SIGHTING: ANCHORAGE, ALASKA (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"Sitting near my window watching fireworks for New Year's Eve. Saw an orange glow floating upward and fully expected it to explode into fireworks, but instead, it began to pulse and glow stronger. Had it been descending, I might have considered it was a flare, but it ascended. It did not have the lights of an airplane, which we Alaskans are so used to seeing around here. In fact, it was in a flight path area that is often shared between the Air Force at Elmendorf, and Merrill Field, which accommodates small civilian aircraft. In my opinion, this could not have been a plane or a helicopter, unless it was some new toy or gadget I've never seen before.The object ascended and then began to travel south. Sometimes it looked like a disc and sometimes a sphere. When it looked like a sphere, it reminded me of a larger view of Mars. However, it continued to travel south at a moderate rate of speed and then just vanished from view. The light just seemed to get smaller and smaller until it disappeared.I didn't get to video-tape the 1st part of my observation, but husband and I followed our view from the window to our front door, where I asked him to grab the camera. So I caught a small piece of it from that view on video. It was too dark to get anything but black sky and the object, and when I tried to zoom in, I'd lose my "aim" with the camera.I had read this morning Californians had seen some orange lights, too, so thought it would be prudent to ask MUFON if they knew anything about this in Anchorage, Alaska."