NUFORC Sighting 22535

Occurred: 2002-04-16 21:05 Local
Reported: 2002-04-16 19:16 Pacific
Duration: 15:00
No of observers: 2

Location: Byram, NJ, USA

Shape: Circle
Characteristics: Changed Color, Aircraft nearby

Silver-blue-red flashing light seen above northwestern New Jersey

My wife and I were watching the moon and stars Tuesday night when we noticed a particularly bright star moving slightly in the sky. It was visible through some tree branches at first, so we changed position for a clearer view (thinking it might be tree branches giving the appearance of movement). It still maintained its pattern of movement; slightly vertical and slightly horizontal, and would periodically flash blue and red. We don't believe it could not have been an airplane, since it was hovering in position; a plane would have visibly moved across the sky, rather than moving slightly in place. I went into the house and got our video recorder, and we taped the object for 10 minutes or so, zooming in as much as 32x. Through the zoom on the recorder, we could see it growing in size and then shrinking suddenly, as if it were "pulsing". We taped our house and lights visible from the World Trade Zone for reference. After 10-15 minutes we went back inside. 15 minutes later I went back to look for the object and it was gone. I filed a police report around 10 PM, after checking the internet to see if it might have been a planet or other conspicuous object.

Posted 2002-04-25