2009-11-19 - Okeechobee, FL - Light

Many small lights and bright orange flashes.

On November 19th 2009 at approx. 1940 (7:40 pm) my stepson called and he was telling me about some unexplained lights that he was observing southwest of his home. He lives 5 miles NW of Okeechobee, Fl. I went outside of my home and began to look for the objects. I live 18 miles SE of Okeechobee, Fl, as we are rural there is a very low level of ambient light so I have an exceptional view of the night sky. Because I didn’t know the brightness of the objects that my stepson was observing, I turned off my backyard and garage light. My stepson and I were talking on our cell phones for several minutes while I attempted to locate the small-lighted objects that he has been observing for at least 10 minutes.

At about 1950 (7:50 pm) I was looking west northwest over my neighbors’ home, and I observed several small lights moving in an area roughly 20 degrees wide and thirty to forty degrees high and approximately 25 degrees above the horizon. This corresponded to where my son-in-law was now looking. I was not able to determine the range or altitude of the small-lighted objects. These small-lighted objects were moving erratically and on several occasions when the lights came within close proximity to one another, I would see a very bright inverted tear shaped orange glow that would last for about 5 seconds. During the time I was watching the group of small-lighted objects were working slowly in a northerly direction. Sometime during all of this I asked my wife to come outside and see what I was looking at. My wife was able to see three of the small-lighted objects but none of the bright orange glows appeared. The activity that I observed continued for about 5-7 minutes then cease! d. All of the small lights disappeared and I never saw another of the bright orange glows.

During the time that I was observing all of this activity I was communicating by cell phone to my stepson and he was observing exactly the same activity that I was. I attempted to capture a few pictures on my cell phone camera but the movements were so erratic that I was unable to do so.

Some observations that I had were: Small-lighted objects were flashing points of white light, the movements of the these objects were very erratic and of a type not consistent with any aircraft that I have ever seen. The lights didn’t appear to be following one another they closed on each other from a heads on attitude. I didn’t see anything being emitted from these objects The bright orange glows were many times larger than the small-lighted objects and had no movement component to them. These glows all looked similar in shape and size; there were no trails from these glows in any direction.

I also was watching the air traffic in the area. I did not see any sudden course changes or any other abnormal flight patterns. Because we are in the center of Florida there is allot of air traffic transitioning the area at multiple altitudes and directions.

After this light show was over, my stepson and I were talking about what we had just seen and I asked him what he originally saw that caused him to call me. His statement is below: He had gone outside to sit with a couple of his friends. They were talking and he happened to look up. He noticed a “V” shaped formation of small objects moving from the south. He continued to watch and then he saw another formation of the lights moving from the north. This second group of lights were scattered and not a discernable formation. The “V” shaped group moved past the scattered group and turned 180 degrees and that is when the orange glows began. At this point he gave me a call.