Occurred: 1998-12-15 09:25 Local - Approximate
Reported: 1999-01-21 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 45 minutes
No of observers: 4

Location: Arab, AL, USA

Shape: Sphere
Characteristics: Changed Color, Aircraft nearby

Bright orange sphere in southwest quadrant of sky which appeared to be at an altitude of approximately 40,000 feet close to Atlanta/Birmingham commercial traffic zone.

On that evening I was outside observing the stars on this clear night when I noticed in the southwest quadrant of the sky a bright orange object (about the size of Venus) moving in an up and down motion maintaining it's vertical alignment. I rushed inside and told my family, got 2 pairs of binoculars and my family and I went out to observe. At that point the object was moving up/down and side to side for a distance of approximately 1-2 miles at each movement. My wife, son and daughter witnessed this with amazement for a period of about 10 minutes. Commercial traffic could be seen passing in close proximity of this object, however the object made no effort to "track" with the plane. I could clearly see that this object was moving by triangulating it with nearby stars in it's proximity. The object became stationary and was observed for approximately 30 more minutes noticably not maintaining horizontal alignment with nearby stars verifying it wasn't a star decending on horizon. The object seemed to pulse orange to white at higher intensities from time to time at intervals of approximately 5-10 seconds. Then suddenly the object disappeared as if to "wink out". The following night I located the same cellestial bodies for verification of the objects location and indeed the object was not there!

Posted 1999-02-16

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