NUFORC Sighting 48736

Occurred: 2006-01-16 21:00 Local
Reported: 2006-01-17 10:17 Pacific
Duration: Approx 1 hr 45 min
No of observers: 3

Location: Freeport, ME, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Aircraft nearby

Three lights form a triangle over Maine

I went out to have a smoke at approx. 9 PM. I noticed an orangish light moving in the direction of east relative to the moon. Thinking it was a plane but watching anyway I noticed it seemed to change direction and move back west. Still thinking it may be a plane I wondered why it would circle at that altitude and in that location, as the nearest airport is in Portland and the light appeared to be quite some distance away from Portland. I continued to observe and the object began to move in highly erratic ways, not typical of aircraft and at too high an altitude for a chopper. It would move in one direction then abruptly the opposite direction. It made short "arching" motions, "swung" back and forth, and sometimes made very short zigzagging motions. I was sitting on my porch which lies on the left side of my driveway if you're facing away from my house. The driveway is flanked on either side by trees. The starting point of my orginal sighting was behind the trees on the left side. At times the bare branches partially obscured my vision of it. It continued to "swing" back and forth in a slow, almost drunken-looking manner and at times appeared to travel in half circles (although because of my perspective they could have been full circles). At times it would appear to move toward me, appearing to rise in altitude, then it would reverse direction with no apparent turning radius and move away from me. About ten minutes into the sighting I called to ((name deleted)), a housemate and the only other occupant at home at the time, to come take a look, asking him if he saw what I saw or if I was imagining things. After observing for a couple minutes he confirmed the object did appear to be moving. I was able to call out the directions I thought it was moving in (right, now left, right again, up, left now) and he confirmed that he was seeing the same movements. The object continued to move in a general direction of east in relation to the moon until it was fully clear of the trees and instead of being on the far left of the driveway it was on the right. Most notable about the movements were that although it was hardly ever still, they seemed to have a "directionless" quality to them. At times it would zigzag in quick motions, sometimes appear to "swing" or "sway", and it reversed directions seemingly at random.

I stayed outside as long as I could. My housemate and I had moved from the porch to the driveway to get a better look, and stayed in the driveway for what might have been 15 minutes. Then we returned to the porch and David went back inside. I was absolutely frozen at this point, the temperature was about 20 degrees. I wanted to go back inside but was afraid to miss something. Back at my original position, the position I was in when the sighting began, it was notable that not only was the object not obscured by trees anymore, it had crossed the imaginary median of the driveway and was at a higher point than when it started.

Finally I absolutely could not stay outside any longer. I rushed inside and turned off the lights, hoping it would be visible from the two large windows at the front of the house. I felt pretty stupid for having sat outside for so long when I discovered it was indeed clearly visible from inside the windows. I made ((name deleted)) turn off the TV so there was no reflection on the glass to obscure vision and we watched it continue to behave in much the same erratic and meandering manner. About five minutes into observing it from inside I noticed another light, this one brighter and whitish, in relatively the same spot the first had started in. It was acting much the same way, possessing the same "zigzagging", "swinging", half circle-making traits. The first orangish light sort of seemed to calm down with the appearance of the second light, still moving but not as obviously. It seemed to settle in a basic area, northeast of the moon. At this point my mother came home and we all observed the movement. About 4 minutes after that a very bright whitish-blue "star" that had been there the whole time began to show signs of movement. We all watched as the lights eventually settled into basic areas, still moving but not meandering around anymore. They held their basic postions (the first, orangish light appearing not to move at all anymore, the second only making occasional tiny movements and the third primarily seeming to "ascend" and "descend", but also making the characteristic half-circles and zigzags) and their positions formed an isoceles triangle tipped on its side with the "point", the brightest and most recent light, pointing southeast. The first, orangish light was holding position on the northernmost tip and the second whitish one was southwest of the orange one. At one time a plane bisected the triangle horizontally and the objects did not appear to respond.

A while later I stopped observing them. I was tired and my neck hurt from looking up. I know they were present at a little past ten still. I don't know when they disappeared but by 10:30 they were gone.

Another thing to note...it was dark and cloudless but when the objects moved, especially when they moved dramtically, a cloudy or smoky haze could be seen in front of them and the light would be a little obscured. It seemed like the smoke mimicked the movements made by the light, i.e. if they moved in an upwards backward-facing "C" motion, the "smoke" would also form a backward-facing "C".

Posted 2006-02-14

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