I know it's not for Tebow

Dannyalcatraz · Jan 15, 2012

Tonight- Jan 14, 2012- I looked at the northern sky and spotted something large and extraordinarily bright just a bit above the artificial horizon of trees & buildings here in the Dallas/FW metroplex. At first, I thought it was an aircraft, but it did not move when I first spotted it, nor had it moved a couple hours later when I looked for it again. It also didn't have any other color lights. Just a steady yellow-white.

Is there some kind of nifty event in the skies that I just haven't heard about? Some kind of atmospheric lending effect on a planet?

Agamon · Jan 15, 2012

I have a pretty good idea what it wasn't....

megamania · Jan 15, 2012

damned aliens

Relique du Madde · Jan 15, 2012

Picts or it didn't happen.

Dannyalcatraz · Jan 15, 2012

No Picts in America!

I was driving, unfortunately, so couldn't really do much about snapping one off with my phone when I stopped at the traffic signals.

Gilladian · Jan 15, 2012

Dannyalcatraz said:
Tonight- Jan 14, 2012- I looked at the northern sky and spotted something large and extraordinarily bright just a bit above the artificial horizon of trees & buildings here in the Dallas/FW metroplex. At first, I thought it was an aircraft, but it did not move when I first spotted it, nor had it moved a couple hours later when I looked for it again. It also didn't have any other color lights. Just a steady yellow-white.

Is there some kind of nifty event in the skies that I just haven't heard about? Some kind of atmospheric lending effect on a planet?

You don't say what time it was, but Jupiter rose at 12:21 pm last night, so if it was shortly after midnight, that could have been it. But it would only have been up until 1:22, so it seems doubtful.

A satellite called SeaSat (which I know nothing about) also was in the sky in the north last night around midnight.

Finally, and this sounds stupid, but are you sure it wasn't the moon? It was 3/4 full and it is simply amazing how sometimes you can NOT recognize something so ordinary. But it was slightly to the south of East, so I doubt it, too.

Dannyalcatraz · Jan 15, 2012

Time for the observations was spread out between 7:10 and 10PM CST. It was far too small to be the moon- like I said, at first, I thought it was an airplane, but it simply didn't move. That lack of movement made it stand out. But OTOH, it seemed too big to be a star or planet.

I was on my way to a birthday dinner when I first spotted it. I'd look at it when I got stuck at a light, and it was in my field of view when I hit straightaways on certain stretches of road. When I was leaving the restaurant, I pointed it out to my passenger, who first thought it was a distant street light or tower, but when we crossed a bridge over I-35, she could clearly see it was well up in the sky. We were seeing it through some clouds at that point.

El Mahdi · Jan 15, 2012

Nothing to see here. Just a weather balloon folks.

*whisper* Sir, we've got another one...

Relique du Madde · Jan 15, 2012

So far no reports on the tin hat sights..

Umbran · Jan 16, 2012

Silly suggestion - is there a stadium in that general direction, maybe with a game that night? Because various companies will fly blimps over sports events, like flying billboards, well lit up, and they won't move around much for the duration of the game (say, 7 to 10 PM?).