NUFORC Sighting 81650

Occurred: 2011-06-03 22:22 Local
Reported: 2011-06-04 17:50 Pacific
Duration: 28 mins
No of observers: 2

Location: St. Charles, IL, USA

Shape: Orb
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Aircraft nearby

3 Amber Orbs Spotted Over Rural Area in Midwest

Sighting(s) occurred June 3, 2011.

My boyfriend and I were going to take a walk through my neighborhood at approximately 10 pm, Central Time. We walked about 20 minutes before deciding to sit in an empty lot to talk and look at the night sky.

After about 5 minutes of standing and looking up at the sky, I noticed a very bright, amber star in the West. After pointing it out, I quickly noticed that it was traveling fairly quickly.

The two of us got excited, as we assumed it was a shooting star or a comet.

As it neared where we were, I vaguely noticed that it didn't seem to be descending accelerating, or extinguishing, as many space-borne objects will. The "comet" continued in a steady, unfaltering path across the night towards the East.

As we continued to watch, we noticed that the object seemed to flicker very consistently, and was orb-like in nature. This last detail is what made us question that we were seeing some meteor or shooting star. Usually those seem to have a "tail" and move quicker.

My boyfriend suggested it was likely some sort of plane or helicopter. My father, however, is an Air Traffic Controller, and has been for over 30 years. So I am fairly familiar with what different types of aircraft look like their markers, shapes, and flight patterns, air spaces, etc.- even at night.

I assured him we had not seen a plane; I knew that for absolutely certain. (Not to mention, there were other airplanes in the area, or closer to the airport, that appeared normal and could also serve as a good reference.)

So as this thing vanished into the horizon, we just brushed it off as some odd piece of space debris that had gotten caught in orbit or some loose ashes from a nearby bonfire (even though, in hindsight, I now realize that there was no smoke to be seen or smelled, and the night was absent of fire crackling, or people enjoying a fire)

As we were sitting together in the grass 5-10 minutes later, I spotted yet another object, identical to the other in every way (physical description, speed, height, size, etc.) coming across the sky from the same origin point in the West.

This time we studied the object with more scrutiny, as we had been intrigued by the irregularities of the previous. "Maybe we’re looking at the beginning of a meteor shower!" I briefly thought, as sometimes you will see a couple before the majority appears. But it was still a little odd, if it were that.

As we watched the thing float above our heads in its steady, silent path my boyfriend even suggested that the object was perhaps someone flying some sort of remote-controlled toy with a light. I know better though, as my father (being pretty interested in aerial flight as a whole) has made and flown his own remote-controlled airplanes for decades, and our family has gone to a few RC clubs and flights.

By now, being halfway across the sky, this strange orb was fitting absolutely no description of anything I had ever recognized. It was a completely ginger-hued orb that seemed to enclose some sort of flickering light, much like the flame on a candle. It seems to be consistently traveling at a fairly low altitude, and had a straight, steady flight pattern. We also both noticed that both objects had been entirely silent.

It also had no "exterior" or extra lights; it was simply an orange flickering sphere. It did not have a tail, it did not accelerate or decelerate; it didn’t falter in its size, height, speed, or trajectory.

Suddenly during our examination, the object just shut off. It didn’t fade out; nothing like that. It just "shut off" like a switch.

This is when I started to get really interested. No ashes, comets or stars, and certainly not aircraft! An aircraft would just shut off like that so abruptly midair.

My boyfriend and I looked at each other with confusion and curiosity. "We just saw our first UFO!" He laughed jokingly, since he is well aware of the fact that I do not believe in UFO’s, like much of pop culture, with notions flying saucers and little green guys. I believe, being the daughter of a devout Christian and Air Traffic Controller, in the term "UFO" in the strict definition of an "unidentified flying object," and nothing more.

And, as a side note, even in 30+ years as an ATC for O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, my father has never had or seen a report of a UFO that they could not identify soon after its sighting. But I digress.

Needless to say, I was completely dumbfounded by the objects we were seeing, and both my boyfriend and I were intrigued to say the least. But what were the chances of seeing one, let alone two, strange things in the sky? We laughed about it, and commented on how cool it was, but as our conversation continued it also swung back into normalcy.

About 20 minutes later (probably about 10:50 pm, if I were to guess) a couple of clouds began to cover the sky, coming from the southwest. With the stars disappearing and bugs beginning to nip at me more and more, I was thinking of beginning to head back home.

But before we could even stand to go, I saw something- again! One of the SAME "somethings," again.

I jumped up, mid-conversation, and franticly pointed out yet another airborne object to my boyfriend. This time the orb seemed closer to the ground and/or bigger in size, and the flickering light was more defined. Everything else, however, was eerily the same; spherical shape, silent, steady.

When reached the same air space with the clouds, it went right through them, absolutely undisturbed by them.

Just then, my boyfriend whipped out his cell phone, and tried to capture a picture, to no avail. But I couldn’t move; my heart had stopped. No flaming object, from inside or outside of earth’s orbit should be able to go through such a dense cloud without even a slight alteration in appearance or behavior. But no, it flew right through the clouds as if a plane would. (Though I knew it wasn’t one- and even planes can be affected by impacting clouds- turbulence, anyone?)

Also, the latest observation made me realize that this thing couldn’t be that far off. If it’s cruising through a cloud-layer, this thing IS in our atmosphere so SHOULD not have such a stable, controlled path.

My heart began to pound. When it was directly overhead (and well-clear of the clouds) it shut off abruptly. It seemed to be lost or gone. But when I spotted it a split-second later, I yelped and grabbed my boyfriend’s hand. It appeared to be a completely black, saucer just hovering in the air.

It stood stationary for an instant, before "bucking" (much like a manual car switching gears at high speed) and then rapidly accelerating. It had accelerated most definitely, but was still continuing on the same steady, unfaltering path, and never seemed to ascend or descend, similarly to the others.!

I don’t know where it went or what happened to it after that. We were running home as fast as we could, the hairs on our body standing on end.

After reaching the house out of breath, and hastily telling family members what we witnessed (mostly a skeptical audience, I think), my boyfriend went back to the same place to try and capture footage. He was there for about a half hour, and was unfortunately unable to see or capture anything else.

To the best of my knowledge, this was not any well-known aircraft, any comet, asteroid, or meteor, any ash from a fire... It just was nothing I’ve ever seen. I even looked online to see if there was any meteor, asteroid, etc. activity expected or spotted in the area for that time, and there was absolutely nothing.

So far, though, one of my neighbors has confirmed that she saw the activity as well, but then again I have heard nothing else from anyone else or read any news articles about the instance.

And, yes, we were sober, and no I don’t (or didn’t, perhaps) even believe in "extraterrestrial activity," so this is not wishful thinking, or an overactive imagination. Even my boyfriend, who is fascinated with anything bizarre or scary, was terrified- and I have never seen him even remotely as scared in the 3 years we have been dating.

Posted 2011-06-12