NUFORC Sighting 31035

Occurred: 2003-08-30 23:55 Local
Reported: 2003-08-30 23:19 Pacific
Duration: 30 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Albuquerque, NM, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

Saw two steady red lights moving very fast, very silently, jerking around, East to West over Albuquerque, NM.

There are low clouds over the city tonight, and the local Indian Casino is using searchlights in a repeating pattern to make pictures on the underside of the clouds, as they often do. I was on my balcony, facing south, looking up at the clouds, watching the searchlights. I could see what I believe is Mars just above the tops of the clouds. I noticed a pair of red lights (they could have been just about any color, I am color-blind) moving quickly across the underside of the clouds in a west-to-east direction, towards Sandia Mountain. I first thought that it was someone with a powerful laser pointer having some fun - the lights moved in a jerky manner, as a light directed from the ground might, but I have tried to shine a laser pointer on the underside of a cloud at night before, and I realize that they are not powerful enough to do this at such a distance. In any case, I was startled when the lights came to the edge of the cloud formation and did not disappear, as they would have if they were merely lights being shone on the bottom of the cloud by people below on the ground. The lights instead continued on and quickly vanished over the top of Sandia Mountain. I waited to see if the lights would return, but they did not. I turned around and noticed my kitchen clock - it was nearly midnight, so I would put the time of my observation at around 11:55 P.M. Mountain Time. It was only after the lights vanished that I realized that they had moved without making a sound. With the low-hanging clouds tonight, if it had been military or civilian jets, they should have made a noise I could hear. Also, I believe that jets have blinking lights - these were on steady and bright. Also, jets tend to move in a straight line - these lights jerked back and forth, not a lot, but far more than a jet could do. I have never made any kind of a report before, and this may mean nothing, but it was interesting.



Posted 2003-09-04

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