NUFORC Sighting 92409

Occurred: 1973-10-15 19:30 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2012-09-02 13:58 Pacific
Duration: 45 minutes
No of observers: 10

Location: Houston, TX, USA

Shape: Circle
Characteristics: Lights on object

UFO hovers over Houston TX, fall 1973.

I was at Memorial Park in Houston TX in the evening during autumn 1973, along with my husband, and a group of men and their wives. The men were playing tag football. I was sitting in a lawn chair facing due south. The game had not started and the men were warming up for the game, when I saw what I thought was an airplane flying from east to west in the night sky. As my eyes tracked it, it suddenly came to a standstill. I mentioned this to the lady sitting next to me. She said she had binoculars in her car. She retrieved them, and handed them to me. When I looked at the object through the binoculars, and discovered it was not just one light, but a string of lights in a horizontal position. I did not attempt to count the number of them.

As I and others watched, the object appeared to began turning on its side gradually. It changed, bit by bit, from a straight string of lights to an oval, and then ultimately to an full circle of lights. Other people became interested and also watched this phenomenom. It turned back into a horizontal string of lights, and then moved vertically. I could see what appeared to be after-flares coming from each light. The object remained there for approximately 45 minutes moving this way and that, and then suddenly ascended within a matter of a few seconds upward and to the west.

I have prepared a rudimentary illustration with Adobe Photoshop to show how this object revolved, and yet remained in a stationary position over Houston.

I made no report of this at that time. There was a lot of debunking going on regarding UFOs and I did not care to get involved. I know what we saw. Only in the past year did I send a pencil sketch to MUFON. I received no reply from them. It has been many years since I watched this UFO in the night sky, but it still stands out clearly as if I had just seen it moments ago. Other than my husband, I have no recollection of anyone else's name who had been a witness to this event so long ago.

NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate. PD

Posted 2012-09-24