NUFORC Sighting 117329

Occurred: 2015-02-05 00:40 Local
Reported: 2015-02-15 13:17 Pacific
Duration: 5 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby

A red-orange, star-shaped, mobile object shining in the sky.

Midnight-ish of February 5th, in UCSB (University of California Santa Barbara), my friend and I were looking out to the ocean (southward), when we spotted a star-shaped, red-orange object in the sky. It looked as if it was slowly swaying inconsistently left to right, and perhaps drifting closer to us. A bit concerned (perhaps "frightened") we ran inland to where it eventually vanished.

The object was alone and, to our knowledge, was not preceded nor succeeded (we checked for succession) by any other objects of its kind. It emitted five (natural) rays of light (not "beams" or searchlights) that almost shaped in a star, with one ray shining upward and the other four fanning downward.

A plane flew by shortly after. We considered it may have been the aircraft emitting the light, but immediately decided against it as it flew in from the opposite part of the sky, and was in no way close to illuminating as bright as the red-orange glow.

Posted 2015-02-20