NUFORC Sighting 90668

Occurred: 2012-07-04 20:40 Local
Reported: 2012-07-08 18:31 Pacific
Duration: every few minutes for alm
No of observers: 3

Location: Durant, OK, USA

Shape: Orb
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object

Videotaped 20+ silent orange orbs traveling solo & in groups; not airplanes or fireworks

Observer #1 – female, age 40 There were five people in our group – two adults with doctoral degrees, one 15-year-old, and two children, ages 5 and 3. We were viewing fireworks in a parking lot in the center of Durant, OK, on University St. and 19th Avenue. I was facing southwest along with my family when my husband saw the first orb of the evening. This was the one that came closest to us. (The weather was warm, sky was clear and there were no clouds in the sky whatsoever. When it got darker, around 9:00-10:30pm, we were able to see many constellations from the center of town). Close to dusk, approximately 8:40pm on July 4, 2012, we saw a bright orange orb-like object smoothly move across the sky from the south to the north. The object slowly passed over us and with the contrast of the darker and lighter sky with the sunset, I saw what looked like a larger, dark portion on top of the orange circular light. It traveled overhead for about one minute before completely disappearing and suddenly toward the! north/northwest. However, as it traveled, the light flickered inconsistently, like a candle. It did not blink as an airplane or water tower light blinks, rhythmically.

Unfortunately, we had not yet set up our video camera and tripod to catch this object. We had seen similar objects the past three years on the 4th of July, so we decided to try and videotape this year. As a result, we taped almost 30 minutes of footage of various orbs coming and going from 8:45pm-10:20pm. While the camera is older and the footage is often shaky, the moon, buildings, fireworks, trees, and other structures can be seen. Our five-year-old daughter also spotted some of the orbs. Most of the orbs seemed to be about the size of an aspirin or somewhat smaller from the distance we were located. Some seemed further than others, but one thing was very clear – they were NOT fireworks, flares, or airplanes. There is a small regional airport on the southeast side of town, however, I don’t think most private planes take off as quickly or in groups as these orbs did. And, all of the orbs were identical in size, color, and flight pattern. The only difference was the speed, some traveled a little more slowly than others but all headed from south to north/northeast or northwest.

Shortly after our first sighting, we began to see one orange orb after another, sometimes two or four at a time, pass from lower in the horizon from south heading north/northwest and completely disappearing after 30 seconds to one minute. They did not travel like an airplane would but rather seemed to be traveling much faster and in a linear fashion. When more than one orb appeared at a time, they looked as if they were in a formation or following one another. They all were light orange in color and flickered.

I was primarily facing southeast since most of the orbs seemed to originate from that destination just over the horizon. Later in the evening, closer to 10pm, the orbs were further to the west of town but still originating from the south. This also seemed to coincide with the firework activity. Again, the orbs can be seen on the video, and they clearly are higher and further away than the fireworks.

Observer #2 – male, age 15 I saw from about 20 to 30 glowing orange lights most of them flying in the same direction I don’t know how often they came but it was mostly after a bunch of fireworks went off. They started at about 9 and they began to slow down as people stopped to do fireworks they seemed to be about the same size but some looked a lot closer than others; some also seemed to move faster or be brighter. The first object that I saw looked the nearest. The sun was still up but barely, you could see a dark irregularly shaped thing on top. It seemed to have some kind of hook around the light and looked like it was holding the light, the rest of the objects did not have this.

The other orbs would be there for about thirty seconds then at some point disappear with no trail behind it. Some looked red but would than turn orange but would become orange. They would also slowly ascend at different rates. There would also be multiple lights at the same time. They didn’t touch each other and I couldn’t tell if there was a shape to connect them. The first object I saw came from the south of town but the majority came from the southeast. All of them looked to be going north, northeast but all coming from the south. They didn’t blink or dim at all. They were bright orange lights that would last longer than any of the fireworks and move in a small diagonal path ascending but slowly. I couldn’t tell how fast they were moving or the exact distance they were. The most I saw at one time was four and that’s when fireworks were the most active. They were all silent. No sound could be heard but the highway and fireworks.

Observer #3 – male, age 42 Date: July 4, 2012: I was present at the location of the sightings primarily observing my two young children during the experience. I was also lighting some small fireworks for my kids. The first sighting this year was confusing to me because I could see it even though it was still rather light on the western horizon (we arrived early before people started lighting most of their luminescent fireworks). It was an ovular object that was black in contrast to the sky with an orange light on approximately the bottom quarter. It appeared very low on the horizon and I found it bizarre because it was so visible. I had seen the orange colored orbs on the two preceding 4th of July holidays; but, I had never seen the unlit black portion above the orange light. It floated across the sky, from south to north, without making a noise. I asked my wife and 15-year-old stepson what it was. We were all baffled because it was so, well, blatant. I tried to set up the camera in time to capture it! , but was unsuccessful. I wasn’t set up for recording because it was still early in the evening. Our camera was set on autofocus (because I hadn’t read online recording guidelines prior to our first attempts at recording these objects), so I was unable to capture it on film before it traversed the full length of the horizon out of view.

After this, my focus was primarily on my children. We were in an empty parking lot in our rural town; but, I am very careful in keeping an eye on my children, especially with all of the fireworks that were being ignited around us. Durant, Oklahoma, has a city ordinance that allows the lighting of fireworks within city limits only on July 4th of each year. So, people really light a lot of fireworks in our town on this evening.

That being said, since I have seen the orange orbs glide across the horizon for three consecutive years now, I was always looking around me to see if there were other orbs intermingled with the fireworks exploding all around us. I saw many. Some were very distant; others were much closer and clearer. My wife took over with the camera, and she and my stepson tried to capture as many of the orbs as possible on the 30 minute minidisc we had in our standard definition camera. I saw approximately 20 of these orbs myself. Most were on the eastern side of Durant city limits traveling south to north/northeast. A few appeared on the western side of town and seemed traveled south to north/northwest. The ones that were closest captured my attention the most. They appeared to be orange with a hint of red in them. The close ones also seemed to have a sort of halo or light haze around them that could not be captured by our outdated video camera.

The orbs seemed to be traveling solo, however, there were times when more than one was in view. Also, when viewed in the northern sky after they passed, I could sometimes see three to five at once before they disappeared out of view.

A few constants I wish to provide with regard to these sightings: The orbs were all very similar in color and shape and did not waiver on the vertical plane. Closer orbs traveled at a quicker pace than more distant orbs; but, they may have all been traveling at the same speed due to their relative distance. None of the orbs made any noise as they traveled, although the fireworks being discharged in their peripheral were making plenty of noise, which may have concealed noise if I take all possibilities into consideration. The frequency of their appearance seemed to coincide with the number of fireworks that were being discharged into the sky, which I personally interpreted as providing concealment or a form of camouflage for the objects. When we packed up to leave, there were very few fireworks still being discharged. There were also very few orbs in visible in the sky by the time we left correlating with this decrease.

I am an educated man. I have attended 10 years of college and am, quite honestly, a skeptic. I seek data and quantitative evidence before I believe any hypotheses or theories regarding any phenomena (my motto is “show me your data”). I am not by any stretch of the definition a conspiracy theorist, but rather a diligent and responsible observer of the world around me. I have tried to make sense of these sightings over the past three years using what I have learned in my education concerning astronomy and the other physical sciences. I have clearly ruled out these orbs as being airplanes as these objects did not have the typical light patterns, sounds, or smoke trails of private or passenger airliners. My best personal (and humble) hypothesis as to their purpose (which goes beyond describing the tangible evidence before me) is that they are mapping the land as cartographers of sorts or perhaps scanning for minerals beneath the earth. But, that goes beyond the purpose of this ! report.

Posted 2012-08-05