NUFORC Sighting 99682

Occurred: 2013-07-04 21:00 Local
Reported: 2013-07-04 22:42 Pacific
Duration: 2 hours
No of observers: 2

Location: Hampton/Rye, NH, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

Multiple sets of two objects appear on the horizon over land (Hampton, NH) and precede to move off into the sky off the coast of Rye NH

My girlfriend and I are from Massachusetts, and were headed up to the New Hampshire sea coast for the Fourth of July festivities. We were planning on spending the day at Wallis Sands state beach in Rye, NH, but due to the incredibly hot weather, traffic, and my overheating engine we decided to stop short of our destination and spend the day at the North Hampton beach. For those of you not familiar with this area, it is on the border of Rye, and is far from the main Hampton strip which helps cut down on the crowds for a much friendlier environment.

We arrived at approximately 2pm and spend the day in the water, and at the beach. As darkness and the July Fourth fireworks displays were approaching, we decided to walk North up Route 1A to find a vantage point which would allow us to watch both the Hampton Beach display, and the Rye display at Jenniss Beach. The point we found is after a bend in the road which is 3/4ths of the way up a rock face overlooking a large majority of the New Hampshire Sea coast. From this point the Salisbury water tower and Seabrook Nuclear facility is clearly visible. According to Google Earth the nuclear plant is 5.72 miles at a 222.40 degree heading from the vantage point. The approach path the objects took was at approximately 210 degrees relative to our vantage point.

Private properties began setting fireworks off at 21:00 (9:00 pm EDT) to accompany the municipal displays which were going on at the time and continued past 23:00 when we left the area to return home.

Our attention was first drawn to the first set of objects when my girlfriend noticed that one of the fireworks over Hampton looked like it was burning frozen in the air. My initial though was that it was a flare or something that someone had shot off, but I realized this could not be the case because it was slowly rising from the horizon. We studied this object for a moment, and then to our surprise there was an additional one next to it as if they had come from the same place.

The objects continued to rise, but they looked as if they were slowly picking up speed. They were at about a 35 degree angle relative to the horizon when they began to move forward. They looked as if they were rising with the same speed but they were slowly moving through the sky at a diagonal to us from South West, to North East over the water. After watching the objects move over the water and get further out, they began to rapidly gain velocity, and elevation. The objects became less luminous, and as they looked like they were about to leave visual range, they shot off at an increased angle of attack. As the objects left the point at which we acquired them at, the lateral distance between them increased as they approached different parts of the sky.

As soon as we turned back to the fireworks, unsure of what we had seen, we realized that two more objects were already half way to the point where the last two had just disappeared and we watched the exact same process happen again. In both cases, it was identical objects, coming from the same point of origin, moving in an identical way, with each of the two objects going towards the same two points in the sky which the previous ones had moved towards. We watched the same process happen again (for a total of 6 objects) and then the phenomenon stopped for a while.

In all cases the objects rose from approximately a 210 degree heading (between the nuclear plant, and the coast line) from where we were sitting. All objects looked like balls of red-orange fire, but as they approached, what looked like a tail from the movement became a defined triangular shape that could only be seen by the reflection of the light coming off of the leading vertex of the shape. As the objects moved, and were about to start the final acceleration, each time the visible triangular part would swing out parallel to our view point, and the faintly visible triangular body would become invisible to us. The only thing visible would be the ball of light until the object accelerated off.

We decided to lie down on the rocks we were sitting on initially and after another 45 minutes I got a feeling that I should look. So I sat up to see four of the objects following a slightly higher angle of attack and still in the same group of two pattern as they were initially. From the size of the triangles, we were able to determine that the objects that were moving to the more northern part of the sky were significantly closer to us than the objects which were moving to the more southern point in the sky. I also noticed the higher angle of attack, and realized that over the past hour and a half or so they sky had shifted. The objects were going to the exact same points relative to the Milky Way as they were beforehand except they angle of attack was steeper to compensate for the rotation of the earth. I’m no astronomer so I have no idea what constellations can be used to pin-point the area where we lost line of sight, but it was about 2 to 3 hand widths away from a clust! er of four very dim stars on the lower half of the northern part of the Milky Way.

The event repeated itself one last time before we decided to leave around 23:00 (11pm EDT). In all encounters the objects were identical, moved to the same place, in the same way through the same means. All objects were silent, made no noise, were of red-orange color, and flickered like a candle, or pulsating light in a storm.

Upon returning to the beach from our vantage point to get the truck, we realized that because of the angle of vision that the bulk of the population had, it is unlikely that many other people were able to witness the event. The view was obscured by the fireworks and by a fog off the water at the beach. By the time the object would have been in unobstructed view, they would have been at a high enough angle and altitude that they could easily be written off as stars, or a satellite.

Also, as a foot note, I was a 24 hour, three day per week manager at a local hotel last season. I have been around for a military air show at Peas AFB, and am familiar with the normal local air traffic. I have flown on many planes both commercial and recreational due to family circumstances, and I have never seen a civilian or military craft that would fit the description of what I saw tonight. I also have a passion for the Space Program, so I know this doesn't fit any man made vehicle that we currently operate.

Posted 2013-07-05