Two objects seen in central Oregon.
The night of Tuesday, July 26, 2016, I was up late watching a movie. I cannot state where I live as I also work there, and any mention of the organization I work for by name gives them the right to own this report, but I can say I am a fire lookout.
At about 22:30, I had to go to the bathroom and walked out onto the catwalk of my fire lookout and noted a white light with red and green flashing lights to the north just off the horizon. I assumed it to be an airplane, but took note of it because it was not on the general metropolitan to metropolitan flight paths that cross over my area, and it appeared significantly lower than standard planes. The lights were also brighter and larger than far-off commercial airliners.
I went back into the lookout and finished my movie, and at about 23:00 I went out on the catwalk to brush my teeth and noted the object was still there and appeared to have not moved at all. This surprised me, as neither airplanes nor satellites stay in the same place for that period of time.
After brushing my teeth I returned inside and looked at it through binoculars briefly, then pulled out my spotting scope and fixed on the object at 60x. I cannot accurately gauge the object’s distance, but judging by the increase in size of the object through the spotting scope I would estimate it to be 30 to 50 miles away with an exact azimuth of 22.2 degrees from my position (as measured with an Osborne Fire-Finder 1934 model).
The object was kite like in shape, but narrower side to side and longer top to bottom. It had a white/orange light in the center similar in color to an old halogen headlight, with a red light below and right of the white/orange one, and a green light above and ! left of it. The object itself was dark, and I can only estimate at its shape due to the visible light emitted from the white/orange light. The white/orange light remained constant but the green and red lights alternated strobing. As this is the standard pattern for commercial aircraft, I then wondered if this was a helicopter and my mind was simply making the shape with the visible light it could see. Within the 60x magnification of my spotting scope however, the object did not move out of the frame from 23:00 to 00:00. That would require an object to remain absolutely still, uncharacteristic of helicopters.
At midnight is when I witnessed its only visible change. At midnight exactly, another object entered the sky while I was looking through the scope, so I did not see it immediately when it assumedly rose above the horizon. It was below the previously listed object, slightly to the right, and did not come more than a few degrees above the horizon at any given time. I also looked at this one through the spotting scope. The shape appeared to be two isosceles triangles facing down, connected together at the widest point. The color was red at the top, orange in the center, and yellow at the bottom, with these three colors seeming to be lit up in a repeating wave pattern from top to bottom. One triangle was dark while the other was lighted, and once one triangle went through its lit cycle of red-orange-yellow, it went dark and the other one repeated the cycle. The rhythm of this light show of the two triangles was extremely fast. The right triangle appeared in full and to perfectio! n as I could see all three corners; however when the left triangle lit up its top right corner was cut off at an angle. This leads me to believe the right triangle was closer than the left, and the object was slightly turned away from me so I was not viewing it straight on. Upon first viewing this object was rising above the horizon, stopped, hung at a single point without moving for exactly two minutes, then at 00:02, dropped below the horizon. During the two minutes the double-triangle shaped object was in the air, the kite-shaped object previously listed in this report, rose in the sky 3.5 degrees (measured with an Osborne Fire-Finder) straight up at the exact same azimuth it was at previously. The Osborne Fire-Finder can observe a tenth of a degree change for any given azimuth, and the kite shaped object did not move a tenth of a degree.
I remained awake until 01:30 hours when I had to fall asleep as I had work the next day. I am used to waking up at 06:00 so I was extremely tired. The kite shaped object was still in the sky and still located in its second position listed in this report. I awoke after daybreak at 07:30 and the object was not visible.
The night of Tuesday, July 26, 2016, I was up late watching a movie. I cannot state where I live as I also work there, and any mention of the organization I work for by name gives them the right to own this report, but I can say I am a fire lookout.
At about 22:30, I had to go to the bathroom and walked out onto the catwalk of my fire lookout and noted a white light with red and green flashing lights to the north just off the horizon. I assumed it to be an airplane, but took note of it because it was not on the general metropolitan to metropolitan flight paths that cross over my area, and it appeared significantly lower than standard planes. The lights were also brighter and larger than far-off commercial airliners.
I went back into the lookout and finished my movie, and at about 23:00 I went out on the catwalk to brush my teeth and noted the object was still there and appeared to have not moved at all. This surprised me, as neither airplanes nor satellites stay in the same place for that period of time.
After brushing my teeth I returned inside and looked at it through binoculars briefly, then pulled out my spotting scope and fixed on the object at 60x. I cannot accurately gauge the object’s distance, but judging by the increase in size of the object through the spotting scope I would estimate it to be 30 to 50 miles away with an exact azimuth of 22.2 degrees from my position (as measured with an Osborne Fire-Finder 1934 model).
The object was kite like in shape, but narrower side to side and longer top to bottom. It had a white/orange light in the center similar in color to an old halogen headlight, with a red light below and right of the white/orange one, and a green light above and ! left of it. The object itself was dark, and I can only estimate at its shape due to the visible light emitted from the white/orange light. The white/orange light remained constant but the green and red lights alternated strobing. As this is the standard pattern for commercial aircraft, I then wondered if this was a helicopter and my mind was simply making the shape with the visible light it could see. Within the 60x magnification of my spotting scope however, the object did not move out of the frame from 23:00 to 00:00. That would require an object to remain absolutely still, uncharacteristic of helicopters.
At midnight is when I witnessed its only visible change. At midnight exactly, another object entered the sky while I was looking through the scope, so I did not see it immediately when it assumedly rose above the horizon. It was below the previously listed object, slightly to the right, and did not come more than a few degrees above the horizon at any given time. I also looked at this one through the spotting scope. The shape appeared to be two isosceles triangles facing down, connected together at the widest point. The color was red at the top, orange in the center, and yellow at the bottom, with these three colors seeming to be lit up in a repeating wave pattern from top to bottom. One triangle was dark while the other was lighted, and once one triangle went through its lit cycle of red-orange-yellow, it went dark and the other one repeated the cycle. The rhythm of this light show of the two triangles was extremely fast. The right triangle appeared in full and to perfectio! n as I could see all three corners; however when the left triangle lit up its top right corner was cut off at an angle. This leads me to believe the right triangle was closer than the left, and the object was slightly turned away from me so I was not viewing it straight on. Upon first viewing this object was rising above the horizon, stopped, hung at a single point without moving for exactly two minutes, then at 00:02, dropped below the horizon. During the two minutes the double-triangle shaped object was in the air, the kite-shaped object previously listed in this report, rose in the sky 3.5 degrees (measured with an Osborne Fire-Finder) straight up at the exact same azimuth it was at previously. The Osborne Fire-Finder can observe a tenth of a degree change for any given azimuth, and the kite shaped object did not move a tenth of a degree.
I remained awake until 01:30 hours when I had to fall asleep as I had work the next day. I am used to waking up at 06:00 so I was extremely tired. The kite shaped object was still in the sky and still located in its second position listed in this report. I awoke after daybreak at 07:30 and the object was not visible.
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
Off
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Yes
No
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No
Diamond Lake
USA
2 hours
2 hours
triangle
OR
Occurred : 7/26/2016 22:30 (Entered as : 7/26/2016 22:30) Reported: 7/27/2016 11:20:15 AM 11:20 Posted: 8/2/2016 Location: Diamond Lake, OR Shape: Triangle Duration: 2 hours Characteristics: There were lights on the object, The object changed color
Two objects seen in central Oregon.