bright string of stationary lights after tornadic storms baffles stormwatcher
I was up late as I am a storm enthusiast and we had a tornado watch until 3 am. I was outside smoking a cigarette and as usual I was looking at the stars between cloud banks. I was looking due east and about a half a degree south there was a string of bright lights that seemed to blink. I at first just passed it off as an airliner coming in for landing approach as we are in the direct path of the mpls airport, (about 7 miles to the east southeast). so we see many aircraft on a daily basis. When I was done with my cigarette I noticed that the lights did not seem to move. At that point I looked for a point of reference to see if indeed the object was stationary. I stood against the house and put my arm up at a 45 degree angle and held out my thumb horizontally so the tops of my neighbors oak trees were in sight just below my thumb, the object was an eighth of an inch above my thumb. I watched it for 40 minutes and it did not move. It looked like a string of five! stars that were very close together with the second from the left star blacked out. The lights were so bright that they left a residual light shadow in my sight when i closed my eyes like when you look at a flash and it stays with you for a while after. I would have watched it all night long if the cloud deck did not block the view. They were white with a tinge of blue and the left most light seemed brighter than the rest. The light clouds that would obscure the lights from time to time helped me to see that this was a string of lights as opposed to one bright one. The clouds are not uniform in their thickness and it would show as they passed how one end would be brighter and the other would be dim and successively the other would get dim and then bright depending on the shape of the cloud. Imagine a 747 about six miles out at 5000 feet coming right at you with landing lights on. We see this quite often from our front yard. As It did not move and as the clouds were in front! of it I would have to guestimate that the thing was quite lar! ge and somewhat cigar shaped. side note....not the first ufo I have seen.
I was up late as I am a storm enthusiast and we had a tornado watch until 3 am. I was outside smoking a cigarette and as usual I was looking at the stars between cloud banks. I was looking due east and about a half a degree south there was a string of bright lights that seemed to blink. I at first just passed it off as an airliner coming in for landing approach as we are in the direct path of the mpls airport, (about 7 miles to the east southeast). so we see many aircraft on a daily basis. When I was done with my cigarette I noticed that the lights did not seem to move. At that point I looked for a point of reference to see if indeed the object was stationary. I stood against the house and put my arm up at a 45 degree angle and held out my thumb horizontally so the tops of my neighbors oak trees were in sight just below my thumb, the object was an eighth of an inch above my thumb. I watched it for 40 minutes and it did not move. It looked like a string of five! stars that were very close together with the second from the left star blacked out. The lights were so bright that they left a residual light shadow in my sight when i closed my eyes like when you look at a flash and it stays with you for a while after. I would have watched it all night long if the cloud deck did not block the view. They were white with a tinge of blue and the left most light seemed brighter than the rest. The light clouds that would obscure the lights from time to time helped me to see that this was a string of lights as opposed to one bright one. The clouds are not uniform in their thickness and it would show as they passed how one end would be brighter and the other would be dim and successively the other would get dim and then bright depending on the shape of the cloud. Imagine a 747 about six miles out at 5000 feet coming right at you with landing lights on. We see this quite often from our front yard. As It did not move and as the clouds were in front! of it I would have to guestimate that the thing was quite lar! ge and somewhat cigar shaped. side note....not the first ufo I have seen.
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Inver Grove Heights
USA
45 minutes
45 minutes
44.83
-93.07
light
MN
Occurred : 7/18/2010 01:16 (Entered as : 7/18/2010 01:16) Reported: 7/18/2010 9:23:13 AM 09:23 Posted: 7/19/2010 Location: Inver Grove Heights, MN Shape: Light Duration: 45 minutes Characteristics: There were lights on the object
Bright string of stationary lights after tornadic storms baffles stormwatcher