2019-07-21 - Rio Rancho, NM - Oval

For 30 min, early morning, two people saw an oval light about 30 ft wide, circling, and shinning down through a sparse cloud cover.

At 16:00 I went outside into my back yard to locate the source of carpenter ants that have been entering our home. Having found the entry to the nest, at about 16:30 I decided to sit down on a recliner and watch the passing cloud cover. Just when I looked up (facing south) I was surprised to see a light circulating overhead.

I estimate that the overhead cloud cover was about two to three thousand feet high, and of varying thickness, with occasional open areas, which made it possible to temporarily glimpse the three-quarter moon, a planet and some stars, and an airplane that flew by.

The light was definitely coming from above the clouds. I estimate the size at about thirty feet. I observed it from an angle of about forty-five degrees. The light appeared as a glow shinning downward through the clouds. (To verify, I looked over the backyard wall toward the horizon to see if there was any light that was shinning upwards-there was none.) (Also, this could not have been a search helicopter, since there was no sound and a search helicopter would not be operating above the cloud cover, and the light was not shinning through the clouds with enough intensity to light up anything on the ground two to three thousand feet below.) The light traveled, counter-clockwise, in an oval of about several hundred feet (perhaps 400-500 ft.) wide. It took about seven seconds for the light to complete a full oval. From my perspective, the light appeared to be moving in an oval pattern. The light kept circling in the same location; but, it wasn't in a perfect oval; there was some slight deviation from a perfect oval pattern. The light may have been a circle and its movement may have been a circle had I observed it directly overhead, but from my perspective it appeared oval.

I watched the light for about fifteen minutes. I awakened my wife; and we watched the light together for about fifteen minutes.

There was no sound associated with the light. At about 16:50, a much higher passing airplane (perhaps a two-engine) became intermittently visible through the thinning cloud canopy. It was clearly heard as it passed by.

At 17:02 the onset of sunrise began to brighten the sky and the light faded from view, and we returned back inside of the house.

I did not feel any connection with this light. I did not feel any emotions, other than calm curiosity.

The following morning, at about 16:00, with the cloud conditions about the same, I looked in the same direction for about forty-five minutes, but I did not see any light as I did the morning before.

And the following early Sunday, with the cloud conditions about the same, at about 15:00 and again at about 16:30, I looked in the same direction for about fifteen minutes, but I did not see any light as I did the week before.