NUFORC Sighting 142977

Occurred: 2018-08-27 20:15 Local
Reported: 2018-09-02 16:25 Pacific
Duration: 30 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Rachel, NV, USA

Shape: Cigar
Characteristics: Lights on object

Cigar-shaped light composed of four bright round, horizontal orange lights above town of Rachel, Nevada.

On the evening of August 29, 2018 at approximately 7:30 p.m., I drove approximately 1.5 miles south on Highway 375 from Rachel, Nevada, to Back Gate Road. This is a dirt road and I drove about 300 feet west. I set up my Nikon D5100 camera on a tripod to photograph the night sky before the moon rose. I photographed toward the south for a while, away from the lights of Rachel. Rachel is a tiny town with very little ambient light.

Sometime between 8-8:30 p.m., I turned to photograph the Big Dipper above Rachel. As I was looking in that northwesterly direction, I saw an oblong orange light over the town or possibly over the mountains behind Rachel. It was stationary at first and then began moving slowly east before stopping again. Gradually it descended until I could no longer see it. While it was moving, I turned my camera toward it and took a couple of pictures. My shutter speed was at 15 seconds, ISO of 1600 and aperture of 8.

When I looked at the photo on my computer, I saw there were four bright round, horizontal, orange lights above the lights of Rachel. I lightened the photo to make sure they were, in fact, above the town and/or mountains, and that it wasn’t a vehicle or town light. I also cropped the photo in order to enlarge it.

I am attaching all three photos: The original, the lightened one, and the enlarged one. The original one, unfortunately, is a bit crooked since I was in a hurry to snap the picture. Straightening it would lose the town lights, so I have left it as is. The lights were not present in the other photo, which I should have kept but did not.

Posted 2018-09-13

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