NUFORC Sighting 45618

Occurred: 2005-08-14 21:00 Local
Reported: 2005-08-14 22:09 Pacific
Duration: 5 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Highland Park, IL, USA

Shape: Orb
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object

A red hazy object, faster than a plane and slower than a satellite, headed from the NE to the SW.

At about 9:00 PM Central Time on the night of 8/14/2004, I was at a concert with my wife and some friends. (Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, IL.) As I was looking up at the stars, I saw a red hazy sphere of light travel across the sky, from the NE to the SW. This object travelled at a speed approximately twice that of an airplane, but about half the speed of a satellite. I use these two as a judge, because I had also observed a passenger jet fly over (the place was on a flight plan for O'Hare airport) and a satellite pass over (polar orbit) earlier that evening. I was watching objects across the sky, such as balloons, planes, and satellites, and it matched none of these objects, because a balloon travelled much much slower, a plane had flashing lights in addition to the red and green wing lights, and a satellite would appear as a point of light travelling faster than this object across the night sky. In addition, this object was clearly not an asteroid, as an asteroid would appear as a bright green flash. I watched this object cross the sky - when it had gone behind trees, I checked my watch and it read as a minute or two before 9:00 PM.

The object travelled across my field of view (about 140 degrees, I was laying flat on the ground, with my head looking straight up) in about 5 minutes. Again, the object in my estimation went twice as fast as a passenger jet at cruising altitude, and about half as fast as a satellite. The object travelled at a steady pace, and did not deviate from a straight-line course.

Posted 2005-09-15