NUFORC Sighting 94236

Occurred: 2012-11-05 22:20 Local
Reported: 2012-11-08 12:13 Pacific
Duration: 5 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Tacoma, WA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

single low flying/floating/gliding ORANGE light in sky

I was driving home from work as usual. This occured between 22:15-22:25 PST. I was driving in a northerly direction, about 14 blocks away from my home when i noticed an orange light. At first glance i assumed it was a plane or aircraft of some kind. Then as I got closer, about 10 blocks away i noticed the light was still there, and it was rather large, not small like a plane light. I then as i was driving, I started watching for it to blink or fade away or turn like most planes in the area do. There were no other lights or aircraft lights or anything in the sky during this time.

When I first saw the light it was a little to the left of the road i was driving on, during the day there is a large tree at the end of the road where i turn and it was in that area. as I got closer the light had moved to the right side of the road. When I was about 8 blocks from home and still observing this light i decided to pull over to the side of the road because this was simply something i had never seen before. It was a VERY clear ORANGE light. Not flickering or flashing. It was roundish, maybe a little more oval than round, but overall just an VERY orange light.

At the time i thought it was a paper lantern for 2 reasons: #1 because it was SOOO low to the ground..maybe 200 feet up. Maybe a little higher, it was night time so judging distance was hard but it was a large light (street lamp size) so I assumed it was rather near to the ground..much closer/lower than i've ever seen a plane or even a helicopter. and #2 reason was because of the way it was moving. It wasnt moving at a fast speed like i would expect an aircraft or helicopter to move. In fact it's movement was more of a floating/gliding. However the longer i watched it the more i knew it was not a lantern, because it was a clear light, there was no lantern for a flame or anything to be encased in. It was a clear, orange light that was not flickering like a flame would. It was also very silent, i could not hear it passing by. there were no engines or blades or cars or music or any other type of noise.

So when I pulled over the light floated to the left side of the street again, passing over the road, but i could not see a shape associated with the light, just the light..and it just slowly meandered across the houses and trees to the left of the road, 1-2 blocks over. there are about 2-3 blocks on the left side of the road then there is a cliff going into the Puget Sound. I watched the light for about 2-3 minutes while i was pulled over. I would expect a normal aircraft/helicopter would have passed out of my line of sight during 2-3 minutes and would be heading off wherever it was meant to be but after 2-3 minutes i got a little freaked out that I didnt know what this light was so i drove the rest of the way home. I did not see the light again after i drove off.

As for my background/description: I am not the kind of person looking for UFOs or strange sightings, i have never tried to see things like that. I am deeply interested in astronomy and when it's not raining/cold outside i usually have my telescope out in my backyard looking at the stars/moon, however i have never seen an object that i could not identify. Other than a few meteors i havent seen anything unusual in the skies during the past month or two here. I still dont know what i saw except that it was like NOTHING i've ever seen and i've been looking at the stars all my life. It wasnt until i described the situation to a pilot friend of mine that i thought it might be a UFO because he told me that there are no orange lights in aviation. That is how i came across this website and why i decided to share my experience.

Posted 2012-11-19

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