NUFORC Sighting 103507

Occurred: 2013-10-22 21:39 Local
Reported: 2013-10-23 11:53 Pacific
Duration: 35 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: San Rafael, CA, USA

Shape: Formation
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Aircraft nearby, Animals reacted

Strange horizontal formation of four to five lights with the remarkably bright gold colored orb the furthest to the right.

I am writing to report two highly strange phenomena I witnessed in the sky starting at approximately 9:40pm PST.

While cleaning my apartment I decided to take a phone call from a friend and went outside to sit on the steps that faced the street in front of my ground level apartment.

Tonight was unlike any other fall night except the sky was crystal clear and neighborhood dogs, both near and far, were both howling eerily and barking.

While talking on the phone and staring at the stars, I observed one tiny orb about the size of a distant star chasing another slightly larger tiny light against the backdrop of a cloudless star filled night sky.

Neither object light looked like aircraft. The points of light were relatively tiny in comparison to planes or other celestial bodies. In addition, the glow from the points of light were cconstant with no recognizable blinking patterns or variations in luminosity.

Given the relatively small specs of a light, they seemed to be higher up in the atmosphere and traveling faster than any recognizable aircraft I’ve ever seen.

Both lights were traveling from North to South at approximately the same speed with no change in distance between the two objects.

Of the two tiny lights, the one on the right trailing the one to the left disappeared abruptly. Shortly after the larger of the two disappeared as well. I told my friend I had just seen something strange. We quickly dismissed it and we went back to talking about our day.

Minutes later, at about 9:45pm PST, I was alarmed to see series or formation of 4-5 bright lights slowly rise from behind the silhouette of the wooded hillside in the distance. The string of 4-5 lights hovered silently without movement for about 35-40 minutes.

I observed the phenomenon from the corner of my residential suburban neighborhood. Confirming later with a compass, the horizontal string of lights was observed at approximately 240 degrees West/ Southwest and about 33 degrees above the horizon in relation to the zenith of the sky.

The light on the right of the horizontal 4-5 light pattern was remarkably brighter than anything I’d ever seen in the sky at night before in my life! Ever! It was a bright golden orb that did move and stayed locked in formation with the 4 other lights that were evenly spaced out in a horizontal pattern to the left. The lights did not blink, change shape, or alter in brightness. All four to five lights in the formation were larger than planets or starts appear in sky with the bight orange one being larger and brighter than anything I'd ever seen.

The glow from the light on the right was remarkably bright and unique in color and shape. The horizon behind the glowing gold light was a faint blue – similar to the way the night sky appears behind sports stadium lights.

The arrangement first appeared to resemble the top-floor of a tall large city skyscraper at night - only with a gold “search light” on the right corner.

I know for a fact there are no buildings on the distant wooded hillside. I could clearly see empty faint blue night sky as negative space above and below the string of bizarre static lights.

I observed the phenomenon from approximately 9:40pm to about 10:20pm PST. During this time the formation of lights did not move in direction, nor did they grow in size, change position, or alter their pattern in relation to each other.

I hung up the phone and took several photos with my iPhone 4G. I called several friends in the county to see if they could confirm the sighting but no one answered. I called my friend in Los Angeles back at which time I continued to discuss what I was witnessing.

With my friend on the phone I stopped a woman walking her dog crossed on the side walk in front of my apartment and pointed to the four lights inquiring if they seemed strange to her.

She looked just in time to see the bright orange light suddenly disappear, while the other 3-4 lights remained exactly where they were.

Maybe two seconds later, all three smaller light disappeared at once followed by a flash on the horizon. Suddenly and the whole sky went black as if someone had turned out the lights.

It was so abrupt that that the woman was spooked and grabbed her dog and trotted off in the direction she was headed.

I then called the San Rafael police to report the sighting. They referred me to the local Sheriffs department who then gave me the contact number for the National UFO center.

Attached are the series of photos taken with my iPhone 4 with no flash.

Moments later, two aircraft with blinking lights were seen flying over the hillside. Nothing has returned to the airspace since.

I am perplexed.

Posted 2013-10-23