1985-01-01 - Largo, FL - Other

Very large UFO, irregular in shape, glowing red-orange craters, below cloud level, no noise, reported in paper as space debris.

I realize that this is a very old sighting, but felt that it was too significant to not share with others, and see if there are any other reports of it on record.

I was approximately 15 years old when I saw this UFO. It was approximately 9:00 PM. It was a moonlit night, and there were many cumulus clouds in the sky that were bright white from the moonlight.

I was sitting outside my house with 4 of my neighbor friends when I noticed a very large object slowly drifting across the sky. All of us saw it. The object was extremely large; much larger than a blimp. I would estimate the size to be at least 100 yards in length.

At first I could not tell the altitude of the object but then realized that it was very close because it blocked out the clouds as it silently drifted over us. I listened carefully for an engine noise, but there was none audible.

The object was irregularly shaped. The best way I can describe it was that it looked like a large rock; appearing at least 4 times larger in diameter than it was in height. The object was rough and had many craters (resembling the texture of asteroids I've seen photos of). The craters emitted a dull glowing red-orange light. I could not actually see the source of this light, the light instead seemed to be reflecting off the craters of the object from a source within it. The object did not vary in speed, direction, or altitude. The object was visible for at least 5 minutes before it finally drifted out of sight.

During the sighting I knocked (no banged) on several neighbors doors to have them also witness what my friends and I were seeing in the sky. When the neighbors would come outside to find out what was going on they were awestruck with what they saw in the sky. It was no doubt to any of us that what we saw was not of this world, and was a UFO.

The next day I looked in the St. Petersburg Times Newspaper for information about what we saw the previous night. I was sure that many hundreds of people must have seen the same thing we saw in the sky. I thought that surely it was reported by many people. I finally found a very small article in the back of the paper that said (to paraphrase) "There were numerous reports of an unidentified object in the sky last night. There is no need to be alarmed, it has been confirmed that this was only space debris".

"Space Debris!!!" I thought...... Well this was no space debris. I am sure that the object was within our atmosphere because it blocked out the clouds as it drifted overhead. The object had no wings. It had no engine or propulsion device that I could see nor hear. This object should have fallen to the ground if it were space debris, but instead it defied gravity and drifted across the sky.

I am sure that this sighting must have been reported to UFO reasearchers by others that also witnessed it. I did not save a copy of the article that I read so recently I attempted to search the database of the St. Petersburg Times to find an archive of this article but the database online does not go back that far. I am hoping that there is eveidence on file of this sighting. Could you please tell me if you have any record of this. As I mentioned this was a very large UFO and plainly visible in the evening at approximately 21:00 hours. The Date is just an estimate as I was a teenager at the time and guess that I was approximately 15 years of age.

Thank you.

((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that date of sighting is approximate. PD))