NUFORC Sighting 86309

Occurred: 2011-12-31 18:30 Local
Reported: 2012-01-03 14:35 Pacific
Duration: 5 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Arvada, CO, USA

Shape:


Muted red glowing sphere changed directions then vanished

Northwest of Denver in Arvada, CO near Lamar on 80th Avenue at 630pm, I was driving east and noticed a muted red ball of light traveling towards me (west) at the speed of an airplane. This stood out as different, as was not flashing red/white lights and was not as bright as an airplane’s lights.

Kept watching through the windshield, and then overhead briefly through my sunroof. Had to keep briefly checking the road and looked away, then within 5 seconds, I turned right onto a side street and parked. I saw the ball of light do a tight U-turn and head southeast. From my point of view, it seemed to slightly waver at times and didn’t appear solid.

Within 20 seconds from it turning, it just vanished. I kept watching to make sure it didn’t reappear and it didn’t. Total time I watched was about 5 minutes, and looked at my watch right after it vanished at 635pm MST.

It was a clear evening. When the ball of light vanished, I could see the moon and planet (I think Jupiter) were just to its left and way off behind it.

Originally, the object was coming towards me starting at about 45 degrees above the east horizon and finally overhead at 90 degrees above. When it vanished it was approx 45 degrees above the SSE horizon. It moved slowly like any typical small airplane. (It’s size relative to a star or moon?) -- from the angle I saw it, it was about 1/10th of the moon, yet I was seeing it much closer at a height of small airplane, perhaps 300 - 400 feet above ground.

Sorry, I did not have time to check Heaven-Above for satellites at that time, but know that satellites don’t change directions or appear red.


((ADDENDUM FROM WITNESS))

Muted red glowing sphere changed directions then vanished (add-on)

I filed a report Tues, Jan 3, 2012 at 14:35:50 and omitted the fact that "I rolled down the car window after stopping and detected no audible sound overhead, such as airplane or helicopter engines. No aircraft in close vicinity at that time."

((END ADDENDUM))




NUFORC Note:

We spoke with this witness, and we found her to be exceptionally lucid and objective in her description of her sighting. We suspect that she is an excellent witness. PD


Posted 2012-01-12

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