Pairs of bright amber lights over Portland moving in formation
Just before midnight I went outside into my backyard. It was a clear night, and I was looking to the South, when I noticed an unusual amount of what I first thought was aircraft activity over Portland lining up for approach at PDX. Then I realized that I've never quite seen so many aircraft in the air at once, and that if it was part of practice for an airshow or military maneuvers, it was a bit too late at night. Even if they were conventional aircraft, they were spaced much to closely together to be on any sort of landing approach to Portland International Airport.
The lights were amber in color, about twice as bright as the stars, and numbered in 6 or 7 pairs. From my perspective, they were about 10 degrees off the horizon, and each pair of lights were coupled at a 45 degree angle from each other. Each pair was separated from the next by about an inch at arm's length. The entire assembly of lights seemed to be in formation, keeping the same spacial relationship from the others the entire time. The group of lights formed a slight arc that was lower in elevation at the east end. The group of lights moved in unison to the southeast, losing elevation until out of sight below the treeline that makes up the horizon from my vantage point. At times the lights seemed to shimmer a bit, but that very well have been due atmospheric distortion due to their proximity to the horizon and the (apparent) distance involved.
I called for my wife and son to come take a look. My wife scoffs at any mention of UFOs, so I wouldn't alert her to it unless it was very clearly odd. My son (7 years old) made it out first, and viewed the lights with me. My wife didn't make it out for several minutes, and by the time she arrived outside the lights had dropped below the trees on the horizon.
I often can see lights from aircraft taking off and landing at PDX and Vancouver airstrips - in fact they appear at the very same spot on the horizon where the lights in question were. Planes always appear as a white and red flashing light, and these were simply glowing amber lights, much different and brighter than the normal aircraft lights. In fact, at the time of the sighting, a plane with "normal" plane lights passed amidst the lights from my line of sight, and stood out clearly as it moved through the area.
I'm just now submitting this because I just visited this site and noticed the request for reports to be submitted on this subject. I originally dismissed the event because, after looking for it on the news sites the next day, I didn't see any report of it, and thought perhaps I was overreacting to it.
I would be happy to take a picture from my vantage point and edit in the lights with Photoshop to send to you, if you wish.
Just before midnight I went outside into my backyard. It was a clear night, and I was looking to the South, when I noticed an unusual amount of what I first thought was aircraft activity over Portland lining up for approach at PDX. Then I realized that I've never quite seen so many aircraft in the air at once, and that if it was part of practice for an airshow or military maneuvers, it was a bit too late at night. Even if they were conventional aircraft, they were spaced much to closely together to be on any sort of landing approach to Portland International Airport.
The lights were amber in color, about twice as bright as the stars, and numbered in 6 or 7 pairs. From my perspective, they were about 10 degrees off the horizon, and each pair of lights were coupled at a 45 degree angle from each other. Each pair was separated from the next by about an inch at arm's length. The entire assembly of lights seemed to be in formation, keeping the same spacial relationship from the others the entire time. The group of lights formed a slight arc that was lower in elevation at the east end. The group of lights moved in unison to the southeast, losing elevation until out of sight below the treeline that makes up the horizon from my vantage point. At times the lights seemed to shimmer a bit, but that very well have been due atmospheric distortion due to their proximity to the horizon and the (apparent) distance involved.
I called for my wife and son to come take a look. My wife scoffs at any mention of UFOs, so I wouldn't alert her to it unless it was very clearly odd. My son (7 years old) made it out first, and viewed the lights with me. My wife didn't make it out for several minutes, and by the time she arrived outside the lights had dropped below the trees on the horizon.
I often can see lights from aircraft taking off and landing at PDX and Vancouver airstrips - in fact they appear at the very same spot on the horizon where the lights in question were. Planes always appear as a white and red flashing light, and these were simply glowing amber lights, much different and brighter than the normal aircraft lights. In fact, at the time of the sighting, a plane with "normal" plane lights passed amidst the lights from my line of sight, and stood out clearly as it moved through the area.
I'm just now submitting this because I just visited this site and noticed the request for reports to be submitted on this subject. I originally dismissed the event because, after looking for it on the news sites the next day, I didn't see any report of it, and thought perhaps I was overreacting to it.
I would be happy to take a picture from my vantage point and edit in the lights with Photoshop to send to you, if you wish.
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Off
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
La Center
USA
2 minutes
2 minutes
45.88
-122.62
formation
WA
Occurred : 4/29/2006 23:45 (Entered as : 04/29/06 23:45) Reported: 9/12/2006 11:27:51 PM 23:27 Posted: 10/30/2006 Location: La Center, WA Shape: Formation Duration: 2 minutes Characteristics: There were lights on the object, There were aircraft in the vicinity or aircraft chasing the object
Pairs of bright amber lights over Portland moving in formation