On the evening of September 22, 2009, around 8:20 pm, I experienced something utterly unlike any usual sight in the sky over Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Walking out to my car, I looked up to wish upon the evening star—a radiant, solitary light in the southern sky I often observe at this time of year. Moments after looking down, I glanced up again and saw what seemed to be that same star directly ahead. But then I caught sight of the original star out of the corner of my eye, revealing that this new light was something else entirely.
I joked to a friend to check out the strange light hovering in the sky. When he looked up, his laughter instantly faded; he, too, witnessed a bright white light moving silently across the heavens. It didn’t glide steadily like a commercial aircraft, nor did it flash any lights or make a sound. Instead, it bobbed gently, rising and falling as though riding waves across the dark expanse.
For about thirty seconds to a minute, we stood watching this glowing orb move from our vantage point. It wasn’t flying in a straight line but undulated smoothly, maintaining an even altitude and forward momentum, quite unlike a flare or any familiar aerial object. Just as abruptly as it appeared, the light faded from view. I thought I noticed it dip slightly and veer eastward before vanishing entirely.
My friend believed it must have been far above us, possibly outside the atmosphere, given its apparent speed as it receded. However, as an amateur astronomer regularly observing the sky through binoculars and a small telescope, I judged it was much lower—perhaps only 5,000 to 10,000 feet above ground. This estimate comes from my familiarity with the heights at which planes traverse the North Atlantic flight routes at around 35,000 feet, which require a much steeper tilt of the head to spot.
The sun had fully set, ruling out any chance this was a reflection. Such an occurrence was entirely new to me; neither I nor my friend had seen anything like it before in the night sky. Even though I believe in life beyond Earth, I remain skeptical that this was anything truly otherworldly. Still, the memory of that luminous, bobbing light lingers, and I am curious if others witnessed this strange phenomenon over Nova Scotia that night.
This encounter remains vivid in my mind—a silent, eerie dance of light that defied the usual patterns of sky watchers and left us questioning the vast mysteries above.