1982-12-15 - Beatty, NV - Sphere

close up sighting of self luminous sphere shrouded in a vaporous cloud

at 0:300 hrs i was returning to Oregon from Arizona with my wife at the time, for Christmas break with the family. It was about 10 miles south of BEATTY near the junction of hwy 95 and hwy 373 Amagorsa valley that the sighting occurred.off to the right (east, at this point i think the hwy is about 20-50 miles from groom lake to the east) we saw a very bright light which was encircled by vaporous clouds that moved with it. the cloud would precede it by a little and disappear in the wake as it moved. The object remained shrouded in this vaporous cloud the entire time . A spherical light could be seen within the cloud, the light lit the desert as if daylight. At the first sight it was about a mile or two out, under 1000 ft AGL, traveling at an estimated speed between 50-75 mph (timed). I pulled over to the side and exited the car and stood just off the road, the object proceeded toward me in an ever lower trajectory until it was below and between two mesa' in a ravine but still coming to me.It decended to 300-500 feet AGL and came within 500 feet proximity and 500 ft altitude.

I stood and watched as it stopped motionless in front of me. The cloud was slightly swirling in front of the object, there was no sound whatsoever. It remained there, in a hover for 5 minits, at which time it made several erratic and very bright flashes then Retraced its path back into the desert to the east (toward groom lake) at the same speed it came and ascended back to the 1000 ft AGL gradually, then slowly disappeared around a tall mesa. The light disappeared and it was gone. I started back to my car and another driver pulled over and yelled out his window " Did you see that thing?" I responded, "Yes" then he said "WHAT WAS IT?" I respond with "I DON'T KNOW" and he sped off as quickly as he had stopped. Within seconds, a man in a uniform (i assumed police but cant remember the emblem on the vehicle or the designations on his uniform but, i do remember there was no name tag! , as i w as looking for one.) He said, "What you doing parked in the emergency lane? Take off or I'm going to write you up, this lane is for emergency ONLY."So I say" did you see that thing?" And he responded "No.".... ( not, "what thing?" or some other response, just "No." seemed odd to me at the time.) So i got back in the car and i know the wife and I talked about it, I remember the IDEA of talking it over but i cant remember the actual conversation(also seemed wierd to me years later). Since then we are divorced and about 10 years ago i asked her about it... she had absolutely zero recall of any part of the event. (i asked several times over the course of a couple years) this also seems strange to me. Though this object was not maneuvering much it DID display flight characteristics outside of normal aerodynamic flight(slow speed and hover with definitely no rotors and no detectable sounds)not to mention it was carrying with it, i! t's own little cloud.