2012-12-07 - Kingston, NY - Light

Two Lights seen over Hudson River in Kingston, NY on 32 South

Was coming home from work in Rhinebeck. Crossed Kingston/Rhineclif Bridge and turned south onto 32/Flatbush Rd. Noticed two lights slightly to my left through front windshield but dismissed them as stars or possibly small planes. Was listening to music and thinking. As I passed a the Rondout Services center on the left I glanced up and noticed the lights were still there but brighter. They were also a reddish color. I also noticed that they were below the cloud cover because it was thin and fuzzy stars could be seen through them. These lights were very bright and not hazy in the same way.

I still thought they were planes or helicopters, but noticed that they didn't seem to be moving. But since I was in motion I couldn't tell. I continued to watch them and it became very clear quickly that they were stationary in the sky because, as I continued they seemed to be getting closer and the angle between them and my view was changing. I was approaching a perpendicular angle to them and I noticed they were quite a bit lower and closer than I originally had thought. By the time I got to the stoplight at the waste management station they were right in the frame of the driver's side window. It's a lengthy light, so I took the time to roll down the window and stick my head out to really get a good look. At that point they were right in front of my line of view out the window. One appeared to be about 40 degrees up from the horizon (there's a rise to the left, then the Hudson River, which is about a mile away from that point) and the other was higher, to the left, at ! about 60 degrees. I glanced at the car next to me (I was in the left hand lane), and at least the driver of that vehicle had also noticed the lights and was clearly looking at them. Our eyes met briefly in recognition of what we were seeing. He was also speaking to someone, but whether it was to a passenger--couldn't see into his vehicle--or into a speaker phone I couldn't tell.

When I stopped and actually really looked at the lights, they were clearly stationary, very bright, steady reddish lights, very shiny. All of a sudden, on cue, as it were, and right before the stop light turned (it almost seemed timed), the two lights very rapidly and in perfect tandem and coordination, veered at right angles to the left. They went from stationary to rapid motion literally at once. I remember thinking..."ok, this is just too weird, it's just how it's supposed to be, why couldn't it have been something else." I drove on through the light and a little ways down the road was able to look back briefly to see if I could tell where they were heading, and I couldn't see them again. I don't know if they speeded up and disappeared or what, but they were gone.

When I got home my partner and I plotted the sighting on a topographical map of Ulster county that we have on the wall. Based on that, and depending on their elevation, we figured out that the lights either had to be over the Hudson itself, or close to being over S. Rhinebeck.

I don't know if anyone else saw anything, but I know at least one other driver did.