Occurred: 2012-08-24 07:30 Local
Reported: 2012-08-25 20:46 Pacific
Duration: 10 minutes
No of observers: 4

Location: Northport, NY, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Lights on object

Large white orb of light hovering/slowly drifting across the sky

I noticed the object while in the car and told the driver to pull over. I watched with 3 other people as it hovered nearby. It appeared to be a couple hundred feet away in the horizontal direction, and appeared to have an altitude of only a couple hundred feet. Assuming these distances were accurate, the visible light was probably around 1 to 4 feet wide. It's possible that the object was much higher and larger, but that was not my original impression.

The object appeared to be simple a ball of light. It flickered slightly, much like a fire would. Its color was almost white, perhaps slightly yellowed, much like the color of a fluorescent light bulb. It sometimes appeared as though there was the dark outline of an object only slightly larger than the "orb" of light, but this could have been a trick of the eye. It appeared to hover motionless, but after 10 minutes or so, it drifted across the sky until it was over a mile away. I'm not sure whether or not the object was at first still and then started moving, or was moving the whole time. Its movement was entirely linear and extremely slow.

I am an electrical engineering student and am therefore someone familiar with science, aircraft, and the like. I am positive that this is unlike any object I had ever seen; it was clearly not an airplane or a helicopter or similar. It is possible, however, that it was some sort of extremely reflective weather balloon or something similar, reflecting light off of the moon, which was directly behind us as we viewed the object. This would surprise me, though, as it was about as bright as the moon and appeared to be creating it's own light.

Posted 2012-09-24

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