SIGHTING: ILIRSKA BISTRICA (SLOVENIA)

Witness Testimony

"Light (hat shaped) seen. Observed through binoculars, approx. 1 min. Turning abruptly. Fast egression. Moving GIF scetch included.I`m a graduate at faculty of mechanical engineering. I underwnt fighter pilot med-exams and have confirmed excellent eye-vision. I`m also very familiar with all types of aircraft, helicopter, other airborne crafts and satellites, their in-flight behavior and day/night identification. I`m also familiar with stars and other astronomical objects that may be observed with naked-eye or binoculars on night-sky. I wrote complete data of every one of series of events right after they happend. Location: (on the balcony of my house) Ilirska Bistrica, Slovenia Air temperature: -2°C Clouds: 0/8 (clear) No sighted air traffic (3 nm west of Il.Bist. there is a VOR/DME/NDB beacon) No moon. Hale-Bopp comet behind the horizon. Light pollution of sky minimal. Car traffic in vicinity: zero (exclusion of probable mid-air-haze light reflection) Observer in dark area, no lights in field of vision. Event: After observing eastern night skies 20 minutes (Boo,UMa,Cas,Ceph) I went inside to get my binoculars in order to observe unclear stars between Leo and Ursa Major. After that I observed that area naked-eyed in MTI technique (Moving Target Indication - I use that radar-mode expression to explain a wide-angled background-fixed observation which enables to detect slight movements of faint objects in large field of vision). After a few tens of seconds I detected a movement of a very faint object above Coma Berenices, too faint to lock a naked eye on. Convinced it`s a satellite (because of its initial south-north polar movement) I checked it through binoculars (from now on observing through binoculars). In this second (from detection till the start of observation) the luminosity of object increased greatly. It grew in size from a dot to a dash-shaped object oriented perpendicular to its flight path. I know that angle of attack of a craft in orbit is of no importance, so in the next second I thought "it`s a sattelite flying sideways". But then the dash started to rotate around my line-of-sight changing its direction fast towards east. Instead of travelling through UMa towards Cas (initial flight path would send it through zenith), I followed it through Bootes, Hercules to Cepheus (it lowered to the eastern horizon and then away towards north). Object was changing its bearing around 60° to left and right of its general way (right-left-right turn duration approx. 3 seconds). After it passed through Hercules, size and brightness of object started decreasing, and in the vicinity of Cepheus disappeared quickly. Picture at: <a href="http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Starship/6070/Stores/09-03-1997_0005_HRS.gif">My Page</a> Duration: Approx. 1 minute Appearance: Object was all-light, no visible hard parts, light could not be separated into series of lights. Light color: pale yellow (yellow-white), hat shaped with ratio width:depth = 5:1 Brightness (comparing to other stars): zero or less magnitude. Object was rotating and turning (R-L-R turn time approx 3 sec), flying perpendicular to its flight path. It did not have left-red and right-green lights, no blinking lights. At the end of observation brightness and size of object rapidly fell to zero. Even after 1 minute no sound could be heard from that direction (normally aircraft over eastern horizon are audible in night-time). Angular size of object (no binoculars): approx. 0.1° Angular velocity: not known. My conclusions: Object behaved like no to me known aircraft. Due to hat-shaped object (with narrower end of "hat" trailing, hat oriented perpendicular to FP) of pale yellow color, I conclude the light was propulsion. Besides "propulsion" nothing could be seen. Due to knot known size of object and not very accurate angular size, distance to object and its velocity could not be determined. Later comments: I read in a paper that there was a scramble alert in USAFB Aviano, Italy (which is located at 300° 80nm from sighting location) on the 11th of March 1997 due to a wave of UFO sightings over the base. I don`t know if the news is valid, but I seek explanation of this and my further two sightings in it. Added in November 1997."