NUFORC Sighting 177210

Occurred: 2023-07-24 21:30 Local
Reported: 2023-07-31 05:18 Pacific
Duration: 30 seconds
No of observers: 2

Location: Hubert, NC, USA
Location details: Bright Red Lights

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

Red light that appeared high in the sky, grew in size and then split into 15-20 individual red lights, then vanished.

I saw a very strange thing on the night of 24 Jul 2023 at 2130. I was laying in bed and just happened to open my eyes and saw a red "star" in the sky that was very bright. I instantly thought it was Mars and just looked at it for a second or two before I realized that it was moving towards the South. As I watched it move, it grew in size to about the size of the Moon and I decided to wake up my wife. I asked her what it was and she immediately said, "that is the Moon." I pointed out that the Moon was higher up and while I showing her the Moon, the object split into a bunch of red "stars" and grew to about the size of the Sun when it is on the horizon. There were probably 15 or 20 stars all arranged in a circle. They then expanded outward slightly and intensified their illumination and then vanished. The lights seemed to be at an altitude of about 10,000 feet. The whole event lasted about 30 seconds, so I didn't have time to get a camera or go outside.

It was the craziest thing that my wife and I have ever seen. Somebody said it could have been StarLink, but these were red lights and not in a straight line. They made a semetrical circle with all of the lights evenly spaced. A coworker told me that there was a Facebook post asking if anyone saw the red lights the night before, but he didn't read it and couldn't give me the details. I don't have Facebook, but I know a lot of people do. Any insight would be awesome. Thank you.

Posted 2023-09-10