NUFORC Sighting 27141

Occurred: 1971-04-03 20:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2003-01-17 17:06 Pacific
Duration: 30 Minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Santa Rosa, CA, USA

Shape: Orb
Characteristics: Left a trail, Emitted beams

Unbelievably beautiful spatial anomaly

My father and I were driving over a ridge top just at dusk when we saw the phenomenon.

The object was at the far right of our view and was moving majestically from right to left horizontally at about half the speed of a satellite - VERY slowly. The object itself was about three times the size and brightness of Venus on a clear night. There were maybe 13 ‘rays’ coming from the object that spanned approximately 25 degrees of arc (it was huge, anyway I couldn’t cover it with both hands at arms length) and were equal in brightness to the object, uniform in thickness and length, and absolutely ‘steady’. In other words, they did not ‘waver, change color, or vary in any way until the object ‘exploded’. It was as if someone were slowly moving a static transparency across the night sky.

Well, we were amazed! I quickly found a turn-out, stopped the car, and my father and I got out and sat on the hood of the car to watch it.

As objective as I’ve tried to be it’s impossible for me to judge the time we sat there watching this. I have to say maybe 20, even 30 minutes, although it felt much longer.

After it had crossed 2/3 of the sky, it ‘exploded’. I say exploded, but I really don’t know what it did, it was so beautiful and inexplicable. Suddenly the ‘rays’ disappeared like a light switch being turned off at the same moment a ‘ring’ of fuzzy light expanded rapidly from the object (which at that moment retained it’s size and brilliance) and, in about 2 seconds time, vanished out of sight over the horizons and into space. This ‘ring’ lost about half of its intensity during this expansion.

Then, VERY slowly, like the unfolding of a six petaled flower, the object itself began to expand: As it expanded, in perfect symmetry, it rotated very slowly. This phase of the experience lasted maybe 5-10 minutes. It continued to rotate and expand in graceful majesty, slowly growing dimmer and dimmer.

By this point the ‘lines’ of the ‘flower’ were becoming fuzzier and less distinct. Until it filled the entire sky from horizon to horizon, although by this time it was extremely dim, like a fog or vapor, with the ‘lines’ only barely visible.

And then it was gone.

What was it? I don’t know. It felt somehow ‘alive’ to me… like the creature in the first Star Trek: Next Generation pilot movie. It didn’t seem like a ‘craft’ exploding because of the perfect symmetry. The speed with which it was moving gives me the feeling it was quite distant, above orbital range, perhaps as far as lunar orbit, but I am no physicist.

The local newspaper reported on it the next day, and I suppose many people saw it, although I’ve never spoken to anyone who did. They said it was a Soviet rocket stage re-entering the atmosphere. Maybe it was, but I don’t believe it. I’ve seen these re-entries, and they resemble large meteorites, flaming and breaking apart and moving quite a bit more swiftly across the sky. I just don’t know.

NUFORC Note:

Date is approximate. PD

Posted 2003-03-11