NUFORC Sighting 14336

Occurred: 2000-07-01 03:11 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2000-09-30 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 4 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Midland, MI, USA

Shape: Light

Observation of stationary then moving bright light in sky, possibly linked to large dark object passing overhead 10 min later.

Exact date unrecorded. I have hesitated to say anything up until now. I work at a hospital in Midland Michigan on midnight shift. I was outside on break walking west on Sugnet street at a little after 3:00 a.m. At the intersection of Valley Drive and Sugnet street I looked to the west up above the trees ahead of me. It was a very clear night and a lot of stars were out. I saw a VERY BRIGHT star hanging stationary just above the angle of the tree tops. I thought maybe it was Venus, but it was VERY BRIGHT, too bright to be Venus. It was so unusual that I stopped and just stood watching it. I had never seen anything like it in my life. All of a sudden, over a period of 5 to 7 seconds the light gradually dimmed. It dimmed down to approximately the same brightness as the numerous background stars. It either dimmed, or it was possibly moving directly away from me at high speed. There was no way to tell. I kept my eyes on it, and suddenly it started MOVING slowly to the right (south) at a constant rate. It moved for about 15 seconds and then stopped again. I still had my eyes on it. At that point I pulled out my pocket laser that I carried to ping deer with when I'm out on break, and using some twigs high up in the trees across the street as an aiming aid, I started pinging it with my laser. I was zinging it pretty good, but got no noticable response. I then lost track of which speck it was amongst the faint stars. I thought about it for awhile after returning to my work area, and decided to call Midland 911. I asked if they had had any reports of strange lights in the sky that night. The gal said, "No, why did you see something?" I responded, "Yes." "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked. I hesitated, and then thought what the heck, and I told her. She was very interested in all the details. I told her it was really weird. Neither she nor I knew what to do with the report, so I said "Just put it in the log," and we both laughed. Later in the shift, around 4 or 5am, someone told me ! that the re had been two ladies standing outside of the Labor and Delivery entrance smoking. They were under the parking lot lights and saw nothing but total darkness above them, however, they HEARD what sounded to them like something passing overhead in the darkness. Whatever it was, they said it sounded BIG, it was flying low, and it was moving FAST. Come to find out, THAT incident occurred about ten minutes AFTER I was pinging the mysterious light in the sky with my pocket laser. It felt really strange when I suddenly realized that the two incidents may have been connected. It sounded to me like whatever I saw and pinged with my laser maybe came back for a closer inspection of the hospital campus with its lights off. Maybe. I hesitated to post this report up until now, because I didn't record the exact date that it happened, but after reading the sighting posted out of Sanford Michigan I decided to break silence and submit this report of what I experienced (as well as the two ladies outside smoking ten minutes later). Nothing else unusual was noted.

Posted 2000-12-02