Location of Sighting: South Plainfield, New Jersey
Date of Sighting: May 8, 2018
Time of Sighting: 9:34 PM EDT
Description: Hi: I couldn’t fully understand how to do an official report, but I saw this phone number that said I can send photos here. What I have are two selfies my ex girlfriend had took back to back at basically the same time. In one picture there is nothing in the sky in the background. In the second there is a very white bright tic tac shaped object with lighter bigger tic tac shapes around the brightest one in the middle. It has gotten to the point where I have shown just about every friend I meet and they have no words for the photo. I will give the details of the photo when I send them both. Thank you very much.
Both of these photos were taken at 9:34 PM on May 8th, 2018 in South Plainfield, New Jersey. It is in the parking lot of Grant School across from our town’s high school.
Note: The object could be a portion of the moon obscured by clouds. This would explain why the object was not visible in a previous photo.
Update July 9, 2019: The commentor is correct in that the moon was not visible at the time of the sighting. I had put in the wrong year in my astronomical software package when making the determination. The commentor may be right that the light could be a refection. However, the other photo (not shown) taken within a few seconds of the above photo did not show the light. This casts some doubt on this explanation.
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The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Observer’s Handbook & the Heavens Above web site both show lunar rise times for May 8, 2018 as 2:19 AM. Last quarter was on May 7th & new moon was on May 15. On the 8th of May 2018, the moon was less than 50% illuminated.
https://aa.usno.navy.mil/rstt/onedaytable?ID=AA&year=2018&month=5&day=8&state=NJ&place=South+Plainfield
The problem with the moon theory, is that it didn’t rise till well after midnight that day. My guess is it’s a reflection or lens flare from the bright light just over the second girl’s shoulder.
No, I checked my Naval observatory software and moon was up and 97% illuminated at the time of the sighting (May 8, 2018) a 9:34 PM EDT. I do believe that it is the moon. Sometimes cameras distort the size of the moon.