string of "orange flame" colored lights over Lewiston
On 8-10-07, my father and I were in the process of repairing an electric trolling motor on a bass boat in preparation for a tournament the following day. I had backed the boat into his garage so we would have some light to work by.
At approximately 2200 hours, my father said "What's that up in the sky?" I looked out the open garage door, toward the northwest, to see a string of 6-8 "orange flame" colored lights traveling in a north easterly direction across the sky. They were evenly spaced approximately 20-30 feet apart. I stepped out of the garage and walked out into the gravel driveway in an attempt to get a better look. I estimate that lights were between 300-500 feet from the ground traveling between 5-10 mph. It appeared that the lights were attached to "something" as they moved in a linear direction with absolutely no change in speed, direction, or elevation. My initial impression was that a small airplane was towing a rope with lit torches attached, through the night sky. That thought quickly faded as there was absolutely no airplane related sounds what-so-ever during the entire time of the sighting. In fact, everything was quiet. I made a conscious effort to try and identify the shape or sort of object these lights were attached to without any success. No sort of craft was visible or heard at all either between or near the lights.
After approximately 1-2 minutes, the lead light began to fade and went out. My impression is that it looked exactly as if a torch had simply burned itself out. The remainder of the lights dimmed and appeared to burn out, 1 by 1, from front to back in a similar fashion.
When all the lights went out, we returned to working on the boat. Neither of us could explain what we had just seen. A short time later, as we were talking about the event, we could smell a strong odor of gun powder; very similar to the odors after a 4th of July fireworks display.
((NUFORC Note: Aerial lanterns, launched from a party at Bates College. Details, we are told, are available from an August 14, 2007, issue of the Lewiston newspaper. PD))
On 8-10-07, my father and I were in the process of repairing an electric trolling motor on a bass boat in preparation for a tournament the following day. I had backed the boat into his garage so we would have some light to work by.
At approximately 2200 hours, my father said "What's that up in the sky?" I looked out the open garage door, toward the northwest, to see a string of 6-8 "orange flame" colored lights traveling in a north easterly direction across the sky. They were evenly spaced approximately 20-30 feet apart. I stepped out of the garage and walked out into the gravel driveway in an attempt to get a better look. I estimate that lights were between 300-500 feet from the ground traveling between 5-10 mph. It appeared that the lights were attached to "something" as they moved in a linear direction with absolutely no change in speed, direction, or elevation. My initial impression was that a small airplane was towing a rope with lit torches attached, through the night sky. That thought quickly faded as there was absolutely no airplane related sounds what-so-ever during the entire time of the sighting. In fact, everything was quiet. I made a conscious effort to try and identify the shape or sort of object these lights were attached to without any success. No sort of craft was visible or heard at all either between or near the lights.
After approximately 1-2 minutes, the lead light began to fade and went out. My impression is that it looked exactly as if a torch had simply burned itself out. The remainder of the lights dimmed and appeared to burn out, 1 by 1, from front to back in a similar fashion.
When all the lights went out, we returned to working on the boat. Neither of us could explain what we had just seen. A short time later, as we were talking about the event, we could smell a strong odor of gun powder; very similar to the odors after a 4th of July fireworks display.
((NUFORC Note: Aerial lanterns, launched from a party at Bates College. Details, we are told, are available from an August 14, 2007, issue of the Lewiston newspaper. PD))
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Lewiston
USA
1-2 minutes
1-2 minutes
44.10
-70.19
formation
ME
Occurred : 8/10/2007 22:00 (Entered as : 8/10/07 22:00) Reported: 8/14/2007 3:51:38 PM 15:51 Posted: 8/14/2007 Location: Lewiston, ME Shape: Formation Duration: 1-2 minutes Characteristics: The object changed color
string of "orange flame" colored lights over Lewiston. ((NUFORC Note: Aerial lanterns, launched from a party at Bates College. PD))