Abnormally bright object moved across the night sky at very low altitude in a slow, momentumless "surging" fashion.
My wife woke me up this morning because she thought she heard a noise outside our house, such as a prowler or animal. I walked around the house to check on things and look out various windows into our front and back yards. I ended up back in our bedroom where we have a set of French doors with windows looking into our back yard/Northern sky. Immediately my eyes were drawn low into the sky where I saw an extremely bright white light. It actually looked like a close cluster of lights rather than a single solid bright light. The object hung completely still, low in the sky. My first though was that I was looking at a helicopter, but upon closer inspection there was simply too much light coming from this object. With the distance it appeared to be at, 2 miles away, the area the light was occupying would have been about the same size as an entire helicopter. The light did not fade or grow in intensity either, so the object was not moving toward or away from me. It appeared to simply hover there.
I stared at it as it hung there in the sky for at least a couple minutes. I remember thinking that I wished it would move or turn so that I could get a better idea of what it was. You know, we all have a pretty good idea about how an airplane or helicopter should appear to move in the sky. Although it looked and “felt” odd to me, I still wasn’t ready to call it a UFO. My wife noticed I was still staring out the window and asked me what I was looking at. Not wanting to sound crazy, I simply said “the sky”. About 15 seconds passed after she spoke to me the object started to move, very slowly, to the east. It maintained its low altitude in a perfectly straight line as if it was on rails. I see airplanes in the sky from my back yard all the time. The amount of light this thing was putting out was simply abnormal, even if you consider the possibility that I was looking at airplane landing lights, or a helicopter “night sun” spot light pointed perfectly in my direction.
What finally made me think that I was not looking at an airplane or helicopter was the way it moved. Its movement and acceleration was not smooth. It would sort of surge forward a little, slow down, surge forward, slow down, surge, slow etc. The object’s total speed was very slow, so the surging was sort of subtle, but was still very noticeable. It did not move smoothly across the sky as an airplane or helicopter with momentum would. I should also mention that’s it’s acceleration from stop to its “cruising speed” appeared instant and effortless. As for sound, it was silent. There was no aircraft or other types of sound other than normal early morning ambient, which is pretty quiet in La Quinta, CA at this hour. We have a local small aircraft strip nearby about a half mile away, but the planes landing and taking off from there can be heard and seen quite easily. There was no wind this morning either, it was calm.
At this point I wanted my wife to witness what I was seeing, so I said calmly to her, “want to see a UFO”? She was still awake from being startled by what she thought was a noise outside our house, and because I was still investigating. We were both very lucid. She said, “There is no UFO”. I then told her to come and look, and she could tell I wasn’t joking around, so she jumped right out of bed and walked over to me quickly. In our decade plus of marriage, I had never asked her to come and look at a UFO. I pointed the object out to her, which wasn’t difficult, and she watched it move. I told her to note how it was moving in a (for lack of better word) “surging” fashion, and that airplanes/helicopters do not move like that. She agreed, and we watched the object disappear behind our neighbor’s roofline. After this I stepped outside and tried to get another glimpse of it, but it was gone.
It’s important to note, that if you look to the North from my back yard in La Quinta, you can see mountains, which are part of the San Andreas fault line. The base of the mountain is only about 5-6 miles away from my house. It was easy to see that the object wasn’t very far away, and was very low in the sky. If I had to guess at the altitude I would say 400 - 500 feet above the ground.
I am an IT professional, and my wife is an interior designer for one of the local home builders. I have an extremely open mind when it comes to subjects such as UFOs, but this is the first time in my life that I felt the need to report a sighting, and it’s the first time since childhood that I saw something in the night sky that was strange enough to qualify for me. I am open minded, but also very analytical. I wasn’t simply looking at a “bright light in the sky”. What prompted me to make this report was how it moved, as described above. If there is a logical explanation for how a “known” aircraft can exhibit a perfectly straight, visibly “surging”, very slow movement across the sky, I would like to know what it is.
My wife woke me up this morning because she thought she heard a noise outside our house, such as a prowler or animal. I walked around the house to check on things and look out various windows into our front and back yards. I ended up back in our bedroom where we have a set of French doors with windows looking into our back yard/Northern sky. Immediately my eyes were drawn low into the sky where I saw an extremely bright white light. It actually looked like a close cluster of lights rather than a single solid bright light. The object hung completely still, low in the sky. My first though was that I was looking at a helicopter, but upon closer inspection there was simply too much light coming from this object. With the distance it appeared to be at, 2 miles away, the area the light was occupying would have been about the same size as an entire helicopter. The light did not fade or grow in intensity either, so the object was not moving toward or away from me. It appeared to simply hover there.
I stared at it as it hung there in the sky for at least a couple minutes. I remember thinking that I wished it would move or turn so that I could get a better idea of what it was. You know, we all have a pretty good idea about how an airplane or helicopter should appear to move in the sky. Although it looked and “felt” odd to me, I still wasn’t ready to call it a UFO. My wife noticed I was still staring out the window and asked me what I was looking at. Not wanting to sound crazy, I simply said “the sky”. About 15 seconds passed after she spoke to me the object started to move, very slowly, to the east. It maintained its low altitude in a perfectly straight line as if it was on rails. I see airplanes in the sky from my back yard all the time. The amount of light this thing was putting out was simply abnormal, even if you consider the possibility that I was looking at airplane landing lights, or a helicopter “night sun” spot light pointed perfectly in my direction.
What finally made me think that I was not looking at an airplane or helicopter was the way it moved. Its movement and acceleration was not smooth. It would sort of surge forward a little, slow down, surge forward, slow down, surge, slow etc. The object’s total speed was very slow, so the surging was sort of subtle, but was still very noticeable. It did not move smoothly across the sky as an airplane or helicopter with momentum would. I should also mention that’s it’s acceleration from stop to its “cruising speed” appeared instant and effortless. As for sound, it was silent. There was no aircraft or other types of sound other than normal early morning ambient, which is pretty quiet in La Quinta, CA at this hour. We have a local small aircraft strip nearby about a half mile away, but the planes landing and taking off from there can be heard and seen quite easily. There was no wind this morning either, it was calm.
At this point I wanted my wife to witness what I was seeing, so I said calmly to her, “want to see a UFO”? She was still awake from being startled by what she thought was a noise outside our house, and because I was still investigating. We were both very lucid. She said, “There is no UFO”. I then told her to come and look, and she could tell I wasn’t joking around, so she jumped right out of bed and walked over to me quickly. In our decade plus of marriage, I had never asked her to come and look at a UFO. I pointed the object out to her, which wasn’t difficult, and she watched it move. I told her to note how it was moving in a (for lack of better word) “surging” fashion, and that airplanes/helicopters do not move like that. She agreed, and we watched the object disappear behind our neighbor’s roofline. After this I stepped outside and tried to get another glimpse of it, but it was gone.
It’s important to note, that if you look to the North from my back yard in La Quinta, you can see mountains, which are part of the San Andreas fault line. The base of the mountain is only about 5-6 miles away from my house. It was easy to see that the object wasn’t very far away, and was very low in the sky. If I had to guess at the altitude I would say 400 - 500 feet above the ground.
I am an IT professional, and my wife is an interior designer for one of the local home builders. I have an extremely open mind when it comes to subjects such as UFOs, but this is the first time in my life that I felt the need to report a sighting, and it’s the first time since childhood that I saw something in the night sky that was strange enough to qualify for me. I am open minded, but also very analytical. I wasn’t simply looking at a “bright light in the sky”. What prompted me to make this report was how it moved, as described above. If there is a logical explanation for how a “known” aircraft can exhibit a perfectly straight, visibly “surging”, very slow movement across the sky, I would like to know what it is.
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Off
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
La Quinta
USA
4 Minutes
4 Minutes
33.67
-116.30
light
CA
Occurred : 1/3/2006 05:45 (Entered as : 01/03/06 5:45 AM) Reported: 1/3/2006 10:30:48 AM 10:30 Posted: 2/14/2006 Location: La Quinta, CA Shape: Light Duration: 4 Minutes Characteristics: There were lights on the object
Abnormally bright object moved across the night sky at very low altitude in a slow, momentumless "surging" fashion.