Bright white orb flashes,expands,contracts,moves off slowly,then vanishes
While driving home last night,shortly after 7:00p.m.,my children and I witnessed a strange aircraft(likely some type of airplane with a strange sequence of lighting on it).The craft was different enough that I decided to pull over to a small side street to observe it a little more intensely.As I exited my vehicle,I watched the craft flying off to the east.Suddenly,the sky literally lit up in a bright flash directly above me which startled me enough to jerk my gaze away from the eastbound craft,and look literally straight up above my head.As I did this,I observed a bright white,circular orb-like object.At first glance its appearence made me think it was a very low shooting star,it had that dazzling bright appearence to it.Within 1-2 seconds,as it remained stationary,it expanded in brightness and/or size to about 5 times its original size.I yelled for my kids to jump out of the car to see what I was seeing.As they were filing out,the object retracted back down,and took on a star-like,pin-point of light quality to it.It looked like a star.My oldest daughter was able to spot it just as it started very slowly moving south.It traveled maybe a couple of miles,then expanded/lit up again(all while continuing to move),retracted back to a star-like appearence,then seemed to slowly dim out and vanish completely while continuing north.The object was dead silent.I am an avid sky-watcher and have seen many strange craft over the years,but this is the first time I have seen something this dramatic.It was incredible.
While driving home last night,shortly after 7:00p.m.,my children and I witnessed a strange aircraft(likely some type of airplane with a strange sequence of lighting on it).The craft was different enough that I decided to pull over to a small side street to observe it a little more intensely.As I exited my vehicle,I watched the craft flying off to the east.Suddenly,the sky literally lit up in a bright flash directly above me which startled me enough to jerk my gaze away from the eastbound craft,and look literally straight up above my head.As I did this,I observed a bright white,circular orb-like object.At first glance its appearence made me think it was a very low shooting star,it had that dazzling bright appearence to it.Within 1-2 seconds,as it remained stationary,it expanded in brightness and/or size to about 5 times its original size.I yelled for my kids to jump out of the car to see what I was seeing.As they were filing out,the object retracted back down,and took on a star-like,pin-point of light quality to it.It looked like a star.My oldest daughter was able to spot it just as it started very slowly moving south.It traveled maybe a couple of miles,then expanded/lit up again(all while continuing to move),retracted back to a star-like appearence,then seemed to slowly dim out and vanish completely while continuing north.The object was dead silent.I am an avid sky-watcher and have seen many strange craft over the years,but this is the first time I have seen something this dramatic.It was incredible.
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Rancho Mirage
USA
45 seconds
45 seconds
33.76
-116.42
fireball
CA
Occurred : 3/23/2006 19:10 (Entered as : 3/23/06 19:10) Reported: 3/24/2006 12:41:02 PM 12:41 Posted: 5/15/2006 Location: Rancho Mirage, CA Shape: Fireball Duration: 45 seconds Characteristics: There was an aura or haze around the object, There were aircraft in the vicinity or aircraft chasing the object
Bright white orb flashes,expands,contracts,moves off slowly,then vanishes