NUFORC Sighting 75470

Occurred: 2008-07-15 15:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2010-05-19 20:34 Pacific
Duration: 5 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Shamokin (Coal Township), PA, USA

Shape: Cigar


Saw a white flatish oval or cigar shaped white object for 5 seconds and then it disappeared. Clear blue sky with no clouds.

This sighting happened to me as nearly as I can recall back about two years ago, during the month of July of 2008. It may have been something like July 15th or so.

I was out in my backyard cutting the grass and I sat down to rest a bit on a 3 foot high railroad tie fence at the back of my yard. My back yard has an elevation slope of about 4 degrees which is why I usually need to rest since half of the grass cutting is "going up hill".

As I looked up to the north, I noticed a white object floating or stationary over the crest of the mountain ridge which, from my back yard is about 1 1/2 miles north of here. I know it's about 1 1/2 miles from here because of the time it takes for the sound to reach me from the annual fireworks displays each year. Although the fireworks originate from an area on the crest of that mountain about a mile west of here, so for the timing of the flash of fireworks to the "boom" is about 9 seconds, but since where I saw the "UFO" is a shorter distance, so I approximate it to be about 1 1/2 miles (7 to 8 seconds).

I put the shape of the object in your form as "cigar shaped" although that's not exactly it's correct shape. I'm a former technical illustrator and since I smoke cigars I'm well aware of the fact that cigar shape doesn't exactly describe it perfectly. The upper and lower sides weren't exactly parallel as in most cigars, but slightly convex - very slightly. And each end of the craft was round, not like in most cigars which are round on one end and the lighting end is flat or just cut straight off.

But anyway, that's the best I can describe it verbally, but with drawing it I could draw it exactly as it was.

The craft was just white, not shiny metallic like an aluminum aircraft. Also the craft wasn't blindingly emitting a strong source of light, it was just white like a white object. One thing that I noticed was that there didn't seem to be any shadow on the underside of the craft, It was just all white.

I took about 1 second to adjust my eyeglasses and then when looking back at it, it just wasn't there anymore.

Now I'm 74 years old and have been wearing eyeglasses for about 65 years so I'm well aware of whether or not it was a white piece of fluff or object on my eyeglasses. The craft I saw I clearly focused on. It wasn't an object on my eyeglasses. I know the difference after 65 years. I was a member of the USAF for 4 years and also have my Private Pilot's Certificate so am used to viewing object in the sky.

So when I looked back to the object after first seeing it for about 5 seconds it was just wasn't there anymore.

My theory as to why it wasn't there anymore is that either: 1 - It zoomed away in that time, or else, 2 - It just became invisible in that time.

Incidentally, I know clouds can disappear in only a few seconds, like about 5 seconds at times, but this object disappeared in only one second. I know that in film clips on TV that clouds seem to disappear in only maybe about 1 second, but that's only in time lapse filming. This object disappeared in real time in only 1 second.

So, there you have it. Every time I go out to cut the grass now, I always keep an eye on the sky here but haven't seen that object anymore. I keep looking but so far, no luck.




NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that date of sighting is approximate. PD


Posted 2010-06-03

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