1999-02-12 - Albuquerque, NM - Sphere

object hovered due east.flickering brightness.disapeared.reappeared in different but close proximity C130's landing .

Myself and my friend went outside to smoke a cigarette. From the east, a C-130 was flying in low toward the west. I commented on this to my friend, and we then noticed a small, flickering light in the general vicinity of the C-130, hovering stationarily. It appeared simillar to a star, or perhaps Venus. However, the time was approxamitly 5:10, much too early for any star to be visible or Venus to be rising. The object would flash very brightly, then dim in a flickering manner, and then seem to disappear. After a few moments, the object reappeared dimly, increasing in brightness, near where it had previously been. While visible, the object did not appear to move. But during its disappearing acts, the object would reappear in a different but close-by location. During the event, three or four more C-130's followed on the heels of the first we had originally seen. My friend later informed me that he had seen a Huey about fifteen minutes prior to the sighting event. My friend retrieved a video camera and a set of binoculars. He filmed the object for about four to five minutes. Unfortunatly, due to the distance of the object (perhaps several miles), the focus was unable to lock in, and we have only 30-60 frames of a resolved image. Thru the binoculars, I determined the object to be metallic and spherical, like a ball-bearing reflecting the light of the sun. But a sphere would reflect the sun's light evenly and consistantly. Go figure. Within two minutes after the last C-130 had flown in low (and pressumably landed at Kirtland AFB very close-by), the object blinked out for the last time and did not reappear.