2003-09-09 - Tampa, FL - Circle

((NUFORC Note: A launch of a Titan 4 rocket from Cape Canaveral was conducted at 00:29 hrs. on this date. We suspect that the launch was the cause of the several reports NUFORC received from multiple points in Florida. We post the reports to illustrate how easy it is to misidentify a relatively commonplace event. Even we were intrigued by the reports, when they first were submitted, and it took us approximately 12 hours to identify the apparent source of the reports. PD))

A sighting of an apparent ball of flames turned into three smaller spheres forming a perfect triangle and disappeared into the sky.

The sighting took place around 12:30pm from Tampa, Florida in the Eastern sky. The initial object,traveling north to south, 4X the apparent size of Mars, was in the shape of a circular flame. Attatched to this object was a tail of smoke 20X longer than the sphere itself. This tail of smoke dissolved into the sky 10-15 seconds after the initial sighting. The sphere stayed steady in the eastern sky for 5-10 seconds before it split into 3 seperate identical spheres of light. These three spheres of light formed a perfect triangle and held the form of a triangle for close to 15 seconds. The two left hand spheres quickly headed due east leaving small tails of smoke behind them and disappeared into the nigth sky. The remaining sphere from the right slowly followed the other two to the east and kept in sight for around 30-45 seconds. Suddenly the sphere disappeared for a second, came back into sight and quickly appeared to explode into the sky. Total time of sighting: 2 minutes.