NUFORC UFO Sighting 2172

Occurred: 1997-04-19 01:30 Local
Reported: 1997-04-28 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 4 to 5 minutes
No of observers: 0

Location: Reno (north of), NV, USA

Shape: Other

Summary : When first seen, it was a huge, brilliant white, "bow-tie" shaped object which exploded into a much larger sphere filled with red, green and white, individual lights.

At 1:30 a.m. on April 19th, 1997, I was looking south, towards Reno, from my friend's kitchen window in her home located in Red Rock Estates about 11 miles north of Reno. I observed a huge, brilliant, "bow-tie" shaped object moving north, toward me, that looked like it was about 20 degrees up from the horizon. It was too unusual a shape to be a plane or a helicopter and the lights were so brilliant that I stood observing it for 4 to 5 minutes.As it moved over the mountains, it seemed to explode into an enormous sphere of red, green and white individual lights. It stopped moving and seemed to hover above the horizon for 3 to 4 minutes. Then in seconds, it seemed to twinkle out, first from the bottom of the sphere, finally to the top of the sphere. Then it was gone.

Posted 1998-09-26