Posted: June 19, 2009

Date of Sighting: 30 May 2009
Time: 0200 hrs

Witness Statement: I have been an amateur astronomer since I was a boy and I am very used to looking at the sky and understanding the nature of 'visible to naked eye' objects within it.

At approx 2.00am in the early hours of May 30th 2009, I was in Standish, Gloucestershire, observing the sky for satellites and meteors. It was a perfectly clear night with no clouds and a light breeze. The quarter moon had set and was below the western horizon. The milky way could be seen fairly brightly, north to south.

Having been looking north towards Gloucester for a couple of minutes, I turned to face due south, and I immediately saw what appeared to be 2 very bright, white stars approx 5 degrees apart, one above the other. They had definitely not been visible minutes earlier. Both looked exactly like stars, blue white in colour and both were the brightest objects in the sky (approx magnitude 1). The uppermost object was about 35 degrees above the SSE horizon, the second being some 5 degrees directly below it. Both were completely stationary and their light was constant (no flickering, flashing etc.). I watched them, unchanged and still stationary for approx 1 minute - completely confused as they appeared to be stars/planets and I was wondering how this could possibly be so. I was unable to approximate their altitude, but because I was thinking of them as stellar objects, my assumption was that they were both beyond Earth's atmosphere. However, as they were totally fixed in position, I was 100% sure that they were not man-made, orbiting satellites, planes, fireworks or even lanterns.

Then, without sound, deviation or trail, both appeared to begin fading - giving the absolute impression that they were receding at speed deeper into space away from Earth. I was able to see both objects fading for about 30 seconds until they became too faint for the naked eye. They appeared to have traveled a huge distance in that time as the way that they receded gave a definite impression of perspective. I continued observing for a further 20 minutes, but apart from the occasional meteor and satellite, neither were seen again. At no time was any sound or rumble heard or felt.