NUFORC Sighting 82405

Occurred: 2011-07-11 20:05 Local
Reported: 2011-07-11 19:16 Pacific
Duration: 20 mins and watching
No of observers: 3

Location: Memphis, TN, USA

Shape: Cigar
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Aircraft nearby

We saw 6 separate objects flying different directions with and without airplanes and in different flight paths than the planes!

Beginning at 8:05pm, my girlfriend was out on our balcony smoking a cigarette when she called me outside. There was an object in the sky that was moving at a steady, casual pace towards the West, but as we were watching it, began heading south. My girlfriend informed me that she had been watching it for a minute already and saw it fly past the moon, which is to our Southeast this evening. Watching the object, we could tell it was not an airplane because it was SO high in the sky, there was no contrail, and the object appeared to "float by" instead of being "propelled forwards." Plus, for it to interfere with the view of the moon this evening, it would have to be flying very high and far away because the moon is at ~65 degree angle from us. From our balcony, we see every flight that leaves Memphis International Airport, and THIS was not an airplane. It was silvery in color and shaped like a long string, more cylindrical than cigar-shaped, but very narrow compared to its length. It also appeared to "grow a glow," but then it subsided. It soon flew out of distance.

So, we stood here in awe (we are still on the balcony now) and before we knew it a plane was flying West and here comes another one of these objects almost brushing the airplane! We knew the passengers of the flight HAD to see this happen and we watched that object fly toward the East at about the same rate as the first one we saw, except this one was clearly lower and more cigar-shaped and looked to maybe have a light on each tip, but we are not really sure. Each end was brighter than the silvery object itself.

Before that one could leave our view, ANOTHER one flew from the East heading West and was flying against the other one. They passed each other at about the same distance as the airplane and the second object. So, that's three. We watched them until they flew so far, we couldn't see them anymore.

Then another one came and was flying Northeast at what appeared to be a slow, steady pace. It seemed very casual, like it was in no hurry. This one also looked cigar-shaped, same as the third one. Same color, approximate altitude, etc.

During all of this, we called a friend who owns a shop down the street who we asked to look outside toward the moon. We talked to him on the phone for a minute and before we got off the phone with him, he saw an object to the South. We couldn't see it, but stayed on the phone and it showed up. Same type of object, cigar-shaped, silvery, although this one appeared lowest of them all, but maybe it was because it was heading our direction to a Northwest direction.

We were off the phone with him and decided to stay out here knowing we would probably see more. Then there was another one. This one was different from all the other ones. It's hard to describe the shape because it was so far up in the sky, but almost appeared like a cigar, but like it had something else on top of it or maybe kind of an L-shape to it or something. Most notably, though, it had a reddish hue to it, like a haze, but not really "light" like it was shining, but maybe because the sun was going down and it was absorbing that color is my best guess. That was at 8:28pm.

We counted 6 total and it's 8:53pm now and we haven't seen anymore since that last one. Also should be noted, we KNOW the airport had to know about that one coming so close to that airplane. And we have not seen ONE airplane in the sky since that happened. We are very used to the airplanes and never get tired of watching them even though they are around all the time. I must say it is VERY unusual to go this long without seeing at least one airplane flying any direction out of the airport. It's just unusual.

I also want to add that I am in my 20s and have never seen anything like this in my life, not to mention so many. I have always heard about them flying in groups, but we saw each of them singly. The only time we saw more than one at a time was when the 2 were flying opposite directions of one another and that was weird. Why we called the friend during all of this, though, was not only to confirm what we were seeing, but about 2 weeks ago, when my girlfriend was at work at the shop down the street, the two of them had spotted one of these objects then that she said looked just like these except the one she saw was bigger and appeared out of nowhere, disappeared, then returned heading the opposite direction, was reddish colored, and cigar-shaped with the brighter ends.

We were so excited to see these tonight. It must be a blessing or something! It certainly is miraculous what we saw. Oh, and I want to add, the friend we were speaking to on the phone, describe the clouds to look "affected by electromagnetism" if that means anything to anybody else. We saw what he was describing and I would describe it as super thin clouds appearing to "ripple" across the sky... very huge. I really don't think I would have noticed it had he not pointed it out, but it was very unusual, especially since the clouds were so thin and transparent. The sun was setting so the whole sky was clear, purpley-blue and what cloud you could see was more purple and pink. It's definitely the type of sky that suits this occasion.

It's 9:06 and we just saw ANOTHER one, much, much higher than ALL of the other ones. This one was heading north. For being as high as it was, it must have been going really fast before we couldn't see it anymore because of the trees. And then we just saw our first airplane since all the other stuff, heading East, blinking and clearly an airplane. Wow. Well, I will end this here. If I have to do another one, I will.

Posted 2011-07-17

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