NUFORC Sighting 60013

Occurred: 1977-01-01 20:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2007-11-24 15:20 Pacific
Duration: 2 to 3 hours
No of observers: 2

Location: La Crescenta, CA, USA

Shape: Formation

Triangle formation in foothills.

I lived up at the top of Briggs on Freeman, way up by Angelese National Forest. Very few lights, very little people. I went out of my house to walk down the street to babysit the neighbor's kid. I was in an astronomy class in high school, so every time I went out at night I checked the skies to identify constellations. I looked up, as usual, and saw over in the north-northeast three "stars" in a triangle shape. It stumped me, because I could figure out what constellation it was. I remember thinking something about the Summer Triangle; most likely that it couldn't be the Summer Triangle because of the time of year or location. I assumed it was a constellation that wasn't easily seen in town, and I was just lucky to catch it on a clear night, up in the foothills where there were no lights to interfere. I went on down the street to babysit.

A few hours later I returned home. It was close to 11:00 p.m. or so, and I again looked up into the sky. The same "constellation" was in the same location. I knew at that point that it was impossible, after several hours, those stars should have moved. I stopped to watch them. I noticed they were brigher than the other stars. As I watched, the three points of the triangle came together in the center, scrambled around each other, then shot off in three different directions at an incredible speed. Needless to say, I was a little freaked and ran into my house.

The next morning I heard my parents talking in the kitchen before I got up. They said something about not mentioning anything to me, because with my imagination it would scare me. Years later I asked them both about the incident. They both remembered that my father had gone outside after I had left to babysit. He went to close the garage door. He also saw the lights. Something happened, he never did tell me what, but whatever it was was more than just three "stars" up in the sky, otherwise there would have been no need to protect me from what was seen.

So, apparently I saw them in formation, went indoors, and in the interval between my two sightings of them, my father also saw something. Maybe they broke formation and scrambled off, like they did with me, but for what ever reason they came back in time to put a show on for me when I went back outside.

NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that the date of the incident is approximate. PD

Posted 2007-11-28