Object appeared just after 2230 eastern, slowly moving to the north

Photo is a 2 or 3 sec exposure so the object is blurred. Video shows the object better but you don’t get the background.

(edit: some the stars visible in the picture are: big dipper to the right, Arcturus is on the left, peeking out behind a tree)

From social media, the likely explanation is that it’s stage 2 of an Ariane rocket that launched last night, venting, and would soon burn up on re-entry (which would have been neat to see)

So now it’s a probably-identified object/aerial phenomenon

Wasn’t the Perseid meteor shower last night?

It looks almost exactly like what you have in your photo

25 minutes ago, Sohan Lalwani said:

Wasn’t the Perseid meteor shower last night?

It looks almost exactly like what you have in your photo

Yes, which is why I was out, but meteors move much faster, have a skinnier track and were streaking to the southwest at that time

There are now some news reports

https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2025/08/13/what-was-white-spiral-flying-in-the-sky-ufo-pennsylvania-perseid-meteor-shower-vulcan-rocket-launch/85639137007/

“According to ABC news reports, the spiral light was likely a frozen plume of fuel for a rocket's exhaust, "which reflects the sunlight and appears to spin in the atmosphere."

The mysterious white spiral image was reported hours after Europe's Arianne 6 rocket took off at 8:37 p.m. ET from the European Space Agency's spaceport in French Guiana in South America, according to news reports. It has not yet been confirmed to have been the cause.”

I, for one, wish to welcome our new galactic Overlords.

Edited August 13Aug 13 by TheVat

Such observations can be quite impressive:

I hope Avi Loeb will not ever see something like that: it immediately would be 'Aliens!'.