I know, I know, this is a music forum, but because I'm a musician and don't focus on much else...I thought I'd throw this out here and see if any of you talented individuals will copy and paste to a more appropriate location.
I live at the south end of Vancouver Island, on Canada's west coast.
Tuesday September 23 was a quiet morning (still dark) with very few clouds in the sky, and only a light breeze.
At 3:20am I looked out the window, and below and to the south of the rising moon (slightly north of east) was a bright amber light, about the colour of a high pressure sodium lamp. This was the first of 5 such lights I would see over the next 10 or 15 minutes. The light had the appearance of a burning flare, descended slowly through the sky, and left a roughly vertical trail of "smoke". No parachute was in evidence, and the only noise from them was a soft "pop" when they first appeared (or ignited?).
There were two aircraft involved - neither made any sound that we could hear. My wife and I both studied the aircraft and "flares" with 7X50 binoculars.
One aircraft was flying back and forth in the northeast sky, and as it flew from north to south, it appeared to "drop" an amber light which would make that popping sound before it became visible. A new light was not deployed until after the previous one had disappeared below the horizon. This craft had three attached lights - one flashing red, one green, one white. Periodically, the three lights changed to white; none of them flashing.
The other aircraft maneuvered in the general area of the "flare" activity with no apparent pattern. It had three white lights distributed across its width, and a series of green lights flashing in sequence from front to rear (as best we could discern from its direction of travel).
The activity was already in progress when I first came upon it, and continued for at least 15 minutes, all without audible sound, other than the soft "pop" as each "flare" became visible.
I talked with only one other person who had heard about it - mentioned on a local early morning radio show that day.
End of story.
Any ideas?
