2020-06-30 - Kokomo, IN - Light

Bright Lights Moving Erratically over Kokomo, IN.

My wife and myself were sitting on our balcony when I glanced upwards at the moon. Conditions were mostly clear, with some high cirrostratus hanging in the moonlight. I saw a bright light hanging by the moon, which at the time was perhaps 70 degrees above the horizon. At first, I mistook this light for Venus. It possessed a yellow-white color similar to Venus when the planet is bright.

After pointing the light out to my wife, I noticed that the light was solid, failing to twinkle the nature that stars and planets do. As we sat, perplexed, the light began to move, retaining its brightness. The light moved southwards, hanging just above the treeline. We reasoned that the light must have been emitted by a helicopter, or was perhaps a lantern (which are commonly lit and sent into the sky leading up to the forth of July).

Suddenly, the light changed colors, dimming shifting to a magenta somewhere between red and purple. Following the change in color, the light began moving erratically, shooting upwards and circling in a manner that defied our understanding. The abrupt changes in direction and altitude would undoubtedly be impossible for an aircraft to achieve.

As we sat watching this light above the treeline, it seemed to edge closer to our balcony. As it neared, it again shone bright, bright enough to illuminate the street below and our surroundings moderately. The light continued to inch closer, changing to magenta again, then brightening significantly. It seemed very close, we were honestly a bit frightened by the intensity and movement of the object during these lighting cycles.

The object continued to move what appeared to be southwards of our location, as it moved it became obfuscated in part by the treeline. Even when behind the trees, the brightness of the light was visible through the branches. The object continued to move erratically. Pausing, gliding, then circling quickly in the sky. Just prior to our losing of the object beyond the trees, we saw another light. This one hung farther in the distance and was much more purple in color than red. We did not see this second object illuminate as the first continued to do so. Resultantly, we quickly lost the second object beyond the trees.

Prior to losing the first object, I managed to record a 1 minute video of the first object, appearing as a grainy spot of light hanging above the trees. Near the end of my video, the object ascends, illuminates and cuts into the trees. Even in the video, the brightness of the object can be seen through the branches of the trees.

I stood vigil for some time after having seen the object. Employing a plane-tracking radar app, I scanned the airspace around us, failing to find a plane that was or had traveled along the path in the sky we saw the object.

Writing this a few hours later, I am quite perplexed. We live perhaps 10 or 20 miles south of a air force base, albeit all this activity happened in the opposite direction of the base itself.