Silent wobbling disk with white-illuminated underside moving southwest above downtown Chicago
I was standing on my west-facing balcony on an upper floor of the east tower of the Marina City condo buildings in downtown Chicago (the famous "corncob"-shaped buildings), speaking to a friend on the phone. My view is to the north and west with a 22-mile horizon view, broken by the ABA (former Quaker) building to the west.
I looked absentmindedly to the northwest sky and noticed a small, silent, disk-shaped object flying steadily on a southwestern trajectory about a quarter of a mile away and about 600 feet above the ground (it was higher than my balcony and close, but moved behind the 600-foot tall ABA building while I watched it, giving me the opportunity to judge its height).
The top and sides of the disk were completely dark, but the bottom surface was illuminated completely with a brilliant white light, as if a spotlight were shining on it from below. The disk proceeded steadily in speed, but wobbled as it went, something like a top spinning slightly off its axis, so that every couple of seconds the illuminated underside rotated or leaned into view and then rotated away, but without the craft losing any forward momentum. (The wobble in the disk looked a lot like the wobble you see in the various news videos of the disks from the daytime mass-event in Mexico a few years ago, which is what I immediately thought of as soon as I saw the object).
After about 20 seconds the object moved behind the ABA building and I waited for about 30 seconds for it to reappear, which it did, much further away due to its southwest trajectory and still moving at the same speed and height. After another ten seconds it disappeared from view completely behind Marina City's west tower.
I was speechless throughout the incident, prompting my friend on the phone to ask what was wrong. I explained everything I saw and spent several hours watching the skies from my apartment that night, but the object or another like it did not reappear.
From my apartment, I see hundreds of planes flying to and from O'Hare and flying along the flight path to Midway, as well as helicopters (traffic, police, etc.) all the time, every day and night. I'm very familiar with the airport flight paths and aircraft lighting schemes, as they're part of my nonstop view out of my windows and off of my balcony. What I saw last night was like absolutely nothing I have ever seen flying over Chicago.
I was standing on my west-facing balcony on an upper floor of the east tower of the Marina City condo buildings in downtown Chicago (the famous "corncob"-shaped buildings), speaking to a friend on the phone. My view is to the north and west with a 22-mile horizon view, broken by the ABA (former Quaker) building to the west.
I looked absentmindedly to the northwest sky and noticed a small, silent, disk-shaped object flying steadily on a southwestern trajectory about a quarter of a mile away and about 600 feet above the ground (it was higher than my balcony and close, but moved behind the 600-foot tall ABA building while I watched it, giving me the opportunity to judge its height).
The top and sides of the disk were completely dark, but the bottom surface was illuminated completely with a brilliant white light, as if a spotlight were shining on it from below. The disk proceeded steadily in speed, but wobbled as it went, something like a top spinning slightly off its axis, so that every couple of seconds the illuminated underside rotated or leaned into view and then rotated away, but without the craft losing any forward momentum. (The wobble in the disk looked a lot like the wobble you see in the various news videos of the disks from the daytime mass-event in Mexico a few years ago, which is what I immediately thought of as soon as I saw the object).
After about 20 seconds the object moved behind the ABA building and I waited for about 30 seconds for it to reappear, which it did, much further away due to its southwest trajectory and still moving at the same speed and height. After another ten seconds it disappeared from view completely behind Marina City's west tower.
I was speechless throughout the incident, prompting my friend on the phone to ask what was wrong. I explained everything I saw and spent several hours watching the skies from my apartment that night, but the object or another like it did not reappear.
From my apartment, I see hundreds of planes flying to and from O'Hare and flying along the flight path to Midway, as well as helicopters (traffic, police, etc.) all the time, every day and night. I'm very familiar with the airport flight paths and aircraft lighting schemes, as they're part of my nonstop view out of my windows and off of my balcony. What I saw last night was like absolutely nothing I have ever seen flying over Chicago.
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Off
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
Chicago
USA
60 seconds
60 seconds
41.88
-87.67
disk
IL
Occurred : 6/4/2006 22:15 (Entered as : 06/04/06 22:15) Reported: 6/5/2006 10:18:53 AM 10:18 Posted: 7/16/2006 Location: Chicago, IL Shape: Disk Duration: 60 seconds Characteristics: There were lights on the object, There were aircraft in the vicinity or aircraft chasing the object
Silent wobbling disk with white-illuminated underside moving southwest above downtown Chicago