Was observing thru telescope for casual astronomy. Looked up in the sky to find a target star in Ursa Major when I saw due East at around 1,000 feet a sauces shaped object hovering abnd bobbing gracefully in the sky.
I am an Amateur Astronomer and on Saturday night 5/29/00 (sic), it was the first clear night in a while over the New York area. I was trying out my new 150mm refactor telescope and I was searching for star clusters near Ursa Major. I started to set up the scope at 9 P.M., and I aligned the scope to Polaris, and was setting up the tripod for 1/2 hour at the most. I decided to search for M13 in Hercules, but it was straight overhead at R.A 16hours, and I decided not to bother since the scope would be inproperly positioned for a decent view. (Too low to the ground on a small tripod.) The time was approximately 9:30 P.M. I then decided to search for M51 in Canes Venitaci when the neighbor turned on the garage light and I waited for the light to turn off. I went into the house at this time to get a cup of coffee and proceeded to got back out to the yard after the garage light went out. I started to view in the scope at a 45 degree angle due East. After searching around a bit I saw a white rotating streak in the field of view which was spiraling but figured it was a meteor falling to Earth. No problem, a typical event to see as an Amateur astronomer. After that I pointed the scope at the Star, I believe it was Altair or Arcturus. Not sure cause I didn't have the map with me. Anyway, I decided to focus the scope on the Star to see how much cromatic distortion the scope had. After all that, I decided to stop viewing. When I got off my chair and stood up, I looked at the sky for incoming clouds and saw some coming from the West. When I turned around to the East, I saw an object, rather large hovering and moving East. The object looked disc like but it was a dark shaded craft, black/dark gray. It had 4 lights, 2 red horizontal lights pointing North/South, and the other 2 lights were green pointed East / West (toward me). The lights were mounted at exact opposites to each other. The object was rather low, around 1,000 feet and was the size of a plane. The lights did NOT blink, and the craft or object made absolutely N! O NOISE. The object was hovering but moving slowly toward the East in a bobbing up and down fashion. There were 2 slow bobbing actions while it was in my view. It did that twice, while moving East and then it slowly moved East to the horizon and over the neighbors tree and out of my viewing sight. This sighting occurred at the 10:30 P.M. time frame. I saw it for around 10-15 seconds. I immediately went into the house to tell my relative (mother) what I had saw. The time was checked at 10:34 P.M. I was not abducted cause I had a strict account of the time. I started setting up the scope at 9:00 P.M. and I was out there for around 1.5 hours. I did not wear a watch. I used the kitchen clock for all time references. Though I live near an airport, all the planes move from South to North, and North to South always. There was never a plane moving in the West to East direction here and I 've been living here since 1969. The only aircraft were helicopters, but they make lots of noise when they come over here. THe object seemed to have appeared suddenly cause I didn't notice it come over my head from the West.
((NUFORC Note: The witness has indicated that the event occurred on 29MY00. We believe he intended to indicate Saturday, April 29, 2000. We have taken the liberty of amending the date, predicated on our assumption. PD))
I am an Amateur Astronomer and on Saturday night 5/29/00 (sic), it was the first clear night in a while over the New York area. I was trying out my new 150mm refactor telescope and I was searching for star clusters near Ursa Major. I started to set up the scope at 9 P.M., and I aligned the scope to Polaris, and was setting up the tripod for 1/2 hour at the most. I decided to search for M13 in Hercules, but it was straight overhead at R.A 16hours, and I decided not to bother since the scope would be inproperly positioned for a decent view. (Too low to the ground on a small tripod.) The time was approximately 9:30 P.M. I then decided to search for M51 in Canes Venitaci when the neighbor turned on the garage light and I waited for the light to turn off. I went into the house at this time to get a cup of coffee and proceeded to got back out to the yard after the garage light went out. I started to view in the scope at a 45 degree angle due East. After searching around a bit I saw a white rotating streak in the field of view which was spiraling but figured it was a meteor falling to Earth. No problem, a typical event to see as an Amateur astronomer. After that I pointed the scope at the Star, I believe it was Altair or Arcturus. Not sure cause I didn't have the map with me. Anyway, I decided to focus the scope on the Star to see how much cromatic distortion the scope had. After all that, I decided to stop viewing. When I got off my chair and stood up, I looked at the sky for incoming clouds and saw some coming from the West. When I turned around to the East, I saw an object, rather large hovering and moving East. The object looked disc like but it was a dark shaded craft, black/dark gray. It had 4 lights, 2 red horizontal lights pointing North/South, and the other 2 lights were green pointed East / West (toward me). The lights were mounted at exact opposites to each other. The object was rather low, around 1,000 feet and was the size of a plane. The lights did NOT blink, and the craft or object made absolutely N! O NOISE. The object was hovering but moving slowly toward the East in a bobbing up and down fashion. There were 2 slow bobbing actions while it was in my view. It did that twice, while moving East and then it slowly moved East to the horizon and over the neighbors tree and out of my viewing sight. This sighting occurred at the 10:30 P.M. time frame. I saw it for around 10-15 seconds. I immediately went into the house to tell my relative (mother) what I had saw. The time was checked at 10:34 P.M. I was not abducted cause I had a strict account of the time. I started setting up the scope at 9:00 P.M. and I was out there for around 1.5 hours. I did not wear a watch. I used the kitchen clock for all time references. Though I live near an airport, all the planes move from South to North, and North to South always. There was never a plane moving in the West to East direction here and I 've been living here since 1969. The only aircraft were helicopters, but they make lots of noise when they come over here. THe object seemed to have appeared suddenly cause I didn't notice it come over my head from the West.
((NUFORC Note: The witness has indicated that the event occurred on 29MY00. We believe he intended to indicate Saturday, April 29, 2000. We have taken the liberty of amending the date, predicated on our assumption. PD))
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Floral Park
USA
15 seconds
15 seconds
40.72
-73.70
disk
NY
Occurred : 4/29/2000 22:29 (Entered as : 05/29/00 22:29) Reported: 5/3/2000 05:45 Posted: 5/3/2000 Location: Floral Park, NY Shape: Disk Duration: 15 seconds Characteristics: There were lights on the object
Was observing thru telescope for casual astronomy. Looked up in the sky to find a target star in Ursa Major when I saw due East at arou