Photo and Enlargement of Bright Shiny Object Seen by Witness.

Yavatmal is in Central India.

Date of Sighting: January 24, 2009
Time of Sighting: 12:06 PM Local Time
Location of Sighting: Yavatmal, Maharashtra State, India (See Map)

Description: I had been to Yavatmal on the 24th to meet my friend and as he had some work at his factory. I accompanied him and I preferred waiting out watching the work going on in his factory premises. A little before mid-day I was standing at the marked place (on wikimapia.org) waiting for my friend who was in a meeting. I was looking at the clear blue sky with very faint clouds and I saw this extremely shiny object in the sky. It seemed stationary and was very bright. I was amazed at the brightness and concentrated on it trying to identify what it could be and then I realized that it was moving very slowly as if it was drifting. I thought maybe it could be a weather balloon (It probably could be, but I am not sure.) It was just a few hours that I was in Yavatmal and I have absolutely no idea if weather balloons are released there. I believe weather balloons are white in color, but this thing seemed to reflect like it would be a foil. This thing looked like a perfect shiny sphere although in the photograph it shows a different shape. I believe it could be because of 'camera shake'. The picture is taken from a Cannon Power Shot A560 zoomed to the maximum digital 16x. It does make it shaky and difficult to catch a object so far away on the LCD screen and click it with a steady hand. A few seconds later it seemed to slightly pick up speed. I am sure the wind on the ground was in the opposite direction. This thing was going westward. It kept on accelerating gradually and then it stopped, looking brighter than before. (Maybe I imagined that it looked brighter.) It was hard trying to focus the eyes on it. Two of the workers there too asked me what it could be. I said it could be a weather balloon, but I wonder if they knew what a weather balloon is. I wished I was carrying my binoculars that time. At that time I took a break by looking down cause my neck was feeling the strain looking straight up. When I looked up again I could not see it. It could not be, cause it was only a couple of seconds . It just could not disappear. It had not disappeared but it was way away westward and was moving really fast almost at the speed of a plane flying high. Then at one point it stopped and it started shrinking in size rapidly and then it was gone. I would attribute the shrinking in size to it going higher and away.The accompanying photo was taken when it seemed to be steady. I could not bring it in frame (on the LCD) when it was moving faster. I realize now that I could have used the viewfinder instead of the LCD. This is the only shot that I have taken. Oh one more thing I would like to mention that earlier I had seen two vapor clouds (one stretching east-west and the other north south) that a fighter jet leaves. I did ask my friend that time whether there is a air base nearby. I do believe that 2 to 4 vapor trails are left by jets over Yavatmal skies each day. I forgot to mention the above incident to my friend, but at least two of his workers have seen this with me. There could be even more witnesses because I was staring at the sky like crazy and I am sure many must have seen me staring and they too would have looked in the same direction.

Note: The object could be a balloon rising which could account for its changes in speed as it rises into stronger winds higher up in the atmosphere. However, the color does not resemble a normal weather balloon. The time of the sighting was 12:06 AM Local Time which computes to 5:36 AM Greenwich Meridian Time (GMT). Weather balloons are normally launched at 00:00 and 12:00 GMT around the world so it is unlikely that the object was a weather balloon. (Sometimes special launches are made, but due to expense this is rarely done.) The details in the enlarged photo do not suggest a weather balloon as no "tether" carrying an instrument package is evident. Of course the object could possibly be another type of balloon.