One of the biggest causes of this type of sighting is misinterpreting perspective. It's very hard to tell how far away something is in the sky, especially at ni

One of the biggest causes of this type of sighting is misinterpreting perspective. It's very hard to tell how far away something is in the sky, especially at night. Something that looks close may be far and vice versa. When you think something is a different distance away than it is it can appear to act in unexpected ways, leading to misunderstanding what it is.