Large green glowing ball of light over the Sierras
A firnd and I were driving back from South Lake Tahoe at about 9:30pm on this night. The Hale Bopp comet was still very predominant in the sky and as we were making out way over the Sierra Mountains on our way home to the San Francisco Bay Area we were keeping an active eye on the comet.Suddnely on out drive my friend exclaimed "When did Hale Bopp turn bright green?". I coulf see Hale Bopp in my drivers side mirror and it clearly was not green and told her so. She then pointed ahead of us and asked "Well then what is that?". I looke in the direction she was pointing ans sure enought there was a bright flourescent green gaseous glowing mass in the southern sky. We kept watching it as we drove and it seemed to get brighter at its core. When we were able to we pulled off to the side of the highway. There were two other cars pulled over as well watching the green mass.
We got out of the car and joined the small group of 7 other observers. The green mass had formed into a gian white brilliant ball of light. It remained as a single ball for about a minute and then suddenly two smaller balls emerged from it. One on either side of the larger ball. The two balls returned into the large one and then four balls came out, this time two on either side then they too retracted. Next three on either side came out and then went in. This pattern repeated until there were 8 balls on either side of the large ball. Then it started the pattern again but in reverse going backwards from 8 to 1. Once it completed that it started all over again. When the eight balls were on either side of the larger ball (for a total of 17 balls of light) it spread across the entire visible horizon. It repeated this pattern for about (or what seemed like) 25 minutes. My friend made a comment about how it was amazing to see but getting boring with all the little balls going in and out. At this point all the balls retracted and the large white ball shot off to the north west at what had to be several thousand miles an hour.
A firnd and I were driving back from South Lake Tahoe at about 9:30pm on this night. The Hale Bopp comet was still very predominant in the sky and as we were making out way over the Sierra Mountains on our way home to the San Francisco Bay Area we were keeping an active eye on the comet.Suddnely on out drive my friend exclaimed "When did Hale Bopp turn bright green?". I coulf see Hale Bopp in my drivers side mirror and it clearly was not green and told her so. She then pointed ahead of us and asked "Well then what is that?". I looke in the direction she was pointing ans sure enought there was a bright flourescent green gaseous glowing mass in the southern sky. We kept watching it as we drove and it seemed to get brighter at its core. When we were able to we pulled off to the side of the highway. There were two other cars pulled over as well watching the green mass.
We got out of the car and joined the small group of 7 other observers. The green mass had formed into a gian white brilliant ball of light. It remained as a single ball for about a minute and then suddenly two smaller balls emerged from it. One on either side of the larger ball. The two balls returned into the large one and then four balls came out, this time two on either side then they too retracted. Next three on either side came out and then went in. This pattern repeated until there were 8 balls on either side of the large ball. Then it started the pattern again but in reverse going backwards from 8 to 1. Once it completed that it started all over again. When the eight balls were on either side of the larger ball (for a total of 17 balls of light) it spread across the entire visible horizon. It repeated this pattern for about (or what seemed like) 25 minutes. My friend made a comment about how it was amazing to see but getting boring with all the little balls going in and out. At this point all the balls retracted and the large white ball shot off to the north west at what had to be several thousand miles an hour.
No
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
On
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Fresh Pond
USA
25 minutes
25 minutes
formation
CA
Occurred : 4/29/1997 17:00 (Entered as : 04/29/1997 17:00) Reported: 12/3/2004 5:30:40 PM 17:30 Posted: 12/14/2004 Location: Fresh Pond, CA Shape: Formation Duration: 25 minutes Characteristics: There was an aura or haze around the object, The object emitted other objects, The object changed color
Large green glowing ball of light over the Sierras