2012-09-07 - Stevens Point, WI - Fireball

2 orange lights silently pass over Stevens Point, WI

I was out jogging through the south side of Stevens Point, and as I ran from south to north on side streets, I saw a bright orange light coming up over the tree tops and buildings ahead of me. There is a municipal airport on the north side of the city, so low-flying small aircraft are a very common sight. If the light had been white, I wouldn't have given it a second look, assuming that it was just a small plane that had taken off from the airfield.

Although its color seemed unusual, it behaved like other low-flying aircraft I've seen at night, proceeding in a steady, straight line, moving north to south, right over the neighborhood I was passing through. I stopped running and watched it, expecting to see wing lights blinking, that the orange light was just so much brighter that it obscured them. Although the orange light seemed to very slightly pulse a few times, there were no other colored lights, nothing blinking.

I watched it silently pass overhead, turning myself around to face south, until it was obscured by nearby trees. The entire 'sighting" lasted approximately one minute. I continued on my run.

Less than 5 minutes later, as I still ran north, I saw another bright orange light, again coming from the north and moving south! I stopped immediately to watch it, and it looked and behaved almost exactly as the first one I'd seen. It also seemed as though it could've been a low-flying, single-engine airplane with orange headlights on. It seemed to follow the exact same path as the first light, and also made no sound whatsoever.

The only difference this time was that, when it was directly overhead, the strength of the light started fading. It dimmed very rapidly as it continued to move until I could no longer see it. It reminded me of watching a satellite passing overhead on a clear night, as it moves in a perfectly straight line, and then slowly gets dimmer and dimmer until it is no longer visible. Maybe the first light also did this, but I could not see it because of the trees.

It was a beautiful chilly night, with little to no breeze, and a crystal clear, cloudless sky full of stars: a perfect night for a run, and it turned out to be a very memorable run!