NUFORC Sighting 49256

Occurred: 2006-02-23 00:02 Local
Reported: 2006-02-23 14:41 Pacific
Duration: 1hr 21mins
No of observers: 1

Location: Costa Mesa, CA, USA

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Changed Color, Aircraft nearby

Very Bright Light in sky over Sourthern California... moving north towards Long Beach over 1 hour 20 minute time period

-Object in night sky over Southern California -Triangle shaped - brilliant small lights on one side of object - Lights changed from bright white to red and every color in between (full spectrum of lights came from this object!) -Moved from being over Huntington Beach (my guess) to being over Long Beach (also my guess) in approx. 1 hour and 20 minutes.

-At arms length, the object could have been hidden from view if I would have held up a dime.

How the sighting happened: I went out on my back patio at 12:02 AM PST to have a smoke and noticed a very bright light in the night sky. Originally I kind-of assumed it was a star but after watching this object for a couple of minutes I realized that stars do not change color from an extremely bright white/halogen blue to a brilliant red and seemingly every color in between... this thing was amazing and SO BRIGHT!! I ran inside and grabbed a monocular that I have and ran back outside to 'get a closer view'... what I saw when I looked through the monocular was a little blurry at first (the monocular doesn't have the best range) but after stabalizing my arm and focusing on the object, the lights seemed to be shaped like a triangle (many small lights making up a triangle shape) and the object was kind-of pulsing. I was in dis belief!! This couldn't really be happening!! I always watch the sky and until this night... I have never seen anything that I couldn't associate with some type of known object (star, plane or helicopter). After I was able to see some shape to the lights, I attempted to contact a friend who lives about 2 miles from me (I felt it was very important to have another witness - especially from a different angle then my view)... but he did not answer...

I watched this object for 1 hour and 21 minutes until it eventually moved behind a building and was no longer visible to me. During the last 8 minutes of the sighting, the object literally completely disappeared from visibility for about 2 seconds at a time on four occasions!! I would describe it as either rotating and therefore the lit side of the triangle was not visible or the lights on this object simply dimmed out completely... but the object was never completely dark for more then about two seconds. I verbally said "OH MY GOD" when the object first disappeared from sight completely and then re-appeared two seconds later... it was absolutely unbelievable! I took 5 images with my Nikon Coolpix 3.2 Mega Pixel digital camera but only one of the photos came out somewhat decent (attached to this report).

I REALLY want to know if any other people saw this object and what thier description is... my monocular isn't the best so hopefully the triangle shape I saw was not a trick of lighting or caused by the distance.

Thank you for being here to take this report!! I feel absolutely blessed to have been a witness to this amazing object!!

Posted 2006-03-11