A beam of light was seen streaking across the evening sky Oct. 27 from various locations in La Plata County.
Cole Hyson, who lives southeast of Durango, captured a photo of the object on his iPhone at 7:20 p.m. Hyson was notified of the object by a friend who had just left Hyson’s house and was driving on Farmington Hill.
Hyson said he immediately ran outside and could see the object streaking across the sky over the Black Ridge area.
“He called me going, ‘Oh my, what is that?’ And I ran outside and it was moving,” Hyson said.
He was unsure of what it was he was seeing. His son has since done some research and discovered it may have been a Falcon 9 rocket that launched from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base. The Vandenberg launch was scheduled for 6:14 p.m. PST, which would align with the 7:20 p.m. MST sighting in Colorado.
Excited about the object, Hyson shared photos with friends and family. His friend said cars were lined up along the side of U.S. Highway 550 to take in the sight.
“It was pretty spectacular but it didn’t last very long,” he said. “It lasted maybe a minute.”
Fort Lewis College physics and engineering professor William Nollet confirmed the sighting was a rocket launch from the Vandenberg Space Force Base. He said rocket launches from California are typically visible in Colorado and are more noticeable shortly after sunset.
“A lot of it depends on the positioning of the sun,” Nollet said. “What happens is the sun sets in the west and that dips below the horizon but light still curves around the Earth. So in the upper reaches of the atmosphere, that sunlight is still kind of shining through it.”
This isn’t the first time Hyson has seen strange objects flying through the sky near the La Paloma subdivision. He said 10 years ago he witnessed a similar event where an object was flying through the sky when another object took it down.
“I saw something in the sky and I was able to get my binoculars on it and there were like engine flames coming off. Then something came out of nowhere in smoke and blew it up,” he said.
He later found out it was a missile test being conducted in Gallup, New Mexico, and the missile was shot down over White Sands Missile Range.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
