2003-11-08 - Madras, OR - Circle

At about 6:30 p.m. 11/08/03, our next door neighbor's litte girl came over, knocked on the door, and asked if we wanted to see a UFO. I find it very difficult to describe. There was what appeared to be light clouds surrounding it. It was fully dark outside. The sky showed a dark cloud bank to the north and east and partly cloudy conditions with lots of stars visible to the south with what seemed to be a light low drifting cloud cover to the west. What I saw I can only compare to the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. It seemed an object made of clouds was approaching from the west, approximately a mile away judging from the landmark it seemed near. It was round, apparently flat and very large. Holding both my hands at arm's length would not cover it. The outside of the circle appeared to be moving very fast with lights in the pattern of a circle, blinking somewhat in strobe fashion, and the entire circle of cloud seemed to be moving in the direction of the lights about as fast as a fan blade would move on a box fan. Inside the outer circle of lights there was another circle of lights also moving in a circular motion, but not as fast. The object slowly approached were we were standing. It made no noise whatsoever. When it was almost directly overhead I could see that the very center of this cloud phenomenon was clear and stars were visible through it. At the point it was almost directly overhead it turned on it's side (like a tire being picked up from being flat and put into a position of function)and took off at a tremendous rate of speed, disappearing into a heavy cloud bank to the north and east. Immediately after it did so, the sky overhead became completely clear with stars visible to the west and south, as though the thrust and/or heat had disippated the clouds behind it. This lasted about 15 minutes from first sighting to disappearance. I don't know how many people actually saw it, as a friend had called my neighbor and told her about it. It was so quiet that we (my husb! and and myself) would never had known it was there if we had not been told. I find it very hard to describe, but I cannot think of any natural phenomenon to accout for it.