NUFORC Sighting 08573

Occurred: 1999-07-25 20:40 Local
Reported: 1999-07-29 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 2-5 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Moses Lake, WA, USA

Shape: Sphere
Characteristics: Changed Colo

Small distant luminescent sphere, looking somewhat like a star but much larger and during mostly daylight.

Color=Silver-yellow (the sun was very yellowish that evening and I believe it lent a yellowish tinge since it was likely reflecting off a silver object). Size=3X larger than the evening star I have observed the last few weeks. Location (relative to the evening star)=8 o’clock. I was driving west and the evening star was almost directly in front of me at 1 o’clock. The object also appeared to be between my location (Moses Lake) and the Cascade Mountains. Appearance=Clearly spherical, not self-illuminated though much brighter than the evening star. Actions=Stationary, though the color/shadow changes indicated it was possibly rotating. Setting=Evening, the sun was going down but not yet behind the mountains. It was still clearly daylight. In the west was the evening star I have become accustomed to at about 1 o’clock. A mountain range was in the background to the west. The sun was to my right about 20-40 degrees. Description=I had noticed a bright evening star in early July and concluded it was probably Mars so I was in the habit of observing the stars when I was out each evening. On July 25, as I was driving home through the state of WA I noticed what I thought was a second bright star in the West while I approached the Moses Lake area. I noticed that this new "star" was larger (3X) than the star I had concluded was Mars and instead of being of uniform luminescence it changed appearance as though I were seeing shadows and other visual effects as objects shift in position and the sun reflects from them differently. I did not think much of this since I have basically considered the odds of my seeing a UFO as approaching 7 sigma however I noticed that as my car came up out of the Moses lake area (the highway is somewhat lower as you pass through the city) the object was completely gone. So, in a matter of 30 - 60 seconds the object disappeared. Clearly, if this were a star (especially considering how bright it was) this would not be the case. It was also clearly spherical which would largely eliminate conventional craft. I was able to observe the object for only a couple minutes before I dropped down into Moses Lake. Observer=33 year old male software test engineer for Microsoft Corp. No previous experiences of this nature. You may call, email, etc if you desire more info.

Posted 1999-08-10