NUFORC Sighting 18850

Occurred: 2001-08-05 03:15 Local
Reported: 2001-08-05 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 1.5 - 2 min
No of observers: 11

Location: Chicago, IL, USA

Shape: Diamond
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

Diamond shaped object, orange in color with small points of light surrounding the main body

Myself and 10 friends were sitting outside on a patio at approx. 3:15am. Approx 20 minutes after some of us saw a very bright meteor overhead we saw an object in the distant sky in the SE heading NW at a constant rate of speed. As it grew closer it appeared to be diamond shaped and an orange in color. It flew directly overhead and at its closest appeared to be about 1/2 the size, possibly 3/4 the disk of a full moon. There was a near full moon this night so I did try to make a rough comparison. I saw it pass in front of a bright star which confirmed to me that is was indeed a solid object and gave me a very immediate sense of depth that it was somewhat low in the sky but how far up it was I could not say for sure. It appeared to be luminescent in some fashion but illumination by the moon could not be ruled out as it was a very clear night out and the moon was bright enough to light up the lawn. Several people in the group described several small points of light, "like the ends of a fiber optic cable" said one friend (number varies between 6 and 7) offset but surrounding the diamond shape. I am slightly nearsighted with a -.5 prescription and unfortunately was without my glasses this night so I was not able to make out the surrounding lights personally but I very clearly saw the orange body of the object. As it passed overhead we heard absolutely no noise coming from the object. Minutes after the object disappeared from sight an airplane took off heading east over our heads from O'hare airport. The comparison to a low flying commercial airplane was easily dismissed as we observed blinking navlights on the wing-tips of the plane, take off lights and an audible engine noise. The observed craft had neither of these. As the craft receded from us a girl in the group grabbed her 35mm camera and attempted to photograph the object with her telephoto lens and managed to take two pictures of it. At this time it was pretty far away so we are not anticipating a detailed image. The group of witnesses of saw the object consisted of people between the ages of 24 and 30 working in fields from business to art. Some of the group are very admitted skeptics and others are believers in the UFO phenomenon but the group consensus from both sides of the fence was that no one had ever seen anything like it before and could offer no explanation other than possibly a blimp or a balloon. Before we got in to to much detailed description within the group I had two of the witnesses go inside the house and draw the object independently based on their own description. I personally am into astronomy as a hobby and have witnessed meteors and satellites many times to know exactly what they look like. I can identify all the visible planets as well as the star Sirius. I know it was neither of those.

NUFORC Note:

We spoke with this witness, and we found him to be an excellent observer and reporter of the facts surrounding the case. PD

Posted 2001-08-12