NUFORC Sighting 11711

Occurred: 2000-01-04 21:30 Local
Reported: 2000-01-17 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 30 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Coleman, TX, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Aircraft nearby

Light in the sky - much larger than a star, and looking like a flare gun's flare, but suspended in place. Would flicker out and then reappear at least five times. One the third sighting, it split into two lights before dissappearing.

My wife and I were driving back to Dallas from San Angelo, TX. We were perhaps 40 miles outside of Coleman when I saw a light in the sky perhaos twice as big as a star, and with more of a yellowish hue. I thought it might be just an extremely bright star, but after perhaps two seconds, it flickered and went out. My initial reaction was that I had witnessed a shooting star, which somehow approached the earth at such an angle as to appear to not be moving (coming straight at me). I then wondered if perhaps I had somehow witnessed the death of a star. My wife did not notice this first sighting, and I said nothing. Perhaps 3 minutes later, it reappeared at exactly the same spot in the sky, and this time, my wife noticed and asked what it was. My next assumption was that it was a flare-gun, but I also thought that a flare should be seen falling back towards earth. Instead, this light remained in place for several seconds, then flickered out. We began watching the sky intently as we drove. Perhaps 5 mintues passed, and again the light appeared, in what I would guess to be the same place. (We were driving, and it is possible that our road's curves would change the location of the light). This time however, the light divided in two... but the two lights remained the same size as the first original. Each light moved horizontally outward from the original position. If I had been holding a ruler up against the windshield of my truck, I would say that each light moved half an inch from it's original position. To diagram what I mean, Suppose "O" is the Original position, and "N" represents the new position of the lights. Here is how it would look: N<---O--->N These two new lights then flickered and went out, remaining for about the same duration as the others... perhaps 3 to 5 seconds. At least twice more we witnessed the light, but only once did it split as I described. Each time, the instances occurred perhaps 3 to 5 minutes apart. Due to the number of sightings being between 5 and 6, I would say the entire episode lasted perhaps thirty minutes, all while I was driving perhaps 70mph. There were no sightings after passing through Coleman, although I did see two planes, which I would tend to describe as a "military search plane."

Posted 2000-01-22

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