Mystery Flash on Mauna Kea

[Robert Auman]

Hello, I live in Pennsylvania and I witnessed this identical occurrence back in 1988. At around 2:00 PM I saw the same large bubble dome in the distance lasting around 10 to 14 minutes before vanishing. Nothing was ever mentioned on the news or in the newspaper about it. I have always wondered what this strange occurrence was and it wasn't until recently that I started researching this strange phenomena through the use of the computer age. Hopefully I can nail down this mystery that happen many years ago through these forums.

[geckzilla]

I've never heard of a rocket plume like this one visible in daytime, but I don't suppose it's physically impossible. The problem is that the daytime sky is so bright that the plume is likely not easily spotted behind the atmosphere in the same way it is hard to see stars and planets except at night or crepuscular hours. If it really was a rounded sphere like depicted here, though, then it's hard to imagine anything other than some expanding cloud above the atmosphere causing it.