Reader Alexis McLean shot this video at 5:54 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, after her 7-year-old daughter, Caeli, spotted a light in the southwest sky over the Merrymount section of Quincy. The International Space Station was passing overhead at about that time, but she saw two objects.

Jamie Kern of the Maxwell Observatory at Bridgewater State University offers the most likely explanation.

"It just looks like a high-flying airplane with a fluffy contrail to me. Sometimes the contrails appear very bright depending on the angle of sunlight striking them (or dark for the same reason). That said, I wasn't there to see it in person and I can't make out any detail at all in the video as to the shape of whatever is at the front of the trail.

"When I have seen the space station, it has never left a trail. It is extremely bright, though!"

SPACE STATION VISIBILITY