NUFORC Sighting 131209

Occurred: 2016-11-11 19:30 Local
Reported: 2016-11-13 06:19 Pacific
Duration: ~7 seconds
No of observers: 2

Location: Raleigh, NC, USA

Shape: Circle
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Left a trail

4 greenish-blue lights rotating around a red light, brief "meteor-like" sighting

Driving along 64 Westbound, about 1 mile east of Raleigh East Airport (W17). Saw a bright greenish-blue light (with a slight trail) appear about 10 degrees over the horizon (nearly directly west), RAPIDLY moving downward to the ground and disappearing. I assumed this was a meteor and made a joke about it being either a meteor, a missile or an UFO.

Within 10-20 seconds of this, the light reappeared at an elevation of about 40 degrees, still west of us. It appeared to be a series of 4 extremely bright greenish-blue lights forming a circle around a dim red light. The 4 lights were rapidly rotating around the red light (at ~15 RPM). This object rose rapidly, made a turn to the right (north) and suddenly shot back down to the earth (nearly identical to the original sighting but at MUCH closer range).

Distance, size and speed is hard to calculate at night (and with an object of unknown size). That said, the speed at which the object moved was roughly that of a fast moving meteor burning up in the atmosphere. The object was also much larger on the second sighting, so I'd assume that we were much closer.

Posted 2016-12-05