Published: 10:27 AM 2/5/2010

Nevada - 02-04-10

I stepped out onto my balcony and noticed a bright object tracking from east to west in the northern sky. I noticed a steady, fairly bright light, at first I thought it was a satellite but it was too low and too slow.

I watched it for approximately 1 minute before it split into a total of 4 objects. The 3 new objects moved at the same speed, diverged from the primary at equal angles and slowly grew farther apart from the first object seen.

This continued for approximately 1 minute and all 4 lights disappeared spontaneously. They did not speed up, flicker, turn, just were gone, all at the same time. I did not see any navigation lights, hear any engine noises.

This is the first time I've ever reported anything. This whole thing was just plain strange. In the past I've worked as a professional pilot and as an air traffic controller.

I'm very used to looking at aircraft, but this was definitely different.