NUFORC Sighting 61633

Occurred: 1999-10-15 02:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2008-02-15 17:39 Pacific
Duration: 2hrs
No of observers: 1

Location: Lexington, MA, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Lights on object, Left a trail, Emitted other objects, Aircraft nearby

A 2 hour sighting of fireball with orbiting mini fireballs and an array of white dots in the sky with unusual movements

I was about 13 years old when I saw this event. I was lying in my bed, which was next to a window on the second story of my house. The window was facing southwest and across the street was another two-story house with trees to either side. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and seeing a bright red-orange fire ball in the sky above the house across the street. It was about the size of the full moon in the sky, but appeared to be much closer. It was bright, but it was lighting anything up on the ground, at least from where I was positioned. The fireball was shooting out small bits of fire, which would orbit the ball for a time leaving a trail behind them before plunging back into the main body of the ball. There were clearly flames on the surface of the ball, as well. It looked a lot like what you might imagine an atom with its orbiting electrons to look like. Small specks of fire swinging around the fire ball in all directions. Furthermore, to the right of the object I have just described was an array of white dots, larger than stars, but quite small. In the sky, this would be probably six times the diameter of the fireball in distance. These white dots would line up in two rows (there were probably 8 of them) and then one on the end would scoot through the sky, at first slowly and then with increasing speed, toward the fireball, then stop and turn down and head back to the main group ending up in the lower row, when it originally been in the upper. I watched for probably an hour and a half taking in the beauty of what I was seeing. I contemplated waking up my parents and nearly did so, but I was reluctant to take my eyes off the phenomenon in case I were to miss something. I never woke them up and eventually went back to sleep. The date I have proposed is approximate. I have only recently begun to share this story with people because in the past when I tried I was met only with skepticism, which is, I suppose, the right response. In any case, it seems to have stuck with me a! nd now I would like some answers. The only possibility I can think of, which does not rule one way or the other in terms of extraterrestrial activity or otherwise, is that it had something to do with the nearby Hanscom air force base. This air force base is in a pretty densely populated area, so it doesn't seem like it would be a good location for top-secret technology testing, although I have heard that some of the research on stealth fighter planes was carried out there.

NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that the date of the incident is approximate. PD

Posted 2008-03-04