Occurred: 2012-08-14 00:10 Local
Reported: 2012-08-16 10:21 Pacific
Duration: 2-3 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Frankfort, MI, USA

Shape: Light


Bright orange lights over Crystal Lake, Michigan, briefly hovering before shooting out of sight within a fraction of a second.

My seventeen-year old son and I were on the deck of a cabin we’re vacationing at on the south side of Crystal Lake near Frankfort, Michigan. Shortly after midnight we observed a bright orange light coming from the west, growing larger until it stopped a third of the way up the lake between two trees and hovered for about a minute. Then it slowly moved east over the horizon and shot like a bullet straight north over the horizon, disappearing into a small dot and then disappearing altogether in well under a second.

It was impossible to guess how large it was or how high in the sky it was, though it appeared to be at about the same height a helicopter might fly. It was obviously not a star, an airplane or helicopter, or any ordinary light. It appeared to be moving deliberately, and it was completely silent, which is especially notable on a lake where sound carries very far.

I’m combining two reports into one because the next night, 7/15/12, at approximately the same time, my son and I were out on the deck observing the stars and joking about how funny it would be if the light appeared again, when out of the west, it did. This time it hovered long enough that by the time we absorbed what we were seeing, I had time to remember that I should go get my cell phone and take a picture.

Before I could, the light flew quickly back to the west out of sight within a fraction of a second, was followed within 2 or 3 seconds by a slightly smaller orange light that hovered in the same spot in the middle of the lake for a minute or so before it shot west out of sight. All three lights that we saw were close to the same size but appeared to get larger as they advanced towards us to hover I would say about half the size of a normal full moon at their largest, and maybe just slightly oval but mostly round.

My son and I are both in agreement about the details of what we witnessed and that whatever the light was, its movements were unlike anything we’ve ever seen before and not explained by any known aircraft, satellite, or other typical explanations for an unidentified object/light in the sky.

Our background my son is a typical high school senior and a born skeptic who now believes we saw some sort of alien craft. I have a PhD and work as a consultant. While I’m open to both earthly and alien explanations for what we saw, I do know that whatever it is not readily explained.

Posted 2012-08-19

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