1998-09-22 - Ladson, SC - Sphere

At approx. 23:55 EST 09/22/98 what is best described as a small orb or disc passed at high rate of speed directly above witness and was travelling from NE to SW.

At approximately 23:55 EST on 09/22/98 I was standing in my driveway in Ladson, SC. and was looking to the night sky directly overhead. I was facing towards the Northwest and suddenly something streaked across the sky directly above my position. It was heading in a Northeast to Southwest direction. The sighting was very brief, maybe a half second, as the object moved very quickly. At first I did not think much of what I had seen. After further consideration of the event, I began to realize that I could not figure out what it could possibly have been with any certainty. When I had originally sighted the object, my first thought was that it must have been a shooting star. I then rejected this idea as it did not 'burn and spark' as other shooting stars that I had seen in the past. The object had been, in fact, rather dull in appearance. It had no luminescence to speak of and my best guess is that it was only illuminated by ambient light from the ground. There are streetlights and other less intense light sources in the immediate area. The night was clear and visibility in the sky was quite good. The moon, if I remember correctly, was low on the horizon and not full. I do remember that whatever the moons' aspect, its light did not interfere. I had been rather pleased by the clarity of the stars and this is why I had been looking skyward in the first place. Dirtectly behind me was a streetlight that was approx. 120 feet away and I had faced away from it in order to see better. The best way to describe what I had seen is to say that it appeared to be a small orb or disc that was a dull, metallic color. It had no external sources of light and did not emit any noticeable sound. There was no trail or glow to the object. As I had indicated previously, it appeared that ambient light was reflected from the object. It looked rather dim/dull and was only visible for a brief instant. This leads me to believe that it was travelling very low to the ground. I had considered that it may have been a bird or bat. I dismissed that notion also as its velocity was far greater than any bird or bat I had ever seen. I also briefly thought that it may have been a airplane of some kind. I again rejected that idea as the circumstances and my perceptions of the object strongly refuted this. There is alot of low-flying air traffic in this area. This is due to the nearby Air Force base and small commercial airport that share runways. Mostly they are rather large commercial and military planes with a few small, private planes and jet fighters. However, the vast majority of the air traffic are large planes. The Air Force base is part of the Strategic Air Command. The only other information that I can provide is that, by my estimation, the object covered 30-40 degrees across my line of sight. The object appeared very suddenly and had disappeared just as quickly. This reminded me of something flying low and only visible by ambient light from the ground. The object moved in a very straight trajectory. This is the best and most accurate description that I can provide of the events and observations on that occasion. I do not completely rule out any possible explanation to what I saw that night. I can say that, whatever I had witnessed, I am perplexed and had never seen anyhting similar.