.org/
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