SIGHTING: KAMLOOPS, BRITISH COLUMBIA (CANADA)

Witness Testimony

"Event: My house is about one-third the way up the valley's south side overlooking the city of Kamloops. Most summer and fall nights I go out on my balcony for an hour before I retire. My balcony faces north and Polaris is directly in front of me about 50 above the horizon. Because of the city lights I can only see 52 stars from this view. I know every one of them by heart. I count the number of airplanes, satellites, and meteors that I see each night. On this particular night I went out and before I even sat in my chaises longue I noticed a magnitude -2 to -3 star in the northwest. I immediately thought it was the ISS going over-head but after a second or two I realized it wasn't moving. There should not be a star of that magnitude at that location and I wondered what it might be. It was approximately where the star 21 CVn should be, (however, I can't see a star that dim from my balcony) so I thought it might have gone supernova! But that particular star is too small and too close to have gone supernova (a star that close going supernova would be as bright as the sun). Still it could be a star far beyond 21 CVn that had gone supernova so maybe I should report it to the IAU.While I was mulling over these thoughts the star gave off a faint pulse of light and less than a second later shot off straight north so fast my eyes couldn't follow it. No propulsion system I know of could accelerate an object so quickly and no inertia cancellation technology that I am aware of could have saved the craft or its occupants from instant destruction. I place this object clearly in the "unidentified" column."