NUFORC Sighting 129093

Occurred: 2016-08-06 20:17 Local
Reported: 2016-08-06 23:50 Pacific
Duration: 56 minutes
No of observers: 20

Location: Meridian, ID, USA

Shape: Oval

Bright orb viewed in twilight and night sky over Meridian/Nampa, Idaho for nearly an hour.

On August 6th, 2016, I was in attendance at the stock car races at Meridian Speedway in Meridian, Idaho. The lady seated next to me and I had been talking about my line of work as a pilot, and she began to put a couple of eye drops in her eye. As she looked up, she said, “Oh, and there’s an airplane now.” I, too, looked up and immediately noticed what she was looking at was most definitely not an aircraft of any kind.

At first glance, the object appeared to be directly overhead the speedway at an altitude of approximately ten to fifteen thousand feet AGL (above ground level). The object was quite bright in the evening sky. The object was VERY slowly moving west. The object’s shape was hard to decipher, but it was definitely not perfectly circular. The shape was more oblong than anything, or perhaps even cylindrical shaped. I noticed other people in attendance at the speedway were beginning to watch the object as more people had their heads turned. I kept a keen eye on the object and noticed that it’s almost imperceptible movement began to slow after a few minutes.

The object moved from directly overhead Meridian, Idaho, to directly over what appeared to be Nampa, Idaho, in the span of fifteen minutes. During the first few minutes of observation, my guess was that the object was a weather balloon. Weather balloons are launched over the Treasure Valley twice daily from the National Weather Service station in Boise, Idaho. I looked at my watch and discovered that the last weather balloon was launched over two hours ago. The object never decreased in size during the entire hour that I watched it, indicating to me that this was definitely not a weather balloon. Weather balloons decrease in relative size from the naked eye as they gain altitude. This object was not gaining altitude and was remaining the same size during the entire viewing. The object appeared to be emitting its own light, and as the sun set and the other stars and planets became visible the object appeared to become much more red in color.

The lady seated next to me was quite interested in the object and tried taking numerous photos of the object with her iphone, but none of the images showed anything of merit.

After about 45 minutes of watching the object the lady seated next to me decided to go to her car and view the object with a pair of binoculars she had in her car. She left and I last viewed the object almost an hour after first witnessing the object. I looked up again a couple minutes later and the object was gone. The lady returned a few minutes later looking rather flustered and stated that she was at her car viewing the object with her binoculars, looking directly at the red orb, when in vanished into thin air.

I know this was not an aircraft, as I’m a full-time pilot, and I’m quite aware of what aircraft of all types look like in the sky. This object was not a weather balloon, drone, or blimp of any kind. The object emitted a very bright light in the evening sky and emitted a very bright red/orange glow after sunset. The peculiar shape of the object and the odd movement of the object are what baffle me.

I know dozens of other people at the speedway that night witnessed the object, so hopefully they too will write reports.

I first witnessed the object at 20:17 and last saw the object at 21:13 local time.

NUFORC Note:

Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD

Posted 2016-08-16