5 kite shaped(larger than stars)orangelights in western sky Stationary 15 mins faded gold->white, then 3 more rose slowly from N-> SW 2 seemed to connect briefly
Our son got an internet message from a girl who lives about 1.5 miles directly north of us. (She lives a few blocks south of BEST BUY on E. State st., where earlier sightings occurred.) She urged us to look! We saw 5 bright orange kite-shaped lights arranged in a "question mark" formation. The sky was cloudy but we could tell they were much larger and closer than stars. They were up very high, like planes, but we knew they weren't moving like planes. We saw them in formation for about 15 minutes, and then they started fading in color. They looked almost like flames painted in the sky. Their shape, from where WE were watching, was a cross between a kite or teardrop, and a flame, but they didn't "flicker" like flames. Their size seemed to remain the same as they paled to light cream, and then suddenly, one by one, they were only a white dot higher in the western sky. My husband(engineer) thinks they disappeared like an extinguished flame. He thinks it's all a hoax. To me, it looked like their speed changed rapidly when they changed from pale lights to white dots(WARP SPEED!) As the first 5 were fading one by one, 3 more started rising slowly from the north. They seemed to come over the horizon from approximately E. State St., possibly over St. Anthony's Hospital, which has a HUGE steel helicopter port with lots of blinking red and white lights on it.( BEST BUY is directly across the street.) As these final 3 lights moved towards us, 2 of them seemed to be directly side by side, and at one point it looked as though their side "arms" actually touched. Then they separated and moved higher in the sky. Those 3 did not make any particular formation, and 2 faded out fairly quickly, but the last one stayed alone in the same spot for close to 10 minutes, as though it was "observing " all the people watching it ! There were many people out observing, from our house all the mile and a half to E. State St. On our block alone we know of 10, plus 2 others on nearby streets. In addition , someone in the area of Alpine and Newberg Roads,(1 mi.west and north)got it on Video and reported this sighting to the local T.V.news.(The video wasn't shown on T.V.) Also, while WE saw lights that did not seem to be round, our neighbors further north saw what they called "balls of light," but they saw the same formation and number of light, and at the same time, so it may have been the angle at which we were viewing this phenomena. I first heard about these mysterious light several weeks ago, when a fellow teacher confided inme that he had seen them on a Friday night at 9 PM, just as he was leaving the store next to BEST BUY. He lives close by, so he had time to get home and videotape the lights he saw. I asked to see his tape and hee is making me a copy, so that the original does not get lost. If it looks useable, we will send you a copy. Today one of my students told me her neighbor also made a video of one of the sightings, so I'll check into that as well.The one thing I want to stress is that some people here in Rockford have tried to dismiss these incidences as shooting stars or "Northern Lights," meteor showers, flares, etc. Flares are the closest possible explanation to what WE saw, but I don't know if flares could remain stationary for 15 minutes. (My son wondered if they could have been flares on balloons?) The other suggestions all fall DOWNWARD, and these lights started low and moved upward. In addition, another reliable person said he saw the lights some weeks ago, and he saw them move into several different formations: Diamond, square, circle, etc. Finally, the girl that first called us to go out and look said she saw what looked like ashes falling from one of the several lights she saw.
Our son got an internet message from a girl who lives about 1.5 miles directly north of us. (She lives a few blocks south of BEST BUY on E. State st., where earlier sightings occurred.) She urged us to look! We saw 5 bright orange kite-shaped lights arranged in a "question mark" formation. The sky was cloudy but we could tell they were much larger and closer than stars. They were up very high, like planes, but we knew they weren't moving like planes. We saw them in formation for about 15 minutes, and then they started fading in color. They looked almost like flames painted in the sky. Their shape, from where WE were watching, was a cross between a kite or teardrop, and a flame, but they didn't "flicker" like flames. Their size seemed to remain the same as they paled to light cream, and then suddenly, one by one, they were only a white dot higher in the western sky. My husband(engineer) thinks they disappeared like an extinguished flame. He thinks it's all a hoax. To me, it looked like their speed changed rapidly when they changed from pale lights to white dots(WARP SPEED!) As the first 5 were fading one by one, 3 more started rising slowly from the north. They seemed to come over the horizon from approximately E. State St., possibly over St. Anthony's Hospital, which has a HUGE steel helicopter port with lots of blinking red and white lights on it.( BEST BUY is directly across the street.) As these final 3 lights moved towards us, 2 of them seemed to be directly side by side, and at one point it looked as though their side "arms" actually touched. Then they separated and moved higher in the sky. Those 3 did not make any particular formation, and 2 faded out fairly quickly, but the last one stayed alone in the same spot for close to 10 minutes, as though it was "observing " all the people watching it ! There were many people out observing, from our house all the mile and a half to E. State St. On our block alone we know of 10, plus 2 others on nearby streets. In addition , someone in the area of Alpine and Newberg Roads,(1 mi.west and north)got it on Video and reported this sighting to the local T.V.news.(The video wasn't shown on T.V.) Also, while WE saw lights that did not seem to be round, our neighbors further north saw what they called "balls of light," but they saw the same formation and number of light, and at the same time, so it may have been the angle at which we were viewing this phenomena. I first heard about these mysterious light several weeks ago, when a fellow teacher confided inme that he had seen them on a Friday night at 9 PM, just as he was leaving the store next to BEST BUY. He lives close by, so he had time to get home and videotape the lights he saw. I asked to see his tape and hee is making me a copy, so that the original does not get lost. If it looks useable, we will send you a copy. Today one of my students told me her neighbor also made a video of one of the sightings, so I'll check into that as well.The one thing I want to stress is that some people here in Rockford have tried to dismiss these incidences as shooting stars or "Northern Lights," meteor showers, flares, etc. Flares are the closest possible explanation to what WE saw, but I don't know if flares could remain stationary for 15 minutes. (My son wondered if they could have been flares on balloons?) The other suggestions all fall DOWNWARD, and these lights started low and moved upward. In addition, another reliable person said he saw the lights some weeks ago, and he saw them move into several different formations: Diamond, square, circle, etc. Finally, the girl that first called us to go out and look said she saw what looked like ashes falling from one of the several lights she saw.
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Rockford
USA
30 minutes
30 minutes
42.27
-89.06
diamond
IL
Occurred : 3/10/2000 20:58 (Entered as : 3/10/00 20:58) Reported: 3/13/2000 23:05 Posted: 3/16/2000 Location: Rockford, IL Shape: Diamond Duration: 30 minutes Characteristics: The object emitted other objects
5 kite shaped(larger than stars)orangelights in western sky Stationary 15 mins faded gold->white, then 3 more rose slowly from N-> SW