NUFORC Sighting 103032

Occurred: 2013-10-04 20:00 Local
Reported: 2013-10-07 14:33 Pacific
Duration: 10 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Albuquerque, NM, USA

Shape: Circle
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Changed Colo

numerous blue white shimmering spheres moving rapidly from northwest to southeast over Albuquerque

At approximately 17:40, while driving home along Unser Blvd NW, I observed a bright, but strangely short meteor enter to the northwest. Impressed by how vivid this fireball was, I shortly put it out of my mind.

At around 20:00 I had stepped outside of my westside Albuquerque home to have a cigarette and load items into the car for a weekend trip to Canjilon, NM. Catching motion out of the corner of my eye, I glanced at the western sky and observed numerous shimmering balls of light crossing rapidly from northwest to southeast. I promptly ran inside and called for my fiancee to step out as well in order that she could verify what I was observing. I also retrieved my 60 power spotting scope. She stepped out with me and we watched in amazement as these objects continued to stream across the sky. Using my spotting scope, I was able to track one of these objects and was surprised to discover that the scope did not magnify it nearly as much as I would have expected. I take this to mean that the objects were further away than my initial estimate. The object I observed with the scope was circular, and while it appeared a bluish white to the naked eye, it seemed to be like a disco ba! ll-shimmering in many different colors. I put the scope down and continued to observe with the naked eye until all of them had passed. There was little if any noise from these objects aside from a faint "muttering" rumble. Their movement was erratic and uncoordinated, with some of them traveling faster, and taking wavering paths, but all generally to the southeast. They traveled very quickly-seemingly three times as fast as I would expect an aircraft to move at the same distance. They passed in three groups, with the majority of the objects comprising the lead group-almost reminiscent of the way race cars move about on a track. I considered taking photographs or video, but considering the apparent size of the objects, their velocity, and the state of darkness at that time of night, video would have been inconclusive and photographs would have been nearly impossible.

Posted 2013-10-14