2014-11-27 - Gurnee, IL - Sphere

Bright yellow-orange lights moving west over Lake County, IL.

At about 7:45pm CDT, leaving my niece’s home after a family Thanksgiving dinner in Gurnee, Illinois, as I reached my car parked on the street, I noticed two very bright yellow-orange lights in the sky. Not sure of their altitude, probably something between that of a low-flying plane but higher than a helicopter would fly, if that makes sense. The lights were in a horizontal configuration, one a good distance (maybe an inch at arm’s length) higher than the other, with the lower object slightly ahead of the other as they moved slowly from east to west. They weren’t big, maybe like BBs, but very bright.

I was standing northwest of them, and they could have been a couple miles or so south of my position. Though two very distinct lights, they moved in tandem and seemed in fixed positions in relation to each other, as though connected. I didn’t see anything connecting them, nor any stars between them, but the night sky was overcast and not many stars were visible. No sound, but at that distance, unless they were jets or helicopters, I probably wouldn’t have heard any engine noise.

Must admit, I’m fascinated by UFOs, but have never seen one before. However, I know enough to look for the green and red lights required for aircraft, and there was no other color in these objects except for the very bright yellow-orange color, like polished gold. As they moved west, each of the orbs seemed to have some shadow on its rear side, so they looked almost like tightly curled commas. Traveling a little farther west, the top light looked like it had a separate, smaller light following immediately behind it, possibly part of it. The color was so bright and so consistent otherwise that they looked like shiny metal structures. But whatever light they had must have come from them because there is nothing in the area to illuminate them at that height, and the crescent moon was behind them.

My first thought was, “Darn, I don’t have my camera with me.” Then my niece came out of the house to bring me something I’d left behind, and we both stood there for a couple minutes watching these lights and trying to figure out what they possibly could be. She is not at all interested in UFOs, and probably thought I was little nuts being so fixated on these objects.

The closest familiar object they resembled would be Chinese lanterns, but the bright color was stable, not flickering. Flares? They moved together at a level altitude straight west and I assume flares might drop or lose altitude. They didn’t have a “fuzzy” glow, even in the overcast, but were bright, hard lights.

I watched these for approximately five minutes, and they moved slowly but at a perfectly steady rate across the sky, covering a distance of about eight inches at arm’s length. Then they disappeared without changing shape or size, without falling to the ground or anything. They just went out.

My location would be about 30 miles north of O’Hare Airport, and the lights I saw would have been coming from Lake Michigan, possibly 10-15 miles east of O’Hare. And again, they didn’t have the FFA lights, nor anything resembling the configuration of lights that I’ve ever seen on commercial aircraft. There’s a smaller airport, Waukegan Regional Airport, about 10 miles north of Gurnee, but the lights were heading west, not north. I drove by Waukegan Airport a few minutes later, and don’t think it was even open.

Have no idea what they were. Just very curious.