NUFORC Sighting 70782

Occurred: 2009-06-25 21:00 Local
Reported: 2009-06-30 20:53 Pacific
Duration: 4 hours
No of observers: 2

Location: Pittsfield, ME, USA

Shape: Other
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object

Bright dull lights over treeline

At approximately 11:00pm, in West Pittsfield I was letting my dog outside to go to the bathroom before I went to bed. I noticed strange flashing lights on the horizon in the west, north and north western part of my tree line. They were a dull yellow and lit up the whole tree line when they flashed. Almost reminiscent of what distant lightning looks like, however, I should note that no thunderclap was ever heard after these flashes.

There was about a 10 second interval between the largest flashes and perhaps 3-5 seconds between the smaller ones. The flashing alternated in the following pattern: West, Northwest, North. I should also note that I have seen these flashes in the past.

In the summer of 2003, I noticed the same pattern of flashes in the same quadrants of my back field. I alerted my father to this strange phenomenon. My father who is a doctor was also perplexed by these lights. He at first dismissed them as distant lightning, and I implored him to stay longer and watch and observe that there was no thunderclap. He stayed longer and agreed that it was strange that there was no thunder associated with these bright displays of lights, he also agreed that the timing was almost exactly 10 seconds between large bursts of light on the treeline. I was fortunate enough to have my digital camera in which I took some low-grade videos of the event. The video is not very good yet shows a decent example of what the lights looked like.

When the lights flashed, it was brightest on the western quadrant of my field. It appeared as if the lights were flashing at a distance of perhaps 10-15 miles away. When flashing occurred on the brightest of flashes (every 10 seconds) it was possible to see cloud formations above the light flash (an obvious indication of the brightness of the light).

Posted 2009-08-05