Inverted tear drop shaped brightly illuminated slow moving object sighted over 3 1/2 hours.
My wife and I first spotted the craft while on the shoulders of Mt. Picacho, observing a very bright large white object which seemed to move very slowly, almost imperceptibly. This was at 5:00 pm in a deep blue sky; it looked something like a bright planet, but much too large for that. As we observed it repeatedly on our climb down we speculated it could possibly be someone in a large paraglider who had been able to catch an updraft to a very high altitude, but it hovered so long in a nearly motionless state that that would have been most unlikely. Hours later, at a few minutes after 8 pm, we observed it again from our home east of the plaza in Santa Fe. It had moved a few miles west during that time, and seemed to be directly over the central area of the city. Our only magnification was a pair of opera glasses. It appeared to have an inverted tear drop shape, almost like a balloon (spherical but with a small conical projection underneath), but without! a distinct basket, and was very brightly illuminated, as though internally lit with a very powerful light which seemed to have no distinct source--like a brilliant, radiant glow. My wife states she was taken aback by its “otherworldly" beauty. A good description would have been an inverted tear drop shaped light bulb with faint horizontal bands. Checking back on it at 8:45 pm, it had completely disappeared from the sky. I was sorry not to have witnessed how it disappeared. Its motion had been so slow I’d expected it to still be visible and was surprised at its sudden disappearance.
((NUFORC Note: We suspect that the object was a hig-altitude, helium-filled balloon. One was reported to have been released from Ft. Sumner in New Mexico.
http://www.topix.com/city/fort-sumner-nm/2014/09/enormous-balloon-will-carry-black-hole-hunting-telescope-aloft
PD))
My wife and I first spotted the craft while on the shoulders of Mt. Picacho, observing a very bright large white object which seemed to move very slowly, almost imperceptibly. This was at 5:00 pm in a deep blue sky; it looked something like a bright planet, but much too large for that. As we observed it repeatedly on our climb down we speculated it could possibly be someone in a large paraglider who had been able to catch an updraft to a very high altitude, but it hovered so long in a nearly motionless state that that would have been most unlikely. Hours later, at a few minutes after 8 pm, we observed it again from our home east of the plaza in Santa Fe. It had moved a few miles west during that time, and seemed to be directly over the central area of the city. Our only magnification was a pair of opera glasses. It appeared to have an inverted tear drop shape, almost like a balloon (spherical but with a small conical projection underneath), but without! a distinct basket, and was very brightly illuminated, as though internally lit with a very powerful light which seemed to have no distinct source--like a brilliant, radiant glow. My wife states she was taken aback by its “otherworldly" beauty. A good description would have been an inverted tear drop shaped light bulb with faint horizontal bands. Checking back on it at 8:45 pm, it had completely disappeared from the sky. I was sorry not to have witnessed how it disappeared. Its motion had been so slow I’d expected it to still be visible and was surprised at its sudden disappearance.
((NUFORC Note: We suspect that the object was a hig-altitude, helium-filled balloon. One was reported to have been released from Ft. Sumner in New Mexico.
http://www.topix.com/city/fort-sumner-nm/2014/09/enormous-balloon-will-carry-black-hole-hunting-telescope-aloft
PD))
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Santa Fe
USA
3 hours 45 minutes
3 hours 45 minutes
35.65
-105.94
triangle
NM
Occurred : 9/13/2014 17:00 (Entered as : 09/13/14 17:00) Reported: 9/14/2014 10:44:51 AM 10:44 Posted: 9/18/2014 Location: Santa Fe, NM Shape: Triangle Duration: 3 hours 45 minutes
Inverted tear drop shaped brightly illuminated slow moving object sighted over 3 1/2 hours. ((NUFORC Note: Balloon. PD))