Date: December 31, 2010
Time: Approx: 9:30 p.m.
Location of Sighting: Hudson, Florida.
Number of witnesses: 3
Number of Objects: 1
Shape of Objects: Unknown, light ball, no shape of object discerned.
The Vike Factor Note: I asked the witness about the first names only and I was told I could leave the names in the report.
Full Description of Event/Sighting: UFO sighting report, witness descriptions, 12/31/10
These witness statements were written on January 3rd, 2011, three days after the sighting described.
Location: Hudson, Florida, Near New Port Richey. U.S. 19 corridor, less than a mile from the Gulf of Mexico.
Time: Approximately 9:30pm
Date: 12/31/10
Conditions: Full dark, with a few very high thin clouds to our northwest, over the Gulf. There were fireworks at low altitude, and ground lights along the U.S. 19 corridor. No other aircraft were seen during the sighting.
Witnesses:
Greg, age 46
Casie, age 22
Anita, age 47
Description- Anita:
Orange/red glow of light moving from southeast to northwest. As it got closer, the single glow of light was obviously in more of a pattern of several lights moving together. No sound. It moved at the same rate of speed until it was no longer visible in the northwest.
Report-Anita:
I noticed a glow of light in the sky much larger than the stars. It was moving steadily NW and at a constant, rapid speed. It was not hovering or floating. The color is best described as the same as the tip of a lit cigarette, orange/red. As I watched it approaching, still at the same altitude, it was not just one light, but several, forming a specific, uniform pattern (Anita describes a group of twelve small lights, forming an elongated ellipse like this () ). I watched it until it passed over my house, and out of my line of sight, then ran to the front of the house, to watch it continue it’s unwavering flight to the northwest. I watched it until it was no longer visible. The entire sighting took place in about a minute to a minute and a half.
Impression-Anita:
I have seen luminaries released by people on the ground, and this was not that. It was not floating. It moved steadily and rapidly in a straight path. I was listening for any engine sound, but heard nothing. I have seen several things in the night sky, and could always categorize their origin. This was unique, in my experience, in it’s movement, pattern, and color.
Description and report-Casie:
The object appeared to be red/orange. It was neither ascending or descending, and moved very rapidly in a straight line toward U.S.19 and Hudson Beach on the Gulf of Mexico. It made no sound. It appeared to be made of or powered by fire, with no smoke. It did not appear to be moving with the wind, which was from the east. It’s movement was direct, and did not vary with the wind.
Description-Greg:
Single, flickering red/orange light. Not intensely bright. It moved at an apparent constant speed, altitude, and bearing. It was visible for one minute at most, and in that time moved across about 160 degrees of our night sky, from southeast to northwest. It faded from view, possibly obscured by some high thin clouds over the Gulf of Mexico.
As the light moved almost directly overhead, it seemed to change from a ‘dot’ to an elongated ellipse, with rounded points at the sides. It had the appearance of a glowing cigarette ‘cherry’…Even the color resembled a burning coal or ember. I could see no ‘under glow’ against a solid body, nor could I discern any blocking out of stars and planets it flew past. There was no sound.
Report-Greg:
While facing southeastward in our backyard, we noticed a vivid red/orange light approaching from the southeast, at what seemed to be a constant altitude and speed. It did not seem anomalous at first. As it came more nearly overhead, I realized it was not a rising firework shell. It did not have any red, green or white aircraft lights.
There was no ‘under glow’ from the numerous bright ground lights along the U.S. 19 corridor ( we are very close to a Wal-Mart and several other large retail centers.) It did not appear to have any suspending structure like a balloon or luminaire. There was no ‘tail’, and it was not moving as fast as any meteors I have ever seen. There was no sound.
When I realized all of this, I ran into the house to douse the outside security light, in hopes of seen the object more clearly. In more complete darkness, I still could not discern any larger structure, or blocking of stars it passed. As it began to move over the house, we ran through the house to the front yard. We kept the object in sight until it faded from view to our northwest, possible obscured by high thin clouds over the Gulf, or simply by other light in the night sky.
Impressions (Greg):
It made no sound. No other aircraft were visible near the object (we are in a fairly busy air traffic area, thirty miles north of Tampa/St. Petersburg). Unable to judge height, but here, at night, we are often able to see the actual shape of aircraft under 1000 feet due to bright ground lights. The color and intensity reminded me of the glowing tip of a cigarette. I cannot be certain of object altitude or speed…But from hundreds of night sky observations, it seemed very high…Over 2000 feet, which gave me the impression of aircraft speed or greater. I feel that if it had been lower, and of solid construction, we would have been able to make out a shape, or heard sounds of a propulsion system.
My impressions are based on the speed, and the lack of sound. It covered 160 degrees of our sky in under a minute…A powered aircraft, moving that far that fast, at low altitude, would have made sound…So my feeling is that it was either very high, and moving at very great speed, or low, and not normally powered.
Possible explanations (Greg):
High altitude weather balloon with suspended light- Our wind at sea level was from the east. If a balloon were launched to our southeast, was the wind at altitude fast enough to give them impression of the object’s high speed?
Orbital object: Our neighbor saw a light, exactly as we described, about two hours after our sighting. He reported to us that it moved in the same way, at the same heading as what we saw. Could this indicate a repeating orbital movement of a satellite?
As I understand from reading in the days that followed, there were several reports of multiple objects, some separated by minutes or hours throughout the night.
A few notes from Greg:
1) I spent most of the rest of the night looking at Google News for other reports, and found the
Vike blog via Google search for ‘Florida UFO 12/13/10’. During the night, several other reports very similar to ours came in. There is some variance, including the multiple object sightings, and the different reported directions of the object(s) But there is enough similarity to make me think we were part of a ‘flap’.
2) In 1973, while living in Botswana as a child, I had a sighting of anomalous lights in the sky, very different from what we saw in December. That sighting was witnessed by over forty people, and may be in the MUFON database (I filed a report on it in 2004). In all the years since, I have been an avid night sky watcher, in hopes of seeing something remarkable again. I had pretty much given up hope that I ever would, and then, BAM.
3) Casie is my daughter, and this was the first time she had ever seen anything like this.
4) None of us were under the influence, I have not had a drink since the mid 80s.
5) We told our neighbor what we saw. Shortly after midnight, he knocked on our door to tell us he had just seen the same thing. I was very skeptical, but reading through the other reports from Florida, it seems several others had multiple sightings that night.
Report gathered by Greg, Word Doc created 1/18/11.
If you have seen anything like this in the same area please be kind enough to contact Brian Vike at:
sighting@telus.net with the details of your sighting.
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