NUFORC Sighting 36580

Occurred: 2004-04-25 21:35 Local
Reported: 2004-04-27 23:35 Pacific
Duration: 10 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Bend, OR, USA

Shape: Formation
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

String of star-like lights drift through sky in straight line, with equal distance apart from one another.

Actually this night I had two UFO encounters. The first was very insignificant but it was because of this first one that I later noticed the more prominent one.

1st sighting: I was driving south on Hwy 97 in Bend, from the Holiday Inn. I hadn't quite reached Cooley Rd yet, but was coming up on it fast. It was about 9:00 pm, only a half hour or so before my second sighting. I saw this dark object "fly" over the road from west to east. I noticed it because it reflected light on it's underside. I saw it for perhaps a second. It then stopped reflecting light whereupon I could no longer see it. If I had to surmise how big the object was, in my best guess it was small; perhaps as big as a large duck. I also believe that it was very low to the ground, around 100 feet no higher. The shape was nearly indiscernable. It would be pointless to describe it.

2nd sighting: I was driving north off Glacier Ridge and came to the stop sign where you turn onto Neff rd. I was looking in the night sky for more stuff because of my first sighting. I noticed a bright light in the sky. I thought it looked funny, but not suspicious. I watched it at the stop sign until I noticed it had a blinking light. It then started to move to the west where I then realized this must be Air Life. I rolled down my window and heard the blades of a helicopter which more or less confirmed my suspicions. I then turned onto Neff Rd heading west and continued to look in the same patch of sky (looking true north), when I became aware of a strange assortment of stars. There was quite a few of them all in straight line. I knew this was more than a coincidence so I pulled my car over to the side of the road and got out to take a look. And I did for five minutes. This is what I saw.

There were 12 of these lights. They appeared just like normal stars. Equal in size, and luminicity. If they weren't in a straight line I would have never known the better. The first light closest to me was directly above me. Straight up in the sky. Then the next one was a little to the north, and the next one the same distance to the north as well. It appeared from my angle as if they were all spaced equally apart from each other, except that the distance they covered shortened the length for the ones farthest to the north. I noticed that the lights were moving ever so slowly. At first they appeared to be moving north, but after a while I noticed their greatest motion was from east to west. They all moved together to maintain this straight line. On a couple occasions I couldn't count 12 but only 10 but that's probably because they were hazed over by the city light of Bend. On two occasions it also appeared as if the lights all would wobble together. Meaning all of them would seem to wobble in place, and I believe all of them did this at the same time, however it was hard to discern without any reference for a plane of stability in the sky. It might have been only the one light moved from more or less directly north of me, to the northwest of my vision, and were ever so slowly moving north as well. The one light that used to be directly overhead was now further north.

So I got back in my car and drove no less than a quarter of a mile.. keeping an eye on these lights outside my passenger window. When the oddest thing happened. I passed them! I pulled over again and got out to take a look. And I noticed the lights were roughly in the same place in relation to me, as I was in my original spot after first spotting them! I had somehow passed them in less than a 1/4 of a mile! When I was driving I saw myself passing them up! Now before seeing this, my guess was that these lights that looked a lot like stars, were pretty high up in the sky. But after realizing I had passed them up in my car in such a small distance, they had to be really low to the ground. Perhaps 500 feet, maybe a little more. And they must have been small too... It's hard to say, but maybe the size of a kite.

Now I didn't watch them long after the second time I pulled over, but I just left after taking my fill. I tried really hard to be objective about this. No lost time. No noises were eminating from these lights. What little wind there was, was blowing from the west and sometimes the north. I find it very hard to think that this could have been some weird person's idea of attaching lights to a kite, and attempting to fly it with little to no wind, in the middle of the night! And somehow making them drift across the sky in formation! Usually a kite rotates from the anchor, and these lights did not do that! The other interesting thing to note is that my mother said, according to the news station the military was testing jet craft or the like during the night time this last week. I heard such a craft around noon a week prior to this alleged news briefing. Now if this is military related, it must be small remote control craft. I would be very hard pressed to imagine something else. Whatever it was, these two sightings were small, which is a theme. Although one did not emit light, the other string of objects did..

I can't think of more than that. The lights seemed like natural star light. Remember Air Life (I assume it was Airlife because the hospital was a half mile away!) was nearby before I noticed the lights. They may have been there before, but I never noticed. Oh one last thing... It was a beautiful day in Central Oregon, so there was not a cloud in the sky, and ditto for the night as well.

I feel that it's pertinent to my UFO sightings to mention my mood. I have witnessed 5 UFO's, and I mean that in the most literal sense. I don't assume they were alien craft, military, or whatever. They are just Unidentified Objects manuevering in the sky. But on four of these sightings I remember my mood to be in the range of happy, and usually full of energy. More or less just feeling good about myself. The other UFO sighting of mine happened much earlier in my life (9 years old) and I can't recall my mood, but I was with a lot of friends, so I suspect it to be in the "feeling good" range.

Okay I have just proofread this and remember one last thing although I feel it's unrelated to the incident, and makes me feel a little more than embaressed. But when I first saw the Air Life helicopter, I tried flashing it with my headlights on my car. I was flashing them with my "brights" pretty rapidly, comparable to morse code. They copter was in the perfect position to see me, so I thought I might get a response from it. I did not.

Posted 2004-04-30