Case 9

Date: 2008-04-15
Location: AR, US
Brief Description: Glowing object passes over low and slow.
Full Description: I was having a cigarette near Grubs restaurant just south of the West Ave. and Dickson St. intersection in downtown Fayetteville watching the stars come out. The sun had set not long before and I could barely see blue off to the west. It was a perfectly cloudless evening. It is at that point in time that you can watch the stars just sorta' come out of nowhere. At 9 pm I observed a red glowing object moving into my field of view from just south of due west moving just north of due east. My first thought was that it must be a helicopter because of its altitude and speed. It didn't take long for me to think to myself that it likely wasn't a helicopter because there was no sound and the lighting was unlike any I had seen before (still possibly an apache type military chopper with very little sound, but doubtful because of the colors.) I observed this object passively until I realized it was out of the ordinary. At that point I oriented myself at my best guess of due south and clapped off a 40 degree field of view to time the object through. 20 seconds, give or take. The object was situated approximately 35 degrees off the horizon and was the size of a dime at arm's length, or .06' and the object appeared, at best guess, to be 1/4 of a mile south of me moving east. If my (and a couple of coworkers) calculations are correct this means that the object was moving east at an altitude of about 924' above my current elevation of roughly 1,300' at a speed of about 158 mph and was 32' in diameter. The glow of the object was very interesting. It had the appearance of having two separate lights. One on top and one on bottom. The former stayed on constantly while the latter pulsated in brightness without ever going out. While at its brightest I believe I could see the hull of the object in between the two lights. It appeared to be a dull gray behind the red glow. When the object crossed my field of view (due south) however, there was another light. Now I was looking at this thing from a left rear perspective and I could see a fairly intense yellowish white glow from behind. (perhaps this is why people seem to think the thing changes colors? changes directional rotation relative to observer, or even pass them leaving them to look at it from another angle?) Once again, I have battled with the thought of a helicopter or even perhaps a small aircraft but I cannot see it. The wind was gentle out of the south at about 5mph. If there was anything to hear the wind would have pushed it my way. Considering the oddity of the object and the fairly quiet evening even in downtown I am CONFIDENT I would have heard something... anything. No sound. There was also a passenger jet passing overhead at the same time and in the same field of view but much, much higher. Back to the time of day - the passenger jet was high enough in the sky that it was still catching sunlight. I could see the shape of the jet and even a portion of its contrail. The object in question was low enough and close enough to be completely dark other than the glow of the lights. At the time of the sighting and afterwards I had no abnormal feelings. I was just really intrigued by the object. Since then I have questioned myself about the altitudes and distances a few times but I am confident in my analysis and near 100% on the math. This is the fourth time in my life I have observed what, to me, was a UFO but this was probably the most significant considering I have a firm timetable and measurement process to work from. The other times all caught me off guard and two of them were before I ever joined the military and later became a land surveyor.
Attachment: N/A
Source: MUFON