SIGHTING: GRAND JUNCTION, COLORADO (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"On 10/22/08 @ approximately 1830 hrs. MST I observed a bright white light about the size of a quarter (from my backyard) west of Grand Junction, Colorado. I grabbed my digital camera and zoomed in as close as I could and observed a diamond shape. As I watched, two more lights, one on each side, appeared. I thought it might be inbound air traffic to our regional airport, but the light did not progress any further, but instead seemed to recede or become smaller. I continued to watch the lights and observed the two lights on the sides go dark. Then the object turned red, and then amber. I observed the light for a half an hour, then went inside to get warm. I observed it from inside the house a little longer (15 minutes or so) and then it went dark altogether. The following night approximately around 2000 hrs I looked in that same direction to see if anything was there, and it was there in the same area of the sky. I told my wife and she came to the back porch to see. I grabbed the camera and zoomed in on it and snapped two pictures, but all that the pictures showed was a squiggly line. My wife grabbed a pair of binoculars (8x21) and I watched for 10-15 minutes. I observed the diamond shape again through the binoculars. Sometimes it appeared as a sphere and the diamond shape would not be visible. I trained my binoculars on a star nearby to compare. The observed object was much brighter than the star. The object turned red, and then amber, then appeared to recede or become smaller. I entered the house to watch some more, but the object went dark. I flashed my 4D Maglite flashlight at it 3 times to see if it would respond, but nothing else was observed. I sat on the couch and watched T.V. for an hour. I returned to the back porch around 2200 hrs. and the light was there in the same area of the sky. I watched it for a short time (approx. 5 minutes), and told my wife about it. I returned to watching T.V. and did not observe anything else that evening. Tonight, 10/24/08, I noticed it again around 1945 hrs. doing the same things: changing size (or receding), changing colors, and hovering in the same spot.I decided to see if anyone else had reported it to MUFON so I called MUFON Colorado and continued to observe the light while on the phone. I have Military experience (U.S.N) and I was stationed at an air base and I have never seen any sort of military aircraft doing these sort of manuevers. I know helicopters can fly backwards, but I have not seen them turn red and amber, or turn into spheres of light. "