SIGHTING: CUENCA (ECUADOR)

Witness Testimony

"0020 hours GMT I saw a white bright pinpoint light brigher than Jupiter travelling South to North 2.5 faster than a satellite,At 19:20 hours local Ecuador time (GMT 00:20 hours) I saw a white bright light but could not discern the exact shape travelling fast with no sound from South to North almost directly overhead, slightly East of me about 10 degrees, in a straight line. The light didn't vary in intensity nor color, it was a pinpoint to my naked eye but very bright, it was pure white and brighter than any star or even Jupiter. I am located in Cuenca, Ecuador which is in the southern third of the country about 7 degrees south of the Equator in the Andes. The sky was 3/4 cloudy but with breaks sufficient to track the light visually as it was well above the cloud ceiling. I first noticed it while standing in my back yard simply looking up at the stars through the cloud breaks. The air was clear however. I first saw the light about 30 degrees off the Southern horizon and was able to track it intermittently through cloud breaks until about dead overhead, 90 degrees off the Western horizon. The sun had set about an hour before so it was not sun reflecting off a plane and it was going faster than any plane again with no sound at all. It travelled at a steady speed. It was not a satellite as satellites go much slower than the light I just saw. The light I saw went about 2.5 to 3 times faster than a satellite. I am an ameteur astronomer and know satellite an standard 100 mile low orbit speeds very well ever since the Russians first sent up Sputnik. I have never seen a satellite even close to the brightness of the object this evening. I have never seen aircraft lights resembling this light. I'm age 61 and have lived in major airport cities all my life and I have excellent vision (corrected with slight prescription glasses). I didn't have time to rush in and grab my binoculars it was proceeding so fast so I simply observed it. It took about 60 seconds estimated time to pass from 30 degrees off the Southern horizon to where I lost it due to solid clouds about 90 degrees perpendicular and slightly to the East of where I was standing. There was no wind nor interfering noise to blot out any noise form the light source. Cuenca has an airport but I know the standard approach and exit flight paths and since there was no wind there would be no reason for planes to deviate from the standard flight approaches and exits. I have no idea what the light source was but it was steady, silent, white, very bright, travelling straight and fast (over the clouds). I stood outside a few minutes to see if it would "come back" or if there were more and I didn't see anything moving in the night sky at all."