NUFORC Sighting 33728

Occurred: 2003-12-10 19:25 Local
Reported: 2003-12-10 20:25 Pacific
Duration: 10 seconds
No of observers: 2

Location: Prescott, AZ, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Lights on object

Three orange-yellow lights flashed in a straight line in the sky, blinking on and off once before blinking out of view entirely.

We (that is, my brother and I) were driving down the highway between Wickenberg and Prescott. The sun had set, and the dusk was gradually fading into night. The hills and mountains were shrouded in black and the horizon glowed a bright pink bordered by a dull yellow. We were in the middle of the desert, mind you. At some point on the highway, my brother asked me if you can see shooting stars more clearly in the desert.

"I don't think it's quite dark enough for that," I said.

At that moment, three orange-yellow lights flashed into view in the sky over Prescott. At first I thought it was an airplane, but I realized that couldn't be the case: the lights were arranged in a staight line of three fireballs, and the one on the far right blinked out, and the middle one followed it and blinked out as well, leaving only one light in the sky. A split second later, however, the middle one flashed back into sight and then the far right as well. The three fireballs shone brightly; they were round and fat and cast a constant glow, meaning they didn't glimmer or glitter at all. Except for when they blinked, their luster didn't oscillate at all: no glimmering, shimmering, glistening, glittering, gleaming or other such pretty verbs. After some 7 seconds or so, all of them blinked out one by one--from the right to the left. They vanished into thin air and didn't return.

Posted 2003-12-19