NUFORC Sighting 120009

Occurred: 2015-07-04 00:15 Local
Reported: 2015-07-03 23:34 Pacific
Duration: 15 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Chillicothe, MO, USA

Shape: Circle

Light I can't identify in North Missouri sky

I was standing outside, smoking a cigarette and looking at the (nearly full) moon. A large tree blocked most of my view of the sky to the left of the moon. Through the tree branches I noticed a very large, bright "star", or so I thought at first. I moved several feet away from the tree to get a better look. "What a big star!", I thought. "I wonder if that is a planet, maybe mars, that is closer than normal. But I've seen mars many times and it's never THAT big." It was big and roughly circular, though hard to tell the shape because it was bright. After looking at it for a few seconds I saw it start moving. It was a sort of dirty orange or orangish-brown color. More orange than brown, but not a neon orange. It did not blink or pulsate at any time.

I've never seen aircraft with lights of that color and aircraft lights usually blink. When it started moving I at first thought maybe it was some sort of sattelite that was! very close. But then it didn't move in a straight line. This was definitely not a meteor or an airplane. I doubt a helicopter could have moved the way it did, and again, I've never seen helicopter lights this color or helicopter lights that don't blink. There would be no reason for a helicopter to move in this fashion and I've never seen a helicopter move this way, though I suppose it might be possible. A helicopter is the only craft I know of that can fly in a non-linear way like this. Also, I never heard a helicopter noise, or any other noise during this sighting.

After roughly 15 seconds of watching it, the craft "disappeared" (hard to describe). It seemed as though it flew away from me (not to the right or left, but directly away from me) and sort of looked smaller as it did so. This happened quickly. I was left wondering what I saw and if anyone else saw it and if there was anything I could or should do.

I stood around looking all over the sky for! a while to see if it would reappear and so far it hasn't (I'm! typing this about an hour after I saw it). I was hoping it would come back so I could be ready with my cellphone camera.

I should also note that there were a lot of fireworks earlier in the night, but this was definitely NOT a firework. There was no noise, it could fly any direction it wanted or stay stationary for a few seconds at a time. After looking at the sky for a while I went inside and looked up "how to report a ufo" on the internet and found this site and called the number. The guy who answered the phone suggested I write a report.

Posted 2015-07-06