2021-10-03 - Arvada, CO - Other

Hovering object along commercial airline flight path

I live in the west-ish side of Denver and was sleeping in today (Sunday 10/3/21). My husband and I had heard fighter jets buzz over the area this morning before we were out of bed (Not sure the exact time of the flyover, but was certainly before 10:30am). Being that Colorado Springs is not too far, it's routine to have them fly through the area sometimes, so we thought nothing of it. We knew they were fighter jets as we have both Denver International and a regional airport flight paths that go directly over our home everyday, so there is very much a distinct difference in sound when plane types fly over (my husband also has his private pilot's license).

My husband had been feeling as if he was coming down with a cold but was hungry, so I got dressed and got one of our dogs ready so I could load up the car and grab lunch for us both. It was right around noon that I stepped outside with one of my dogs to let them go to the bathroom in the backyard before getting in the car. As we were walking into the backyard, the garage door was opening, so by the time our dog finished, we would walk straight out to the car. While in the backyard, I heard the garage door sound stop but I then heard fighter jets flying nearby again (Couldn't make out where they were as our backyard skyview is full of tall trees). I didn't see the jets, so my dog and I walked back into the garage and out to the car. I popped the hatch to my car and had my dog jump in, and I just happened to look up in the sky (west), I saw something just up in the distance that was hovering and also reflecting. I didn't think anything of it as it was in one of the Denver International flight paths that goes overhead of our house out west to the Rocky Mountains. As I noticed that it wasn't white like most of the airliners and not moving at all (just hovering - not going forward or backwards and not going up or down...remained in the same place in the sky and I know that it did because of the trees that it was between from my viewpoint), I tried to look closer with my naked eye. When I realized that it was 100% not an aircraft, I pulled out my phone to see if I could get a video or picture. It was a completely cloudless day, sunny, and an amazing temperature (70s). As I had my phone camera open and looked at my screen, it was so bright and sunny that I couldn't see what was on my screen. Also, because I didn't have any clouds or anything in the background of the sky, I couldn't even tell if I had the object in my phone view, so I just snapped a picture hoping that maybe I had gotten something and gave that up. I did, however, call my husband (did! n't want to lose sight of the object if I went inside and stil! l had my dog in the back hatch) and immediately told him to come out. After I hung up, I grabbed a pair of binoculars that I always keep in the back hatch (along with other roadside items for my camping that I do and anything else should I break down), and immediately looked to find the object. I found it, and I was absolutely jaw-dropped when it came into view. I literally cannot explain what I saw as I don't even have anything that I know of to compare it to. It was close enough that I could see the object in full view in my binoculars but far enough that I couldn't make out fine details. I tried to focus what little ability I had on my binoculars but it didn't help, and I was also very, very excited and curious of what I was seeing that I probably didn't even do it right. But, I could absolutely tell that there were no wings, nothing being emitted from the craft (fumes, heat signatures/flames/waves, nothing that I could see from my distance). As it hovered, it was almost like it ! was slowly rotating and as it rotated (if it was at all), it appeared as if it were both dull and reflective (reflective on only some parts of it and not all...very hard to describe). And there seemed to be what was like a red light on it (I think on the lower (groundward direction), thinner end of the craft) but I couldn't tell if it was like a circular light that we would normally expect to see or if it was a large part of the craft that was simply that color and reflecting or if it was a large part of the craft that was lighting up. It was bright enough to notice but faint enough that I couldn't exactly make it out. The craft itself was almost concave...it wasn't round or circular...it was long though but still looked like it was almost concave. It didn't appear to be completely smooth...it was almost like it was bubbly on some parts? Again...I'm having such a hard time explaining what I saw. I can somewhat make it out in my head but can't put it into words.

My husband was out at this point, and I handed over the binoculars. He saw it and didn't really say anything. He handed back the binoculars to me and walked inside. He didn't really want to look at it anymore and didn't think anything of it.

At this point, my neighbor from directly across the street had seen me looking up frantically and came out with her binoculars. She started talking to me, and the aircraft had already started to slowly move southwest from where I originally saw it. It didn't take but a couple of minutes before it was too far to see anything but the reflections from the object when looking through my binoculars. My neighbor didn't get to see it before it was gone. I never saw or heard any jets after that point in time, but I did see commercial airliners continue on their normal flight paths. There's honestly no way in my mind how the airliners couldn't have picked this up on radar or had not radioed it in or reported this if they were flying near this.

I have a single picture that I thought wouldn't actually show anything at all, but it actually does (just not really anything that you can make out with any details). The phone used was a 2017 Pixel 2 G011A. This was what was used at the time of the sighting and was the best that I had available.