NUFORC Sighting 79715

Occurred: 2011-01-16 22:12 Local
Reported: 2011-01-17 12:24 Pacific
Duration: 5 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: New York, NY, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

Strangely moving orange lights appeared briefly over the East Side of Manhattan.

I was driving south on 2nd Avenue in Manhattan from 128th Street, when a strange flickering orange light appeared in the southern sky, heading eastbound. Flickering like the flame of a candle or a star, not like a plane's lights. My only guess at the time would have been a blimp, but a blimp unlike any I've ever seen. Also, it was more spherical than blimp-like.

Soon other identical lights came into view, passing from behind tall buildings on the west side of 2nd Avenue. I pulled onto the next street I could, 119th Street, and immediately hopped out and started filming on my cell phone. Total I would say there were 7 lights that were in the sky, but I was only able to capture 4 on my phone. Three seemed to fly together in a pyramid formation before the 4th came flying into view. They didn't fly in consistent patterns either, sometimes changing directions distinctly. At the end of this experience, which lasted about 4 or 5 minutes, each light seemed to climb higher into the clouds until they were no longer visible.

If they were balloons, they were definitely producing light and massive in size. I didn't see any smoke trails or quick, random movements to make me think they were flairs. The flight patterns, while they did change directions, didn't alter in velocity, from my point of view.

I am 25 years old, from Northeast New Jersey, and have lived my entire life in and around the New York City area. I have never seen anything even remotely similar to this, and I am always looking at the night sky.

This is a link to the video that I shot from my cell phone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K36CGC3hZE

Posted 2011-01-31