NUFORC Sighting 47777

Occurred: 2005-11-14 21:15 Local
Reported: 2005-11-18 12:01 Pacific
Duration: 10 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Boston, MA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object, Changed Color, Aircraft nearby

Bright white/red light over Boston then fades out

I live on a hill about three miles south of the downtown area of Boston and look at the city almost due North.

In the winter we lose the leaves that obscure the skyline in front of our kitchen windows. I'd say we are about 3-4 stories high. Now that the leaves have fallen we can see the city pretty easily through he tree branches. Since it was a clear night out and we were cooking dinner I was in my kitchen and looking out at the sky line and sky - we eat late. I could see the typical air-traffic approaching Logan as well as the high altitude military and international flights that go over Boston daily.

Immediately my attention was drawn to a VERY bright white light, slight reddish hued edges at first, that seemed like an approaching airliner but it didn't move, or so I thought. It was very twinkly.

Wondering if it was a star or a planet I continued to look at it until I noticed, thanks to the position of the tree branches, that the light was indeed moving but very slowly (there was little to no wind outside).

I called out to another person in the kitchen to come to the window and have a look. He saw it immediately (you'd have to be legally blind to miss it) and he was at a loss as to what it could be since he saw that it was indeed moving but more so like hovering.

He went to see to dinner and I kept watching.

Suddenly it got brighter and I could see on both the left, right, and the bottom edge, the light became more oblong, that there were two red lights that could be seen partially through the bright white in the center. The other person heard me yell out and came to see it too. Just as suddenly as it brightened it started to dim. The white light part turned all red and just faded out til it was gone - like CRT TV's that have the center dot that fades out.

The whole time typical aircraft were flying above and near(ish) the object. It was much larger and brighter than any of them regardless of altitude.

Thinking it was a star, I thought I would try and see if it was there the next night. Venus and Mars have been pretty big in the sky over the last months so I thought I'd wait until I could rule it out. Of course it was cloudy the next two nights but the third night was crystal clear (11/17/05). Not one star would have even come close as to rule it one in the same. Not that you can see a ton in the city anyway.

There were none in the area where this seem to be in the sky. As a point of reference, the Prudential Tower was directly below it's position. From my point of view I'd guess the light was 40 degrees altitude/10 degrees azimuth.

Posted 2005-12-16