NUFORC Sighting 105584

Occurred: 2013-12-27 17:30 Local
Reported: 2013-12-28 07:57 Pacific
Duration: 2 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Marietta, MN, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Changed Colo

"Star" glows orange and spins in vortex, flies off at great speed.

This is the first of three sightings I had between December 17 and December 27.

I was out for an evening walk on our family farm in western Minnesota, hiking over the prairie. I stopped and sat on a ridge overlooking a wetland to the north and a grassy swale to the south. To the south there were several deer emerging from a clump of willows. I was observing them through a monocular. I stayed out after sunset to look for owls (I’m a birder) and, realizing that the full moon was about to rise, I turned to the east and waited. It was partly-cloudy; long, trailing stratus formations rolling off to the northeast.

Fifteen degrees above the northeastern horizon I noticed an emerging “star” which I immediately sensed as being out of place (too early and too bright to be Jupiter). After ten seconds of observation, it became brighter than Venus (which was itself clearly visible in the southwest). At first it was amber, but then grew to a bright, blazing hunter-orange. After 20-30 seconds of observation it started to spin downwards, from the northeast to the southeast, in wide looping arcs. It did this for roughly one minute. Upon completing its fifth arc, it shot across the northeastern sky at a baffling speed as if it had been launched from a sling. As soon as it disappeared from view, the top of the moon (bright orange as well) peaked over the horizon. It seemed as if it were aimed directly at the moonrise.

I went out again the following night, but saw nothing.

Posted 2014-01-10