November 26, 2005 (better write it down before I forget....)

Occurred : 9/17/2000 16:00 (Entered as : 09/17/00 16:00)
Reported: 1/14/2008 6:25:46 PM 18:25
Posted: 1/21/2008
Location: San Francisco, CA
Shape: Light
 

Duration:30-45 minutes 3 intensely bright, very small points of light, high in the sky, unmoving for at least 30-45 minutes

It was my niece's birthday party. We were at San Quentin village on the little beach. I looked up into perfectly clear blue sky and happened to see 3, very small points of brilliant white light.

The lower 2 seemed to be one over the other and the top light was equidistant from the other 2, but to the left, about 15 degrees. The 3 lights were "joined" by 2 very thin, black lines.

I asked my brother if he saw anything up in the sky, without showing him and he described what I saw. He described what I was seeing.

I then went over to my 21 y/o niece, and without describing to her what I saw, asked her. She described the same lights.

The 3 lights were due south of San Quentin Prison, and possibly directly high over San Francisco.

It wasn't possible to estimate the distance - but they were, as best I could tell (I triangulated with a tree branch) motionless over the city (or at least in that direction).

There was an air show down in South Bay that day and 2 military jets did do a low pass over us a bit of time before we saw the 3 lights.

We saw the 3 lights for 30 to 45 minutes and then as my brother and I were watching, they seemed to flit up to the right and disappear.

They left no vapor trails. Their light was almost lazer-like, pure white, dazzling and just a pinpoint with some slight "flaring".

I am also a pilot and can state that it wasn't a satellite, a plane, a balloon or blimp.

About a year later, I was talking to my sister-in-law's brother - and he recounted that he, from the San Jose area in the South Bay, was working on his house on the weekend and also had seen a series of, what he proceeded to describe, as the same type of lights and about the same time of the year. He described them as motionless and "over San Francisco". So, if they were the same lights, We both, from different locations, saw them over San Francisco.  He is a pilot, also.

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Occurred : 12/23/2008 18:30 (Entered as : 12/23/08. 18:30)
Reported: 1/5/2009 11:02:38 AM 11:02
Posted: 1/10/2009
Location: Vallejo/Napa, CA
Shape: Lights

Duration:10-15 minutes, 2 bright lights at night at about 1000-1200ft over Vallejo and Napa, Solano county. Slowly moving to the east.

Long Description of Sighting Report It was dark and clear below 1500ft. Overcast above.

As I was driving east on Hwy 37, past Skaggs Island, about 3-5 miles west of Vallejo, I saw two very bright, white lights in the sky.

At first, they appeared to be two landing lights from a larger airplane. I didn't pay too much attention to them, I just noted that it looked like an airplane, going in the same general direction as a "right downwind" for runway 6 at Napa Airport (KAPC). If it was a private jet in the pattern, they'd be at ~1200 ft - and that's about what it looked like.

I did start to notice that the "airplane" seemed to be "downwind" longer than normal, as it didn't turn right, to base, as it should have done - so, I started watching it more closely. The lights now seemed to be far too widely spaced for 2 landing lights on one aircraft.

Maybe it was a helicopter? But, a helicopter doesn't have widely spaced "landing lights". Maybe it was a helicopter with an advertising grid below, with 2 large lights? It seemed odd to me - since I'd never seen a helicopter with a lighted advertising display.  Maybe 2 helicopters with Night Sun search lights pointed at me? That would be weird. It wasn't helicopters or an airplane or night flying hang gliders.

Then, the two lights, that were level, seemed to bank and turn left, towards Vallejo (to my right, as it had seemed to be heading towards me).

What was odd, is that the two very bright lights, didn't change in intensity.

"Landing lights" and search lights are "directional". If they aren't pointed at you, they, basically, go dark as far as you are concerned. Because I could see that the "lights" were turning east, and weren't pointed towards me and still stayed brilliant and dazzling, It was not possible that they were directional landing lights and were, instead a non-directional light source.

I'm a licensed pilot with quite a bit of night flying experience - and being based up north of San Francisco Airport, you can watch the landing lights of the passenger jets take off at night and watch them wink out as the jet makes it's turn after takeoff. These lights did not wink out as they changed direction away from me.

So, when this "thing's" right side light seemed to drop, and it seemed to turn "left" (my right), back southeast(ish) towards central Vallejo, it really stood out that the 2 lights didn't change in intensity at all. That would infer a non-directional light - and that wouldn't be on an airplane - as a non-directional light that bright, would blind the pilot's vision. Then, as it seemed to still be at about 1000-1200 ft, I saw a string of 7-8 dimmer lights tying the two bright lights together.

What was odd, and different from my first impression, was that the right side bright light stayed ~30 degrees lower than the upper left light (as if "it" was still banking) - but, the two lights stayed offset and the pair of bright lights (and the 7-8 dimmer lights connecting them) began obviously traveling east, at, I'd guess, at 40-50 mph. (as in def not 10-20 and def not 60-70) It wasn't turning anymore, it was traveling east over Hwy 80 up the Auto Mall "valley" - still with the two lights offset in height. All below 1500ft.

I'd been watching it over the Napa River Bridge, through Vallejo (on 37), past 6 Flags Amusement park.

I lost sight of it while taking the 37 / 80 west offramp. behind the overpass. I caught a brief glance of it looking backwards on 80 - Then I couldn't see the 7-8 dimmer lights between the 2 bright lights, but traffic was a bit hectic there.

I took the first offramp and doubled back on Admiral Callaghan, I couldn't see it, but caught a momentary glimpse of a very brightly lit area behind a rocky deposit 800-900 ft up on the valley ridge, right about at the Target store shopping center.

I'd guess that it was 80% to 90% of the way to the top of the hills (I could see the outline of the ridgeline). The lighted spot was reflected light, and I couldn't see any particular point of light, just a *very* brightly lighted area 50 to 100 ft wide up near the ridge.

I lost direct line of sight behind the auto dealers and when I got to the top of Admiral Callaghan, I couldn't see the light on the hill anymore.

I went down to Auto Mall Parkway, turned right and kept looking up to find the lights again.

Nothing.

In recreating my initial view, what I first had thought was "downwind" on Rwy 6 at KAPC, was wrong. The lights were over the northern edges of the town of Vallejo, a few miles south of the airport, about inline with the Napa / Solono county borders.

I'm 100% sure of the 2 non-directional lights, the 7-8 dimmer lights and the slow speed, the altitude and the light on the hillside. No smoke, no flicker, no pulsation.

On January 4th, at about 6pm, I called the FAA tower at KAPC and asked the controller if they had had any other sighting reports on the 23rd. He didn't, and he checked with the controller on duty that night, and he didn't see anything, either. The lights would have been to the south of the tower, behind the controller's visual operating area (runways are north of the tower).

Duration of observation, about 10 - 12 minutes.

If someone else describes a similar sighting, feel free to contact me.

Marc Salvisberg