NUFORC Sighting 87779

Occurred: 2011-09-27 17:30 Local
Reported: 2012-03-18 15:14 Pacific
Duration: 25 MINUTES
No of observers: 1

Location: Broomfield, CO, USA

Shape: Other
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby

gold lime green irregular bulb-shaped object Broomfield, CO 5:30PM 9/27/11

On September 27, 2011, at about 5:30pm, I was sitting on my back patio, in Broomfield, Colorado, which is about ¼ mile east of Highway 287 and W. 10th Avenue. Several small planes were making approaches from the north to land at Metropolitan Airport, two miles to the southwest. While watching these planes, I noticed something about three times higher in the air. It was the shape of a lightbulb, if the aluminum-wrapped lower base section were cut off. It glowed gold-ish lime green. It was moving from east to west very slowly.

I went indoors and got my binoculars and watched the object through them. A few times, it left its east-west course and veered in a northerly direction. Then, it would go west for awhile, then, veer south before continuing westward.

Initially, I thought this might be a Mylar balloon, but it did not look like one. Also, they tend to be highly reflective. This, instead, seemed to be glowing from within, a greenish gold color, not shiny or reflective.

Then, I wondered if it were a bundle of helium balloons, but with the binoculars, I could not see any irregularity in the shape, or space between balloons where they would separate from one another. It looked like one cohesive whole. Its shape did not change.

When it was overhead, it began moving in a more distinctly northerly direction, still going westward. From this angle, it looked as if it had a red elongated vertical light in the very center of it, the shape of a candle wick. This “wick” looked as if it extended about 2/3 of the height of the object. It still glowed greenish gold around this long red central “wick.” Also, when it got to the west of me, I thought perhaps it would not appear to be glowing (if its appearance were a matter of simply reflecting sunlight), since I would be on the side of the object that sunlight was not striking. This was not the case, however, and the object did appear to be emitting the greenish gold color on the east side (away from the sun) as well.

I watched this object for about 25 minutes. There was quite a bit of air traffic to Metropolitan Airport (2 miles southwest) and to Denver International Airport, much further east. The object was in fairly close proximity to two aircraft, so I am wondering if a pilot reported seeing it and could identify what it was.

Posted 2012-05-13