2010-08-13 - Hot Springs, VA - Changing

Low flying lights manouvering over treeline.

Went out to the lookout point east of runway 7 at Ingalls Field abandoned airport to watch the Perseid Meteor Shower at about midnight with a group of 6 people. We saw several bright shooting stars before a brief rainshower passed through and everyone bugged out.

Took everyone home, and by the time everyone was home, it had cleared up again, so I decided to drive back up the mountain to see the peak by myself. I arrived at about 3:30 AM, parked and set out in my chair behind my car with all lights off... about one or two per minute for at least an hour! Ink black sky, Milky way easily visible with the naked eye. It was beautiful.

Then, I noticed something flashing through the trees to the east. It was a VERY brigh pure white light flashing so brightly it could be seen through the treeline, very low. I waited for it to pass from behind the trees, and it raised in altitude and changed from a single white light brighter than any star in the sky to a row of 2-3 ! orange lights in a line, which seemed to pulsate or move left to right.

What scared me was the maneuverability. This thing was flying "S" shaped patterns up and down over the treeline, estimated max altitude 2000 ft., apparent size as big as a pinky fingernail width at arms length. It started flying in the same direction as the road I drove up to get to the lookout, and I got scared, so I instantly popped my trunk, folded my chair and threw it in as fast as aI could and hit the "unlock" button on my car.

As soon as the car unlocked, all the car lights went on, and I thought "SH*T"! I looked up, and the three orange lights became one much brighter orange light, almost looked like it was shining something at me, like it saw me.

I instantly hopped in my car, cranked it and tried to run in a panic... the car cranked very very slowly for a few seconds, and the lights dimmed before it started up and I drove away. I was scared because I had to drive in the direction of the thing to get out of there so I floored it very fast, narrowly missing a deer.

Looked up, and at one second could see the thing through my winshield, which scared me even more. I didn;t feel safe until the road went under the dense tree canopy. There was no noise at all, and no contrails.

All I can say is, never again by myself. Been up there several times to look at stars with people, and we often see solid lights at high altitude on ballistic trajectories, probably satellites, but this was low and bright, and abnormal. Don;t know what it was, but never again by myself at that hour..