NUFORC Sighting 42307

Occurred: 1993-12-15 17:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2005-02-24 22:38 Pacific
Duration: 45 seconds
No of observers: 2

Location: Laguna Beach, CA, USA

Shape: Oval

1993 Observation of object moving at extreme angles and speed off Catalina Island

I saw you on TV. I have only told 3 people this story. I saw what I saw as clear as the laptop i am looking at right now. Absolutely no mystery to me. I could care less if people believe me but after seeing you i thought a valid sighting was worth recording with someone. I don't tell anyone about it because they would think me odd.

My name is . I am a 41 yr old business owner now living in Santa Barbara, CA.

In October of 1993 Orange Couty CA was ravaged by fires.Hundreds of homes in Laguna Beach CA burned to the ground. 400 approx. Hundreds of other homes burned in the area as well. Orange County was on fire. I mention this because it seems a rather significant event that may have caused some interest to something.

We owned a wonderful oceanview home in the exclusive gated community of Emerald Bay. Our home burned down that month, October 23rd I recall. With all we had left being a lot full of ash we would come from our rented home to walk on the beautiful private beach of Emerald Bay.

On approx Dec 15, 1993 there had been light rains that day and the clouds were light, and very high, but mostly it was clear. We were walking down the beach for about 15 minutes towards the north. The bay is about one mile long from end to end. When we walked to the North end we turned around and walked back to the center to watch the sun go down. The visibility was fantastic, we could clearly see the Island of Catalina and beyond.

After the sun actually set over the horizon we got up and started to walk back towards our car when I looked strait out, over the ocean, to the south of Catalina perhaps 15-20 degrees up from the ocean horizon.

We witnessed an object in the air that had the sun still reflecting off it. No blinking light. It looked round or oval, i think metalic in it's reflection. At first it just stayed there, for about 3 or 4 seconds. We both thought, plane, and were about to look away. It seemed like a far away plane was having the sun reflecting off it. Just before looking away the darn thing shot off at an extreme angle and stopped! This thing moved so fast all we saw was a blur.

It stayed in that position for maybe 2 seconds and shot off again at an extreme angle to another position. OK, now it had our ATTENTION. I looked at my wife and said "Does anything we have move like that?". We watched this thing for about 40 seconds or so. It did about 7 angled moves before shooting off again at an extreme angle only to not be seen again. It appeared to be farther out than Catalina, more than 20 miles out at least.

I am an extremely skeptical person. Nothing I know of could move like that, take the g forces.

That is my story for what it is worth. I will say this. I absolutely believe that object was not of this earth, I saw it, would swear by it, take a polygraph, etc. I also definately believe in what I saw. I only wish I could have filmed it.

Can anyone tell me what can move like that? Since this time I have become an amateur astronomer and though I know I will probably never see something like this again I have become very interested in all subjects having to do with our universe. Esp. observing deep sky objects.

My equipment includes a 25" Newtonian and my hobby has close to $30,000 in equip. to give you some idea of how interested I have become.

NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that date of incident is approximate. PD

Posted 2005-05-24