NUFORC Sighting 139803

Occurred: 2018-05-09 22:16 Local
Reported: 2018-05-10 05:13 Pacific
Duration: >1 minute
No of observers: 1

Location: King Hill (east of), ID, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

Large, bright, orange light fading on and off every 15 to 20 seconds for the 1 to 1.5 minutes I observed it.

I had just gotten off the freeway at about 10:15 p.m. on May 9th, 2018. There was a significant amount of cloud cover in the sky so most of the stars were not visible, and the few that were were dulled by a layer of clouds. The vehicle I was driving was a 2013 Silverado, the windows were up and all accessories, including the radio, was off. In other words it was very quiet in the cab, especially once I pulled off I-84 E via exit 129. I turned left onto Gopher Knoll Rd, which heads NW for approximately 2000 ft before veering right slightly and fixing on a NNW heading for the next couple miles.

Not long after turning onto Gopher Knoll Rd, still speeding up in fact. I saw a bright orange light out of the corner of my eye. Almost dead left of me. I'm not entirely sure what shape it was but it wasn't a perfect sphere. Neither was it triangular or disc-shaped. It was sorta round. For a lack of a better term, I'd say it looked oblong-ish.

At first glance I thought it was a flare. But after a second look I realized it was way too big. I have seen planes drop flares over Saylor Creek Bomb Range many times and I know how easily one might confuse the military shooting off flares for something more fantastical than what is actually happening. This was definitely NOT a flare. Nor was it a plane, helicopter, a reflection of interior lights, a meteor, or god help me the sun. There is no way anyone would be able to convince me it was any of those things. The closest thing I can think of that could possibly pass as a realistic explanation is it was a very very large and EXTREMELY well lit blimp. But even that would be a hard sell. It appeared to be about a third the size of the moon from my perspective (not actual size obviously) and it hovered just below the clouds, or at least the bottom of it did.

The orange illumination only lasted 10 or 20 seconds before it suddenly started to dim. About 4 seconds later it was gone. By this time I was heading NNW and away from the aircraft. It was now more or less in my blind spot (to my left and behind me) only higher than my mirrors would show me.. I kept looking over my left shoulder (much like you do when merging onto a busy interstate) hoping I would see it again. And eventually, sure enough, I did. I'm not exactly sure how long it was lit up the second time either. But the third time I did see it lighting back up. Its transition of going from nothing to full brightness was real close to, if not exactly the same length of time as its transition from full brightness to pitch black, which was about 4 seconds. I then decided to pull off and film it. It would have been really lousy quality but at least it would have been something. Unfortunately, by the time I got out of the truck and turned on the camera it had gone dark again. This time it just stayed dark. I sat there waiting for 5 or 10 minutes hoping to see it light up again, but it never did.

I should add that I was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or overly exhausted, or anything like that. I am also not a dishonest person by anyone's standards. Lying about this would only be counter productive to the progress of humanity, not to mention it'd make me a total ((one word deleted)). I am in no way lying or exaggerating. I'm just a guy trying to do the right thing

Posted 2018-05-15

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