NUFORC Sighting 176855

Occurred: 2023-07-15 00:01 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2023-07-21 00:19 Pacific
Duration: 1-2 minutes
No of observers: 5

Location: Shasta City, CA, USA
Location details: Over My Shasta, seen from about 8mi SW (Howard)

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object, Landed

Large, BRIGHT "bobbing" light across sky disappeared behind? Mountain

My fiance, his dad, and I were visiting my fiance's cousin and her boyfriend in Shasta. After we returned from dinner, we sat out on their porch to look at the stars for about an hour and a half, from about 11 pm to about 1230 am. We were facing Mt Shasta, looking in a Northeasterly direction. We saw the milky way really clearly, a couple of satellites, a plane, and a few small shooting stars. Then a few minutes after midnight, a single, very bright white light (brighter than any star, satellite, or plane we saw that night), entered into our view coming from the N/NW direction (to our left). It was oscillating (going up and down). It moved like you might expect a drone to move (kind of jerky, constantly adjusting its altitude) but it was SO much bigger. So bright we could see it clearly from almost 10 miles away. It was gradually descending, all the time bobbing up and down. From our perspective, it was going slowly. If we were watching a car for example, I would have estimated it as going about 5 mph? It was slow. We didn't know what it would do as it lowered to the mountain, but when it reached the silhouette of the mountain, the light went out. It looked as if it either landed on the mountain or went behind it. It did not ascend again. We waited outside for another half an hour but didn't see anything else. None of us could understand what it was. All of us were completely sober (we don't drink, and none of us were intoxicated in any way at all, and only had mint tea and cookies after dinner). Three of us were not from Shasta. It was our first time visiting. My fiance and I are about 40, my fiance's dad is 70, and my fiance's cousin and her partner are 65. The latter two believe in UFOs; they live in the area. My fiance and I had never seen a UFO and weren't looking for one while we sat outside that night. And my fiance's Dad is a chemist and is totally skeptical, but even he couldn't think of anything to explain it.

Posted 2023-07-29