2001-11-18 - Geneva, NY - Circle

Circular craft during the Leonid Meteor Storm

Set my alarm for 4:00 am to watch the Leonid meteor storm on Saturday. It was pretty cold outside, so I bundled up in layers and took my 2 dogs out with me. Meteor storm was strong and sighted many right away. Pretty consistent and most noticeable along the horizon in a 360, so I decided to go to the front of my apartment and face South-Southeast to watch. All meteors had long, distinct tails. I live under one of the main flight paths for the Syracuse airport and I am used to all the planes. About 20 minutes into my watching I noticed one plane that was going along at a slightly different speed, a little faster than normal for a plane with a very steady, smooth flight. At first I thought it was a plane, but quickly realized it had no landing lights on, no colored or blinking lights either. This was a strong white light, about the magnitude of one of the planets, and wasn't blinking. The shape was circular and it did not appear to be attached to any larger body, just a light. I have to mention here, that it seemed to blend in very well with the star-filled backdrop. If I hadn't been looking in that exact location, I would have missed it. I watched it transverse the skyline for approx. 4-5 seconds traveling west to east, and then simply fade out. It did not burn up like the meteors or have a tail, and it was on a straight horizonital flight path. Sort of freaked out by it and getting cold, I decided to go into the apartment to warm up. At about 4:45 am I decided to stay inside and watch the storm from my glass door b/c the meteors were certainly strong enough to watch from inside. There are two trees in my backyard and I have to look through the branches to see the sky, but it worked fine for viewing. It wasn't long before I noticed a second light just the same as the first, go from above my apartment and over the trees. This one was slightly lower in altitude and heading from the South to the North. It didn't go very far in it's direction before it did the same thing by fading out. Very excit! ing...di dn't want to go to bed after this.

I am a 34 yr old female. Consider myself very level-headed, I don't do drugs and I don't drink. I just finished my bachelor's in geography last year as a returning adult. I work now in the environmental remediation field. And I am an amateur astronomer, and have been since I was 10. I try to catch every meteor shower that is visible at this latitude, and am used to spotting satellites and identifying planets, constellations, etc. Also I think I should mention that I have had several "sightings" over the years because I am out alot at night. This incident in my experience is a mild one. I have had other sightings that were alot more bizarre, and started at a very young age. I could fill out several pages with information from several different cities and in different states. My most bizarre is a low-flying stingray that looked as if it was cloaked several years ago. Other people that lived along the same lake as myself, described the same kind of craft at other times. All I could think is that it was straight from the scripts of Star Wars or Star Trek. That was my best sighting...