NUFORC Sighting 158209

Occurred: 2020-07-30 23:45 Local
Reported: 2020-08-03 18:33 Pacific
Duration: 30 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Holden Beach, NC, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object, Left a trail, Emitted other objects, Emitted beams, Changed Colo

We were staying in a beach house on vacation. I couldn’t sleep so I went outside to look at the stars. The Moon was overhead, the ocean reflected it on my right. It was relatively clear with a few clouds. The wind was blowing from the West. The time span is roughly 2345 – 0015. I checked the clock when I came back in. Not sure when I went out. Seemed like a half hour. There was a lot going on. This is what I remember from the night of 7/30/2020 over the Atlantic. Holden Beach, NC.

I sat and faced South, enjoying the night. The Moon had things lit up to my right and it grew darker to my left. I noticed a light on the horizon, SSE. (Well left of center if I looked straight out at the ocean). I thought Oh, a boat or a ship. And started looking at it. Then it disappeared. Then is was back. I sat looking at it and a red light streaked out at a 45-degree angle to my right. No more light. I couldn’t figure out what I was seeing. Military? Whatever it was happened way out on the horizon . I strained my eyes to see. Then I saw a light kind of corkscrew out of the same spot. Then a light with a short, wavy path. Same spot. Not travelling far, but enough to see. I started wondering if it was a cruise ship shooting fireworks, but there were no bursts, just lights. Then a light started at the same place and went straight up to about 20 degrees above the horizon, hesitated and then streaked off to the right at roughly 45-degrees. I’m entering the realm of disbelief.! Standing now… To this point everything had been emanating from the same spot on the horizon. At one point I stared at a light and lowered my glasses to make sure it wasn’t a reflection, then I looked away and looked back to make sure it wasn’t an issue with my eyes. I’m 62. There were streaks emanating from that point upward. Hundreds of them, like someone was shooting at something. Not like tracers, more like faint trails from shooting stars, but going up. Just a bunch of faint lines, making a vase shape. White lights streaked downward toward that spot from different directions occasionally. It was becoming surreal. I thought about waking my wife but I was afraid I would miss something. Looking behind me and getting creeped out.

Then a white light streaked across the sky parallel to the horizon. It came from right to left and traversed most of the sky. It winked out above the spot with all of the activity.

One light appeared a little to my right on the horizon and shot up and right disappearing in a short red line.

Next one started directly in front of me. Maybe 20-25 degrees above the horizon and shot down and to the left in the general direction of the original spot on the horizon. Same thing, short red streak and then nothing.

Saw what appeared to be a couple of dark objects moving together over the water and not on the horizon, but my eyes could have been playing tricks on me.

Now more to my right and entering the brightness of the Moon another light appeared. It was low, but not on the horizon and appeared to be on the end of a cigar shaped object, black and tumbling. Bizarre. Not a lot of logical movement out there. I began wondering if there was some kind on war going on that I don’t know about.

A bright light shot up from the location with all of the activity. It was bigger and brighter than anything I had yet seen. Had the color of an old street light before they started making the amber ones. Kind of an electric green. It moved from the horizon to the cloud in an instant. The clouds were long and made up of small puffy clouds all lined up. The light flew up close to the end of the cloud formation, stopped and made a right angle turn in between the small ‘cloudlets’, lighting them up. Then turned back out from between the clouds and stopped. Not turned, instantly changed direction. It then split into 2 lights. They moved exactly the same, one dropping to the left and one dropping to the right. If you kept the original location it would have probably been an equilateral triangle. I guess I freaked out a little when it lit the clouds and split, because I can’t remember after that. I may have looked away and then back and they were gone.

Hair raised on my arms. I got scared. I watched for a few more minutes. Nothing more happened so I went inside. I woke at 0500 and went back out to see if my eyes were playing tricks on me. The Moon had set and it was pitch black. No lights created by my eyes due to low light. The next morning, I sat down, made notes and drew it out, then went outside and took a picture from where I was observing.

I went out the next night at the same time. The Moon was in a slightly different place and there were no clouds. Nothing.

Posted 2020-08-06