NUFORC Sighting 20849

Occurred: 2001-10-17 15:10 Local
Reported: 2001-12-18 22:12 Pacific
Duration: 20 minutes
No of observers: 8

Location: Denver, CO, USA

Shape: Sphere

Bright sphere in sky, completely stationary, then disappeared

I got my dogs and put them in the car to take them for their regular walk a few miles away at Fairmount Cemetary, a quiet big park like area. Driving southbound on Harrison Street at 9th Avenue--- STRANGLY ENOUGH where about a year ago I had a dream of seeing a UFO- I spotted a shiny object in my front field of vision. I slowed down, stuck my head out the window, and it just vanished. I thought it might just be a common sun reflection off of a plane. However, it now occurs to me that the sun reflection would have to be on the OTHER side of the plane, as I was north of the object.

I kept looking up in the sky casually, though slightly alerted. I then got in the turn lane of Colorado Blvd, waiting for traffic to clear to make a left turn eastbound. I then spotted either another object or the same object high in the eastern part of the sky.

It was a VERY bright dot- just hanging in one spot, and rock solid, not moving at all.

I made my turn, and immediately parked the car on 6th Ave.

I got out of the car, and looked up to see a bright object, again totally immovable in the sky, about 60 degrees up from the horizon. Imagine how bright this object must have been to catch my attention from inside my car, waiting to make a turn, in broad daylight. I had one small Fuji Finepix 2.1 (4 MP extension) megapixel digital camera in the car which I used to take about 10 pictures, the best of which are below. This camera has only a 3X zoom lens-- IT FIGURES! This day I did not have my high power digital zoom video camera with me (never again!!)

Never the less, you can clearly see the object between the light and the curve of the lower tree branch.

Upon enlarging, the object appears to be a metallic sphere, with light reflecting off of the upper right hand side- facing the position of the sun.

I watched the completely stationary object for about 15 minutes, up and down the street, even driving around the block , and confirmed its presence by talking with about six other people waiting for the bus (they had not seen it until I pointed it out, then confirmed it was there).

I then decided to quickly drive home and get my telescope and more powerful cameras with stronger lenses. From my home a mile away, the object was not visible. When I returned to the exact same spot about 10-15 minutes later the object could no longer be seen.

I returned home and checked my computer sky chart program to see if there were any planets or bright stars in that part of the sky- and there was nothing at all. The brightest star above the horizon was Vega, and at 3 PM, it was completely invisible, as well as not being in the same part of the sky where I had seen this object.

I considered that it could be a mylar birthday or maybe another balloon reflecting sunlight, but given the amount of time that I watched it, its' apparent size at a distance and brightness (I could judge it was very high up from my perspective as I moved down the street, and that it did not budge any perceptible amount whatsoever during this time, this seemed pretty much impossible. A balloon in the atmosphere would move up or to the side- and this object was absolutely rigid in one location, as a star would be (and I ruled out any possibility of celestial object with my investigation).

I thought that maybe it could be a stationary satellite reflecting the sun, and so I would return on the next day and see if it was again visible. I returned again to the exact same spot at the exact same time the following day with the same weather and carefully scanned the same part of the sky, but absolutely nothing could be seen, ruling out a stationary satellite. See the photo below, taken at exactly the same position and time as the previous day, and compare with the photo above from the same spot that clearly shows the object:

Images at: http://www.http://www.neilslade.com/UFOs.html second half of page

NUFORC Note:

We are grateful for the report. We have viewed the image for 17OC01, and believe that it is ambiguous, with regard to its being a photo of a genuine UFO. It is an indistinct, small, white object against a blue sky. We are unable to say whether it is in any way related to the high-quality video that was taken in Lakewood, CO, on 20SE01. PD

Posted 2002-01-11