2004-04-10 - Richland, WA - Light

bright light, white, with hints of gold.

This was a very bright light above, well above, the tree tops, possibly 1-5 miles distant. I'd say it was about half the size of a dime held at arm's length. Far too bright to be a star, it caught my attention immediately as I was taking the dog out in the yard. My exact reaction was "What the hell?" I moved around the yard, watching it in relation to trees, poles, etc., and could see that it was bobbing and weaving gently (rocking motion). I planted my feet firmly and studied it in relation to stars, and it was the only thing moving. I finally went into the house and told my wife, "I know you're not going to believe this, but there's a UFO out the back." She said, "Sure, Sure." I asked her to come look, and she said, "I cannot even believe I'm getting up for this." But as we got out back, she watched it for a bit and admitted she couldn't really say what it was. I went in and got a small digital camera and snapped a few pictures of it. The best shows a round object with 'spiral arms' of light coming off it. I also took a brief 'movie' but have not had a chance to put it on the computer. On the camera, it appears blank. About 15 mins later, my wife and I left to pick up our daughter from a dance. I said, "Well, if it IS a star or planet, it will be there when we get back. If it's gone, we'll know it was something else." We returned by 11:15 and it was no where in the sky. I climbed the high back porch on our house and scanned the entire horizon and there was nothing. If this had been a star or planet, it could not have 'gone down' in such a brief span of time. I'm a meteorologist, and habitually study the sky. I feel I'm a pretty good observer. I couldn't call this a 'flying saucer' but it was certainly something airborne that was not identifiable as anything conventional. I will submit the pictures via email as soon as I can get them transferred to the computer.