2014-09-20 - Vero Beach, FL - Circle

Bright yellow orange glowing circular object observed for aprroximately 5 minutes.

It was about 01:55am and I was driving from Vero Beach, FL, toward West Melbourne, FL on U.S.1. I was about 14 or 15 miles south of West Melbourne (approximately 25 miles north of Vero Beach) heading North on U.S.1 along the coast when I observed a round, bright yellowish orange light. At first I thought it might be the moon, but, I quickly realized that it was too small and too bright. This light was unusual as it gave the effect similar to what you would see watching a safety flare or a piece of magnesium burn - very bright & glowing.

The next thing I noticed was that it was too big to be a star. I also noticed that it was moving from North to South down the coastline, but over the ocean - in my general direction, but not directly at me. It didn't seem to be moving incredibly fast but I would say it was moving at a moderate pace, it was slightly off to my right - but in front of me, again - yellowish orange & very bright - too small to be the moon & too big to be a star, so now I am thinking to myself - this has to be a meteor. With my curiosity peaked, I actually parked in the median of U.S.1 and got out of my car and observed this "Thing" for about 5 minutes. Now I have my cell phone out and I am gonna try and get some video of it. I had a little trouble finding it at first, I am guessing at it's closest point, it was probably 1-2 miles from me and if I had to guess an altitiude, I would say somewhere between 3,000 & 5,000 ft. There was no audible noise associated with this object or it's! movement. Once I finally did get it into view and was ready to record it, it suddenly burned extra bright - and then disappeared - just like that.

Or, so I thought. Upon looking closely for about 10 seconds I picked it up again but the bright yellowish orange glow that was there previously, was now gone. There was still some light there still, but it was very dim (to the point where it could have easily been overlooked) and appeared to be coming from behind the object now, thus silhouetting it. So, I surmised that it had simply changed direction, I am guessing it had made, approximately, an abrupt 90 degree turn.

Now the object was still moving but appeared to be heading away from me - but still remained in the same general location with a little lateral movement back & forth. I understand that this object changed direction abruptly, but, I can't explain the dramatic decrease in the light it was emitting, it went from super-bright, to virtually no light at all. And again, there was no noise that I could associate this object. I watched it for a couple minutes longer, as it seemed to be moving away from me (East) o! ut over the open ocean and then I decided to leave as I was meeting somebody. I have never in my life (45 years) seen a UFO - but I believe, for the first time, I did last night.