It just faded out. It changed course and started moving due west. In the 25 minutes I watched it, it covered perhaps 40-degrees of sky. Clouds drifted in front of it periodically, so it was above the cloud deck. To me it appeared to be something shining by reflected sunlight very high in the atmosphere, but because it was at least 30 arc seconds across, it must have been huge. It also didn't have any specular or concentrated reflections, it appeared uniformly illuminated. I tried to get a pic with the smartphone on max zoom. It registered but the exposure was long and it's a bit zig-zag on the frame, and of course the magnification was too small to see any detail anyway. It first caught my eye as I was just scanning the morning sky, as I do most mornings before getting started at work. I left a downpour at home to find an increasingly clearing sky in North Salt Lake. Venus was bright and easily visible just above the mountains. Looking up I saw this thing, as bright as Venus or even brighter. Thought at first it was a nova or supernova, or the ISS, but it was barely moving, and moving the wrong direction, drifting slowly east-to-west. As the sky brightened, it continued slowly moving, first toward the southwest, then shifting more westerly. This makes it *moving against the prevailing wind direction*. I used to keep a small telescope in my office but took it home a year or so ago. I need to bring it back, the small bino just didn't cut it for this one. Hoping someone else saw this, it was remarkable. On Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 6:34 AM, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
For the past ten minutes I've been watching an extremely bright object drift overhead. It is brighter than Venus, is drifting NNE to SSW, right now is due north and almost overhead from my location in North Salt Lake.
I only have 10x25mm bino with me. It appears spherical with an appendage sticking out one side.
I think it's in the atmosphere, if it's orbiting, it is very far, not a low orbit at all. Moving too slowly.
I'll follow it for as long as I can.
Check the time on this message. Probably only going to be visible for a little while longer. Still visible in a bright blue sky, the sun isn't up yet though.
Any confirmations are appreciated.