NUFORC Sighting 05938

Occurred: 1989-10-31 18:30 Local
Reported: 1999-03-14 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 5 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: El Jebel, CO, USA

Shape: Unknown

Briefly observed black, silent, slow-moving object low enough to reflect ground lights from bottom, convex surface.

On 10/31/89, I observed an anomalous object in the fully dark night sky above El Jebel, Colorado (Eagle Cnty.). My family and I had just stepped out of our car after parking at the curb in a residential area that we intended to canvas for the purpose of trick-or-treating. It was fully dark, and a completely clear evening with no clouds. As my wife was getting our two boys' costumes in order, I looked up into the night sky. Immediately, I observed what appeared to be a moving area of the night sky directly above me, through which the stars were totally obscured. I could not estimate the shape or size of whatever caused this phenomenon. There was no sound. There were no lights that seemed to be associated with the cause of the hidden stars. The only suggestion of the object's shape and altitude was that the bottom of the object appeared to be convex because I could see groundlight from the homes around us reflected from its surface. There were no lights in the neighborhood brighter than a streetlight or a porchlight. Therefore, I surmised that a dark object must be fairly low in altitude to reflect dim lights in such a manner. It moved steadily, and if at low-altitude, slowly from the NE to the SW (generally in a line from El Jebel, CO towards Mt. Sopris, a 12,900 foot mountain that serves as a handy landmark for residents of the Valley). The sighting lasted for approximately 5 seconds. Although I pointed and yelled, "Look!" no other member of my family saw the object. Observer background: 37-year-old male. B.A. in Anthropology. At the time of the sighting I was a part-time real estate salesperson. My vision is good with eyeglass correction, and my hearing is normal. I was familiar with the neighborhood in which the sighting ocurred as I had lived there for a period of 6 months two years earlier. I revisited the exact spot in the daylight to determine if there were any overhead powerlines that might account for my impressions, but there were none. I had never seen anything like this before that time, and I have not seen anything like it since. I did not report the sighting because I regarded myself as a "bad witness." I have read about the subject extensively, and I had heard a re-broadcast of Orson Well's "War of the Worlds" earlier the same day. However, I must report that if I had had to describe what a UFO looked like earlier that same day, it would NOT have been as a silent, black object.

Posted 1999-04-02