Occurred: 2002-06-21 16:42 Local
Reported: 2002-06-26 20:43 Pacific
Duration: 75 minutes
No of observers: 3

Location: Portland, OR, USA

Shape: Orb
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Emitted other objects

Object releases dark orbs in Portland skies...photographed.

Friday afternoon this witness reports getting out of his truck after getting home from work and seeing an object in the sky.

Witness writes..."I stood at the end of the drive and watched as it held it's position for 20 minutes. At that point I ran into the house and grabbed my digital camera. I ran back out to the end of the drive and it was still there in the same position. My neighbor across the street was out in her front yard and I called to her to come look at the object. I asked her if she saw something above the tree line. She replied "Yes!" and asked "What is that?" I replied "I have no idea but I am not going to miss an opportunity to photograph it!" I then proceeded to take the pictures I am sending you. My neighbor noticed that it was not round and that it looked like it had a wobble in it's movement or rotation. I started to take more pictures when my wife pulled in to the drive. I asked her if see saw the object and she said "Yes." She also asked what it was. At this time I looked back up at the object and it was starting to move, very slowly, to the East." The object moved to the east against the wind. There was no noise and as he was looking through the lens of his camera, he noticed the object was ejecting small black objects to the north west...seven total...and then it began to move again.

The couple went in the house and returned 45 minutes later to leave for dinner and watched the object from the car.

"As we drove across the hill towards Lake Oswego I noticed that I could still see the object and it still looked to be the same size. After dinner I made a quick scan of the sky and could not find the object" the witness wrote. It was estimated that the object was at around 10,000 feet because of scale to passing aircraft in the PDX pattern and angle to horizon.

Update: June 26, 2002...

OUFOR team member and investigator Cameron Johnson followed up this sighting with some phone calls to the NOAA in Portland regarding weather balloons as well as a local police department for other sighting reports. He found that standard weather balloons used in Oregon are 3 to 4 feet in diameter and are taupe (tan) or red in color. The only place that the balloons are released in Oregon is in Salem and, during daylight savings time are released between 4 and 5 p.m. The balloon telemetry recorded the drift being to the South East from Salem. When asked about the possibility of a balloon hanging at a fixed position for a long period of time, he said that it was not possible because the balloons are in a constant state of ascent and the telemetry corroborated his statement. He gave a official statement that it could not have been a NOAA balloon.

The attempt at finding other sighting reports from the police department yielded no results. Special thanks to OUFOR investigator Cameron Johnson for his follow up work on this sighting.

To view photo, go here... http://www.oregonuforeview.com/sightingcomposite062102.jpg



NUFORC Note:

Our gratitude to Eric Byler of Oregon UFO Review for submitting the report. PD


Posted 2002-07-01

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