NUFORC Sighting 180188

Occurred: 2024-01-27 03:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2024-01-27 11:19 Pacific
Duration: About 2.5 hours
No of observers: 1

Location: Osprey, FL, USA
Location details: In the night sky over the Gulf of Mexico at about 40-60 degrees from the horizon

Shape: Disk
Color: gray
Estimated Size: Quite large were they miles away.
Viewed From: Land
Direction from Viewer: East to North East
Angle of Elevation: 45
Closest Distance: Miles away
Estimated Speed: Absolutely still.
Characteristics: Lights on object

Disc shaped objects still in the sky for about 2.5 hours with about 9 circular lights along the length, larger in the middle.

I got up to watch the women's finals of the Australian Open. I noticed from my seventh floor condo, looking out over the gulf, a very bright flickering light that was clearly not a star. I got my bird watching binoculars (12X42) and focused in. The object was dead still in the sky about 40 degrees from the horizon and I would say due west. Is was gray and disc shaped. There was a very distinct set of round lights along the length of the disc. There were about nine such lights. They were mostly a very intense white. As while as white could be. The middle three lights would change between white, green, and red. It seemed to be random, i.e. no clear pattern. The line of lights was as still as still could be, so there is no way it was a hovering aircraft whose wing lights were responsible for the red and green alternations. No aircraft can sit that still for 2.5 hrs. I cannot emphasize how still this thing was. It was really quite something to watch. In minutes, I noticed three other similar objects at different heights and East/West angles from me. One was about 60 degrees and farther north, another about 20 degrees and farther north, and the fourth was in between the second two and farther north than either of the second two. The three that I just described looked exactly like the first one, but they were farther way. None of them moved at all during the observation period, although I did go back and forth between the tennis match and the objects. Had they moved when I was watching the tennis, then they went right back, so it seems unlikely that they moved at all. I have no way to determine how far away they were, but they were miles and miles a way, I would have to guess. Never seen anything like this before. I thought I saw a few more of the objects, but it is hard to be sure because, assuming they were real and I did see them, they were farther away and the sightings were inconsistent, so I will ignore the other objects, but I only state it to be complete. I watched these four objects for over two hours and they never moved. The moon moved, but not these objects. It was odd that I did not see any stars. That made no sense to me. I tried to take pictures, but I only had a Google Pixel 6a. Fruitless. I had a phone attachment for the binoculars. I had never used it. I tried it on its cheap tripod, but it was pretty cheap and to no avail. I will again emphasize how absolutely still in the sky these objects remained over the observation period.

Posted 2024-02-15