2009-06-11 - Tempe, AZ - Sphere

Bright white light in the Phoenix evening sky

I was driving through Phoenix at about 20:00 June 11th, 2009. Immediately after heading Westbound, I saw a very large sphere in the sky, that was emanating a bright white light. It was maybe 20 degrees above the horizon, in the West-Northwest direction.

I pulled over onto a neighborhood street to watch the object and get on the phone! I called my dad in Tempe, he had seen it in the sky about 15 minutes earlier and was watching it. I called my mom, and after she spotted it, she grabbed the neighbors and they all watched it. I called another friend, she and her boyfriend plus entourage all watched it while on the phone with me. Witnesses are not a problem! I watched the object for about 15 minutes before it disappeared. It was far too large and bright to be a star or a planet, and it was completely motionless. I was parked, and by comparing it to other stationary objects, houses, poles, etc, it didn’t drift or anything. The white light was very bright, creating a sort of aura of light around it that was maybe double or triple the circumference of the central object. In the center, it was looked like just a solid sphere of light.

After perhaps 15 minutes of watching the object, it suddenly began to look like it was moving away from my point of view. It appeared to be moving slightly, and the white aura of light faded rapidly. It became a bright orange color, like the color of Mars, and it’s size continued to diminish quickly. Within about one minute, it was nothing more than a small point of light, now much like a star, and then it disappeared from sight.