Hi there
A friend and I witnessed an interesting sighting in the Hermanus sky this past Saturday evening. We saw a body moving at a very high and consistent speed across the night sky figuring it will just keep going straight on and it must be a shooting star or satellite. However, it proceeded to change direction and basically made a narrow-ish u-turn. Before it suddenly disappeared it flashed extra bright. We would really like to find out what this was and would greatly appreciate your input.

Regards
Jaco

Hallo Kos

Thanks so much for a speedy reply.

We were at this location: https://www.google.co.za/maps/place/202+3rd+St,+Hermanus,+7200/@-34.4072037,19.2902778,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x1dce097ba37213ff:0xe1ca474e9be0f380.

It was brighter that the surrounding stars (maybe with a yellow-ish colour), altitude seemed very high (I know this doesn’t help ;)), much higher than airplanes I’ve ever seen fly at night. The event lasted roughly 50 seconds and no sound was heard. It moved close at an angle across the milky way band of stars before it changed direction. It took place around 10:30 and 11:00pm.

Report back, Kos Coronaios:
Dear Jaco,

I have not had any other reports regarding your sighting. The feedback that I’ve had so far is that it could be either a Chinese lantern or a Google balloon. See this link http://businesstech.co.za/news/internet/68358/google-balloons-take-flight-over-south-africa/

Will keep you posted if I have anything further.

Kind regards,

Kos