2007-01-30 - Quincy, CA - Cylinder

Tri-colored cylinder shaped object at about 500 feet disappears into mountains 5-10 miles away.

I was looking toward the southeast. I saw a flashing yellow light. As it got closer, I noticed that this object was low. The surrounding hills are about 500 -1000 feet high. The craft kept moving to my right and at this point I saw 3 colors. The right side was the yellow light. The middle was red and the left side was white. The shape of the craft was like a cylinder, in that all of the lights seemed uniform in size and shape.

What was strange was that the craft, which I thought was a plane or helicopter, its lights would dim and brighten up at the same time. It was not like the usual "blip" of a plane, but the lights would fade in and out, all at the same time. Imagine opening and closing your hand. That was the effect.

The moon is almost full, so I could see the silhouette of the hills to my right. The object crossed over the first set of hills, and then disappeared behind the 2nd. The hills at this point are no higher than 500 feet. So, I expected whatever this was to bank over them and then go to the local airport only 3 or 4 miles away.

The object never reappeared. I was not in a very noisy area, but not perfectly quiet, so I cannot tell you if it was making any sounds.

One very interesting thing is that at about 7:00 to 7:15 PM a large helicopter flew over our town. Although the moon was out, the helicopter was at about 2 o’clock and I could not make out its shape against the night sky.

I heard the helicopter first, and then saw that it had a yellow or orange light. It made the usual "blip." A very small white light preceded these lights. It was very hard to see because of the streetlights, but based on its location, this helicopter was very long. It could have been one of the dual propeller ones. Anyway, it banked over the town and headed northwest. As it left, there were 2 lights in the back, blipping at different quick intervals, then a minute later, back to only one.

We have had helicopters fly over before. However, they usually land at the airport. This one banked away from the airport, and disappeared.

Anyway, I actually expected to see a flash of light because of how low the craft was. I thought it was going to crash. However, there was no flash. All I know is that this tri-colored cylindrical object was visible for about 1 to 2 minutes, and then disappeared behind some hills. Perhaps it was a plane, but I have never seen one that low that did not land at the airport.