1980-11-15 - Pullman, WA - Disk

I was working on a project for a class at Washington State University in the middle of the Palouse. My boyfriend and a friend of ours were with me. During a break I was standing outside having a cigarette when I noticed a light above the horizon. It was full dark and the light was bright enough to catch my attention but not so bright as to stand out particularly. I became aware that the light I saw was reflecting blue and red. It was like the colored lights were on too of a disc that was tilting upwards periodically and obscuring the lights. I was trying to figure out whether the lights were from a satellite or perhaps from Venus. I am not an astronomer and have no expertise in this field. I was joined by my friend and boyfriend. After a few minutes on of them also remarked on the odd colored item in the sky. I acknowledged that I saw it too and we began to discuss what it might be. All of a sudden the object grew brighter and performed a zig zag maneuver at! a high rate of speed. I asked if they had seen that and what it could be. As we continued to watch we could see more clearly the rim of a curved edge tilting upward periodically and obscuring red and blue cycling lights. If it weren't for the shape and bizarre movements I would have said it was a plane. But this thing hung motionless I. The sky except for the waxing as nd waning of the light. It made additional zig zagging maneuvers as we watched for maybe three minutes. It then dropped straight down below the horizon and disappeared. A couple of seconds later two military jets flew over the area in a criss-crossing pattern.