2010-11-02 - Inverness, IL - Disk

Stationary object over with flashing colored lights in center and 4 or 5 dark disks on side of object.

At approximately 1:17 am the morning of November 2, I noticed through the window a green flashing light about 40 degrees above the eastern horizon that appeared to be slightly larger than the size of a large star. I studied the light because the green color flashing alternating with red then white seemed odd to me. The object did not move but appeared to stay suspended in the same location. After 10 minutes of waiting for it to move in the sky or to better recognize this type of pulsing or flashing light as a celestial body, I got out my little Nikon 9 x 25 binoculars for a better look, and then the object became much more visible. At this point I woke up my husband and he observed the following as well through the binoculars: This object was flashing a brilliant blue, red, yellow, white sequence that changed or alternated color about once per second, almost in time to my ticking mantel clock. I presumed the green I’d seen without binoculars was a blending of the yellow and blue in the atmosphere. The brilliant colors of the flashing or pulsing light all originated from the center of the object, sometimes flashing brighter than other times. The object seemed quite distant, as the atmospheric distortion between it and me on the ground made it difficult to focus at times. But by holding as still as I could and resting my arms on the window, the object's shape and further details became apparent.

The object appeared to be flat across the bottom, with “walls” that were roughly 1/4 the height of the overall width of the object. It seemed to rise higher in the middle from where the light pulsed. On the "walls" of the object, there were 2 large round dark disks or circles on each side of the central disk through or over which flashed the pulsing lights. In other words, there seemed to be 5 very large circular disks evenly spaced along the sides of the object, 2 on each side of the centrally located flashing light.

The details, for all the distortion and difficulty with keeping the object in focus, were actually quite sharp and surprisingly clear. At approximately 1:55am I stopped watching the object which still was in approximately the same location and went to bed. I did not take a photograph.

I’m an attorney with a Masters in Urban Planning and my husband is an orthodontist. Neither of us has seen anything like this before. I grew up in the country in Ohio and am somewhat familiar with the night sky this time of year, and have seen Sirius as bright as this. By using binoculars, the object appeared to be an object that was not part of the normal night sky.

I will confirm this "sighting" or debunk it tonight at 1:00 am Central time. If the object was indeed Sirius, then it will reappear and have similar characteristics.