2017-07-06 - Dayton, OH - Circle

Near Dayton OH red-orange object in night sky

I'm nearly 40, with a doctorate degree and a former university-level research assistant to a professor of astrophysics.

On this night, ny father was sitting outside on our back patio in the dark, only a porch light illuminating the area. My mother and I were indoors, talking, sitting at the kitchen table. That room has windows which face north, one of which overlooks the back patio. That window was partially open, as was at least one other.

At approx. 9:48 pm EDT, my father shouted something unintelligible (to me) through the open window nearest the table where I sat inside the house. My mom understood what he'd said, telling me of my father, "He's demanding I come outside!" After that, I heard him as he continued yelling to my mom to come outside "right now" to see something.

I will outside, instead, anticipating an announcement to the effect of, "There's a skunk in our yard! (There is long precedent for this sort of statement). I walked to the door, and as I crossed the patio toward my father, he pointed toward the sky (it being nearly entirely dark, this was not terribly useful and I did not even know he'd done until I saw a photo taken that night). I asked where to look, and then he explained to me where to look in the sky: toward the far northwest to the west side of a large tree in our backyard.

Once I turned to look in that direction, it was easy to see the object to which what he'd been referring. It appeared to be quite large, utilizing nearby homes and trees as a point of reference, and was a vibrant, brightly-colored object which appeared nearly round in shape. It seemed to glow, and that glow was quite intense, the entire object a uniformly-brilliant red-orange and lacked any discrepancy in intensity over its entire visible surface.

It appeared to be relatively large, greater than the size of any plane (civilian or military) I've yet to see under similar circumstances. It appeared, initially, to be flying a bit lower than even the typical passenger planes which I see daily as they fly to and from a nearby airport. The only crafts I've seen in such a low flight paths have been F-15s & F-16s flying during either the local, annual air show, or else flying in and out of nearby Wright-Patterson AFB.

This red object moved quite rapidly, heading east with its initial path seemingly parallel to the earth. After about 30 seconds, it disappeared from my view as our backyard tree obscured my line of sight entirely, then returned to view. When it did, it appeared to remain moving forward from West to east, still traveling parallel to the ground for about ten seconds. Then, it suddenly appeared smaller (from which change I'd generally infer either a change in size, luminosity, or distance from the point of observation, but whatever occurred did so seemingly instantaneously).

Then, still appearing smaller, the object apparently gained altitude, rising from a former point about 35 degrees above horizon to ~45 degrees above horizon, and then, at zenith, the object seemed to cease moving completely. It did not move nor vary in size or light intensity for several seconds, then began moving in a manner completely different from how it had moved before stopping. It repeatedly moved in what appeared to be a linear, upward direction perpendicular to the going (without any associated forward or backward motion), did the same moving downward, eastward, westward, or at varying angles; it seemed to move closer at times, farther away at others, each of the perpendicular motions made occurred without the object also moving in any direction parallel to the ground, yet other times it moved forward (west to east) or backward while apparently accelerating or decelerating. It also would simply cease moving and remain static, as well as move in sharply curving and angled paths as it appeared to simultaneously move up or down.

It remained the same shade of glowing, vivid reddish-orange throughout, its light initially seeming to vary in intensity relative to its distance from me, but after the first 60 seconds or so, these changes in light intensity seemed to lack any correlation with the way it appeared to move.

It was during the sequence of rapid, varied movements that the object again appeared to completely cease moving, and, while remaining stationary, appeared to divide into two of itself, yet both objects appeared identical in shape, and color/luminosity. There was no visible division of the first object; it simply appeared to change from one object into two, the second appearing (at first) as if conjoined with the first object, as initially, a small portion of the edge of its upper left (west) quadrant appearing to either overlap or be contained within the edge of the lower right (east) quadrant of the first/original object. The only visible sign that accompanied the appearance of the second object was a quick, less-than-a-second, flare-like emission from the lower-right (east) quadrant of the first object; this quickly-appearing and quickly-fading flare was the same color as the object itself. The second object appeared nearly identical to the first/original, except it appear! ed to be slightly smaller. The second object remained visible for only a second or less; it then vanished entirely, without any apparent movement at all.

The original object remained, now alone again. It remained visible for ~90 seconds more after the second object disappeared, the original resuming its prior series of sharp, quick motions (without any apparent pattern or sequence) alternated with seconds of apparent non-movement.

It had been visible for 3-4 minutes when it again appeared to stop in place, stationary, then its light intensified as it appeared to increase slightly in size (perhaps it was moving closer to me). Immediately after that, at an incredible speed, the object moved silently to the east, then appeared to gain altitude at this same, ultra-rapid speed (closest to which I can compare its speed is to that of a meteor streaking across fhe night sky) as it moved east-to-west at quite a steep angle, although it did not move in a straight line as it did so. It never ceased that motion, but once it reached its highest point, it moved with the same sort of extremely rapid speed toward the east/southeast before vanishing, seemingly among the clouds in that direction.

Whether its motion was linear or otherwise, each motion of the object was quite fluid & it always appeared to move with a noticeably agile ease. The object seemed entirely silent throughout.