NUFORC Sighting 38877

Occurred: 2004-08-24 04:00 Local
Reported: 2004-08-25 05:39 Pacific
Duration: 2.5 hrs.
No of observers: 3

Location: San Diego, CA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Emitted other objects, Changed Colo

Bright objects seen for extended periods on cloudy night.

Bright hovering lights, observed in front of some low hanging clouds. The brightest of the objects was low on NW of field of view, other objects were scattered in a sort of triangular/chevron pattern spanning from NW to SW. Would easily have been identified as stars if not for a couple of obvious problems. The brightest and 2nd brightest remained visible inside of and in front of a large cloud formation and cast a glow inside of their respective clouds (glow in front of and behind). The brightest one would grow dull to the naked eye to the point of dissapearing completely and then become as bright as a high powered flashlight pointed at the eye from perhaps a distance of yards (very hard to discribe). The @nd brightest object (when observed by binoculars) appeared to have a small faint red object fly from it at an amazing speed. This was also witnessed by 2 friends, one roused from sleep, and the other at his night job where the light pollution made it possible for him to only see the bright one. The shapes were difficult to determine as they were very indistinct. The largest reminded me of a cylinder and then at times as a trapazoidal object, the others were the same but smaller or perhaps farthur. The small faint red dot was only witnessed by myself through the binoculars.The bright object is also in the sky now (05:12 on the 25 clear sky conditions). A smaller color flashing object is also present to it's south closer to the horizon. When the object is at it's brightest it is unmistakably 3 dimensional. I live close to the border of the Miramar base and many things have been observed over the years. I am usually held to skepticism but my curiosity has made me search for some enlightenment. I have scoured the web trying to find an astronomical answer and cannot. I do not use any kinds of drugs but am an ardent night owl. I've never reported anything at all and truly believe I've seen something unusual and hope that other people can give me some insight. I have met others from this area with similar stories.

NUFORC Note:

We do not know what the witness observed. Ordinarily, we would have guessed that a sighting of a bright object might have been Venus, but Venus is not in the northwest sky at this hour. PD

Posted 2004-09-01