2014-01-21 - Montana City, MT - Changing

A bright, white, scintillating, pencil-shaped light over the Elkhorn Mountains observed for 3 minutes.

These 2 sightings took place on Tuesday, January 21 between 6:45 and 7:00 AM.

My mother, who lives in an apartment directly below us, glanced out of a window and her attention was immediately drawn to a very bright, white, rectilinear, scintillating light over the Elkhorn Mountains southeast of Helena, Montana. This was before sunrise and she could clearly see this light about 10 degrees above the silhouette of the mountains. Atmosphere was crystal clear, no clouds, no fog. No red or green lights were noted. Estimated altitude of the light would be approximately 8500 feet, approximately 130 degrees from her point of observation, and 10 miles distant from her position (per Google Earth). She estimated the width of the light to be that of a “pencil eraser”, and the light appeared to be about 3 inches long from her perspective. She walked to the window and watched this linear, scintillating light move horizontally and slowly to her right (toward the south and toward Casey Peak) for approximately 3 minutes, and then it simply disappeared. She may have lost sight of the light as it moved behind tree trunks near her which could have obstructed her view. She had no idea what she was seeing, and told me that evening that she "thought she had seen a UFO".

On Wednesday morning I mentioned to my wife that mom thought she had seen a UFO. My wife said that she had also seen an unusual light that same Tuesday morning at that same time, although her description was different from my mother’s in several respects.

My wife meditates in front of a large window with an excellent view of the Elkhorn Mountains most mornings between 6:40 – 7:00 AM. She was seated almost directly above my mother but on the second floor of our home. While meditating on Tuesday morning, January 21, at approximately 6:50 AM she opened her eyes and observed a single, stationary, dime-size, very bright white light also about 10 degrees above the mountains which she said quickly expanded in diameter to the size of a nickel, and then just vanished. This light was much larger and much brighter than the pinpoint-size house lights and street lights that we see at half of the distance that this light appeared to be. Her sighting lasted approximately 15 seconds. She, too, had no idea what she had seen but she knew that this light was very unusual. She had never seen any light like this before despite having sat in the same place looking out of the same window at the same time most mornings for the past 5 years. Both my mother and my wife are convinced that whatever it was that they saw was not the planet Venus.

I called Salt Lake City ATC which monitors Helena’s airspace above 12,000 feet, and they reported primary radar returns from an Airbus flying at 37,000 feet 40 miles NW of Helena, and a Cessna flying 50 miles NE of Helena on January 21 between 6:45 and 7:00 AM. Both of these aircraft are wrong direction, wrong distance. SLC ATC reported no other transponder signals from any other aircraft. I spoke with a man in the Helena Regional Airport tower (Steve) who was on duty that morning and he denied seeing what my mother or my wife described seeing. However, he stated that at that time he was very likely looking out to the North of the tower and so likely would not have witnessed these events.

No photos or video were obtained.