On a very clear day, a sudden brush fire grows out of control in Santa Cruz Mountains, about 80 miles south of San Francisco. As reported, it started approximately at 5:15 AM. In a matter of few hours, it engulfed over 2000 acres of the mountain ridges. As an astro-photographer, I often check the weather for possible observing night. However, with just a couple days past the Full Moon phase, I was more curious about my friends living locally in Santa Cruz Mountains this time.

So I monitored the news channels until afternoon when I left home. Later in the afternoon, I started checking local news and online webcams for actually seeing how far the fire had progressed. In one of the captured frames of one particluar web cam, I noticed an unusual looking object in the blue and cloudless sky.

It was white as a cloud would be, so it could very well be just "cloud."

However, being such a perfect disc-shape looking, I thought to publicize it, just in case it wasn't some weird looking clouds, in case, others had seen simliar thing.

I saved the image from the online site and refreshed the frame. It was not there anymore. Unfortunately, I didn't refresh immediately to eliminate the cloud possiblities. I was distracted before I noticed any thing on that frame, and it wasn't until about half an hour later that I finally noticed and refreshed to get a new frame. I guess, I would not think of it as a big deal, unless there are other similar local reports.

The resolution is very low, so it is not very possible to magnify much to see any structures. However, when magnified, there is a curious shade on just one side (top-left half) which could also be the CCD artifact of the web cam. But, I would expect to see it symmetrically on the opposite side if that was the case. So... it is open for further investigation and possible other sightings... Below is the link to the live cam site.

http://www.heartmath.com/view.html

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