NUFORC Sighting 175030

Occurred: 2023-03-17 19:00 Local
Reported: 2023-03-17 00:50 Pacific
Duration: Approx 10 min total
No of observers: 2

Location: Gold Canyon, AZ, USA
Location details: Looking East just under Leo and about 10 deg above horizon

Shape: Light
Explanation: Chinese Lantern - Possible
Characteristics: Lights on object

Saw very orange lights in the eastern sky just below Leo, they made several appearances.

We saw two small orange lights moving towards the eastern horizon, one diminished and then the other one diminished - appeared to be satellites going away from the sun; however, they were very orange. I remarked to my sister that the lights were probably satellites but it was strange that they were so orange. About that time another very bright orange light appeared just to the right of where the first lights disappeared. It was approximately twice as bright as Jupiter (which was visible in the western sky). It did not move or blink, but it quickly disappeared. I retrieved a pair of Vortex Kiabab HD 18x56 binoculars that have excellent light gathering capabilities and scanned the sky to see if there was any movement or blinking lights from a possible aircraft but there was nothing. Moments later the very bright orange light reappeared in a similar place (but not exact) and was again solid and stationary and blanked out after about 10 seconds. It reappeared in a similar fashion one more time. We continued to watch the sky for several more minutes. Several civilian aircraft flew overhead and they could be heard and were visibally very obviously different from the orange lights. I have a neighbor who has described similar orange objects in the area before.

Posted 2023-04-09