2013-07-04 - San Anselmo, CA - Oval

07-04-13 Luminous object seen at close range for 10 minutes in hills of Marin County

I was walking up a steep hill near one of the foothills of Mt. Tamalpais when a mysterious black object came from behind one of the hills and came to a dead stop and continued to hover to the right of me approximately 100 yards away. This object made absolutely no sound and from where I was at on this hill was eye level with me and below treetop level. I stood there and watched it for a solid 10 minutes as it changed colors from green to red to a yellowish orange. It was mostly dimmed down and black for a few minutes but then started glowing like a lit up Christmas tree as I continued to observe it. It was oblong, taller than it was wide and took on the shape of a bell or lampshade with a brim on the bottom much like a hat. Finally after 10 minutes it turned a solid white color like a lit up lightbulb and lifted up and took off to the east at a fairly high rate of speed. There was a couple of people walking their dog down the hill from me that I tried to get! their attention to witness this but I did not want to yell and wake up the neighbors and I don't think they even noticed this object even though they were almost right under it. It was dimmed down so low that I really could not see much detail except that it was definitely oblong and seemed to be pointed at the top and slightly curved on the sides and like I said to myself this looks like a lit up Christmas tree glowing like the object itself was luminous. The colors were kind of blended together like they were coming off a hot grill on a black glass like surface. Although I have seen many of these luminous objects at quite some distance away through the binoculars, this is the first time I was able to see something this close up. I always see them to the east of San Rafael over the Bay and consider it a hot spot for sightings as well as Tiburon at a place called Blackies Pasture which is another hot spot.