NUFORC Sighting 59104

Occurred: 2007-10-03 20:30 Local
Reported: 2007-10-05 08:16 Pacific
Duration: ten seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Chatham, IL, USA

Shape: Oval
Characteristics: Left a trail

I have recently become aware of how many ufos that actually exist, as I have seen similar (traveling stars) on many occasions, that cannot be ruled out as satellites. On the night of october 3, 2007 8 30 pm ish, I walked out my back door for a cigarette. Right over my yard, and I will have to guess at the altitude, 1000 ft, perhaps only about 500, as i am not good at judging distance at night,, I saw a bright light, very similar to how a street light looks, only it was traveling from south to north very slowly. In my mind, I was thinking that if it were a plane it should have flashing lights, and as close as it was, I would definitely be able to hear it. this was absolutely silent. As I was watching, "they, meaning the pilot(s)" turned off the "light". It did not instantly go dark, but it gradually dimmed. Sort of like when you turn off your tv at night, it "glows" for a few moments, before going black.

Thats what this thing did. And during the 4 or 5 seconds it took from going from bright light to dim then dark, I could clearly see it make a sharp turn to the east, and continued in a eastward direction before it completely disappeared from my sight. In my opinion, it disappeared from my sight because it was no longer illuminated, as I believe that it continued to travel to the east, rather than disappear " up into space".

I was actually quite shaken by this, as I was by myself, but I was not in disbelief, because I have seen similar unexplainable flying objects on several other occasions. This was different in that it was very close, and also directly over my back yard.

So I went back inside, and watched tv for about an hour, to calm down, and I decided to go back outside and have another look, to see if I saw anything again. A couple minutes after stepping out my back door, I saw a VERY bright "meteor?", or what looked like a meteor, or falling star, except VERY close to the earth, and "fell" from northwest, towards the southeast, and left a very long tail. This fell, not down from the sky, but fell or traveled horizontally to the earth. I have seen lots of falling stars before and have seen meteor showers and the like, but this was the biggest, brightest, and longest lasting thing of that type that I have ever seen.

Needless to say, at this point, i was inclined to go inside the house and stay there.

This meteor thing could very well be just that, a meteor, but I found it unusually coincidental that it occurred such a short time after seeing the lit up craft over my yard.

Posted 2007-10-08