2010-12-31 - Anchorage, AK - Light

Two small orange lights flying over Anchorage

It was New Year's Eve 2010, and I stepped outside to let my grandmother's dog out at about 8:10 PM. There were fireworks going off all around, so I instantly looked toward the sky when I got outside. The very first thing I noticed was a small orange light traveling fairly slowly moving from east to west. It was going slower than an airplane and was fairly low to the ground. Lower than an airplane would probably be flying. There is plently of air traffic over Anchorage all the time, so I know what I'm talking about and this was definitely not an airplane. I watched the thing very closely, and it was a steady light -- no blinking. I tried to make out if it was a large craft, but it was too dark and all I could see was the light. And it was not fireworks either, believe me. I saw it moving and all of a sudden it made a strange move -- about a 23 degree shift to the right effortlessly. At that point it looked like it was going to fly almost directly over my head! , so I got excited, but all of a sudden the thing started going straight up in the air. It went straight up to the point where the light was so small, it was about the size of a star. And there were two stars up in the sky and I swear they were moving around, but maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me. I wear glasses and my vision is not great, especially things from far away. I was squinting as best as I could, and I could still see this light traveling now toward the southwest. It was obviously very high in the sky at that point, and I watched it about another three minutes until it just stopped. At this point it was no longer orange. It was what I'd call a black or gray light. So you'd think it was something impossible to see, but I could still see it because I had been watching it the whole time. This was the point where I figured it must be a very large object because it was very far away at this point. And it just started falling straight down. It was falling faster ! than it had been moving the whole time. I heard no sound, but ! keep in mind I was near a busy road and there were fireworks going off all over the place. But I made a conscious effort to listen for sound from it, and there was none. I watched it fall for about 30 seconds, and I looked back toward the east for a second and I saw another light. It was the exact same thing flying at the same rate and roughly the same path as the original. I watched this one for about 10 seconds and then I looked back to the southwest for the other one, and I could no longer see it. So I looked back for the new light, and it was gone. I scanned the sky for about another minute, and I could not see either of the two lights, so I went back inside.