NUFORC Sighting 21987

Occurred: 2002-02-17 22:20 Local
Reported: 2002-02-24 14:20 Pacific
Duration: 2 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Moses Lake, WA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Changed Color, Aircraft nearby

Observed a strange orange light in the night sky.

On 02/1702 at approx. 22:20 hours Local time, I was on routine patrols when I noticed a strange orange/white light in the sky over Quincy, WA. ( a town about 30 miles west of Moses Lake). I assumed it was an aircraft in the flight pattern from Wenatchee to Moses Lake, however we do not have any scheduled flights after 20:30. Because the light looked out of place, I parked and began to watch it through a pair of 10X50 binoculars. When I did this, I noticed that the light seemed to be pulsating, going from a dimmer orangish then intensifying to a larger whitish. I wondered if the light was a yard light from a farm house somewhere on top of Monument Hill located just south of Quincy, WA. however I could clearly see the silouette of the tops of the hills, and this light was obviously higher than the hills. At first the light appeared to be stationary, but then it began to move slowly along the ridge of the hill towards the town of Ephrata, WA. It appeared to move along top of the ridge for about 1 minute and then stopped, began to desend towards the hill top. I noticed that the pulsating seemed to get brighter as it began to desend, as it neared the hill top, it was just like someone turned off a light switch. It just disappeared!! I sat there for about 20 more minutes searching the skyline thinking that maybe I just lost it behind a cloud,(it was overcast that night). After about twenty minutes, I spotted the light (or one just like it) about 20 miles to the west of where I saw it desend towards the ground, the light had the same characteristics as before as it seemed to be pulsating the orange/white light. It started to travel towards the west very slowly when it also just disappeared.END

Posted 2002-03-19