NUFORC Sighting 42818

Occurred: 2005-03-07 19:30 Local
Reported: 2005-03-08 17:15 Pacific
Duration: 10 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Goulburn (Australia), , Australia

Shape: Oval
Characteristics: Lights on object, Changed Colo

Vertical oval-shaped object seen in skies over Goulburn, Australia, disappeared in orange sparks, before becoming a star.

A white, vertical oval-shaped object was seen in the sky over Goulburn, NSW, Australia. It had a faint vertical line down the middle, and was not uniformly smooth on the left-hand side.

My mother and I were travelling in a car, and observed the object while travelling south from the highway until we were well into the city. It appeared to move irrespective of the wind (clouds went past it without it deviating from its course). It seemed to be moving up, and it got bigger as we got closer to Goulburn, not leaving a trail of any kind. My mother and I tried to identify what it was (going through rocket/ ultralight/ gyrocopter/ helicopter/ airplane), but could find no rational explanation other than that it could be a blimp/zeppelin/derigibal.

However, the most convincing part of the experience was the way it disappeared. The object seemed to dissolve in orange-red sparkling lights (almost like glitter - like in those old-ish movies where someone disappears by magic into a bunch of sparkles. This took about 3-5 seconds), before completely disappearing, leaving only a relatively bright star-like light in the sky, which I watched for another 2 minutes or so, before losing sight of it.

The reason we thought it was a blimp was because it was dusk, and it could have been reflecting the sun off its side, then turn around and stop reflecting in our direction. But why, then, did it sparkle orange lights and turn effectively into a star?

Posted 2005-05-11