NUFORC Sighting 176643

Occurred: 2023-07-07 22:09 Local
Reported: 2023-07-08 08:21 Pacific
Duration: Under 1 minute
No of observers: 1

Location: Durham, NC, USA
Location details: Residential area near the RDU airport over Raleigh

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Changed Colo

An object in the night sky over Raleigh during a thunderstorm, that was definitely NOT an airplane

As I was watching a thunderstorm, I saw a light appear in the sky. It caught my attention because it wasn't flashing or twinkling like an airplane does from a long distance, and it was staying perfectly still. It then started moving Southward across the sky, before growing fainter and turning red before eventually disappearing. In the first video I captured, I stopped filming when I could no longer see it with the naked eye, but it was still partially visible on video up to the end.

A few minutes later the object appeared again in the exact same spot, and made the same Southward trajectory before disappearing - but this time it vanished almost instantly rather than fading.

I live close to the RDU airport, and I can tell you that this object was absolutely not an airplane. In fact, I realized that no airplanes were taking off or landing (which I can see from my window) in the minutes leading up to this object appearing and about 20 minutes after it disappeared the second time. Then a line of airplanes began landing - as if the pilots were told to stay out of the airspace until it cleared.

I captured one photo and two short videos of the object. Also for reference, I included a video of an airplane landing to show the difference between a plane and the object.

Posted 2023-07-10