NUFORC Sighting 108118

Occurred: 2014-03-22 12:00 Local
Reported: 2014-03-27 05:48 Pacific
Duration: 35 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: MacDill Air Force Base Tampa, FL, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object, Emitted other objects

Morphing White Lights Photographed from inside Air Force Base

On March 22 at a little bit after noon, I was inside the South Dale Mabry Gate entrance of MacDill Air Force Base attending the MacDill Air Show The ThunderBirds 2014. As I was sitting in line to park, a KC 135 R was taxing into position to take off in the direction of the water ( Gulf of Mexico - Tampa Bay Intercoastal ) .

This Aircraft, being one of my favorite, was less than 1000 feet away from my vehicle . Looking through my window I said " That would make a nice picture ".

At this point in time, I pulled out my brand new Canon 50 D DSLR and attached my Canon 70-200mm f2.8 I S lens to the camera, swung it out the window and started to take the images , into the third or fourth frame, I observed the very bright lights flying from right to left at a high altitude even with the tail fin of the aircraft. These I thought might have been the F-16s in a pattern waiting to land, moving very fast and then disappearing as quickly as they arrived .

I finished shooting and continued to park my vehicle on the closed hard stand outside some of the hangars. This was a mere 3 minutes from taking the images, when I noticed that all the F-16s were already on display on the active flight line. Now I scanned the sky for 5 minutes and never saw any additional aircraft land at the base at all.

When I returned home, I immediately edited the images, and posted them to a closed Facebook - Aviation Photography of Miami aircraft spotters page. With in 12 hours of posting these images, a member sends me a link to your website. When I open the link , there is a thread about a sighting of lights in the sky over Florida last week. The description is dead on, but the poster had no images .

I do have the images . 37 to be in the ballpark.

This link is to my web page flickr account.

This set, I used different color changing filters to enhance the lights.

Note: These are not birds. There are birds in the last 3 images. The altitude is so much different than the white lights.

http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/boneheadsboneyards/sets/72157642963566633/

Posted 2014-03-27