Strange light

Friday, April 3, 2009

A bright light in the dark night sky east of McCook about 8:40 p.m., Thursday, flashes multi-colored in a 30-second exposure. The light prompted several phone calls to the McCook Public Safety Center. McCook Police Chief Ike Brown said this morning that his officers determined it wasn't the space station after checking the NASA Web site. Officials at the National UFO Reporting Center told them the light is a star, located 30 to 40 degrees above the eastern horizon, appearing multi-colored and brighter than nearby stars. Brown said the center had received multiple reports of the bright light. Gazette astronomy columnist Vernon Whetstone said it may have been the star Spica, or more likely Arcturus. "They both were low in the east and the atmospheric effect of being that low will cause some fantastic twinkling," Whetstone said.

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