NUFORC Sighting 72183

Occurred: 2009-09-08 20:18 Local
Reported: 2009-09-09 08:17 Pacific
Duration: 20+ seconds
No of observers: 2

Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA

Shape: Sphere

brilliant mercury-sized light moving irratically at high speed over Santa Cruz mountains

At 20:18 hours my wife and I were sitting in the back yard looking to skies in the south, watching commercial aircraft flying on approach to SFO.

We saw what we first thought to be the lights of an airliner, but then noticed there were no red, green, or strobe lights on the moving object, just a very bright, white light moving initially in a straight line but at greatly varying speeds.

My wife and I both got up at the same time asking aloud, "What the hell is that?", when the object darted upward at a 45-degree angle, again, at a very high rate of speed, and then slowed, and appeared to do an inverted loop.

The object then moved quite erratically, and then did an “infinity” figure 8 maneuver before appearing to spin out of control at a 45-degree angle downward and then disappearing behind the silhouette of the Santa Cruz mountains.

We observed the object for AT LEAST 20 seconds.

Object appeared to be 30-35 miles away (no real way of telliing).

At no time did the intensity of the light (which was the spherical object) fade.

Posted 2009-12-12