NUFORC Sighting 121133

Occurred: 2015-08-18 23:00 Local
Reported: 2015-08-19 09:29 Pacific
Duration: 20 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: West Point, VA, USA

Shape: Changing
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Changed Color, Missing Time

I saw a silent, large object in the sky which changed shape, had numerous colored lights, and glided with even speed towards Richmond,

At about 10:45 PM, I was taking a container of compost to my compost area. I looked up, and over the neighbor's house at the 12:00 position, I saw a very large golden ball. We had been watching for comets for the last couple weeks. This was way,way too large, was not moving, and was totally soundless. It hovered for several minutes, then I thought it was coming in my direction, as it was getting larger. There was no sensation of it moving...just like suddenly it was closer. At one point, then, it changed shape. The only way to actually see it as a shape was to observe very black areas within the shape, and the lights surrounding it, giving it a certain depth. While looking like a large, bright ball, at first, the small lights at certain points (the small lights were red, blue, yellow, green, and very small) and the dark area within gave it a somewhat convex shape, but the most dramatic addition to this were what looked like 2 vertical "grids" composed of lines of black, with lines of bright lights between the black lines. These, along with the colored small lights, appeared when the object got closer, and appeared to have rotated to that more 3 dimensional shape, with the grids angled straight upwards. I am an artist, so I was very interested in the shape when all the individual lights, and the grids showed up...the flat bright ball went from flat to 3 dimensional, and it was very apparent. The object moved soundlessly over my head, and at some point in time appeared circular again, and soundlessly "glided" towards Richmond. I went into the house and told my fiancée, who registered mild surprise.

About 10-20 minutes later, he received a call from a friend. "I just saw something I've Never seen before". He described the same thing, within the same time frame. We learned that the object he saw was just like what I saw. He lives about 15-20 miles away from us, is a military man with a long career, (retired) and he had never seen anything like it, as well. Although I have had one ot her sighting of a UFO long ago, I never reported it. It was somewhat similar to this sighting, but over, and within, water. I probably would not have reported this, but for the call from this friend that makes me absolutely certain that I saw it. I was frozen to the ground the second I saw this, and didn't move until it was gone.I have a very quick sketch of how the object looked in my sketchbook, but it seemed that each second that went by, my brain was trying to forget the whole thing, so my sketch is basic, but true to form. Thank you for the opportunity to write-I spent a rather nervous night, not sleeping much, and just being able to report it will help. I felt like I was only gone a few minutes, but it turned out to be 20 minutes.

Posted 2015-08-27