SIGHTING: MAMMOTH LAKES, CALIFORNIA (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"My friend and I headed to Wild Willy's Hot Spring just outside Mammoth Lakes at 5:30 am before the sunrise. Shortly after arriving, at about 5:45 am, he said he saw a strange shooting star to the west. I looked but did not see anything at that time. About 10 to 15 minutes later, I saw a sphere or disc of light as bright as the moon appear about 20 degrees above the horizon to the West. Although I first thought it was a searchlight of some aircraft, it was clearly too large to belong to any aircraft. There was no sound at all. A trail formed to the left of the object, and it ascended and appeared to head directly toward us, increasing in size. It started to descend, having formed a noticeable arc, then the light started to dim, and disappeared altogether. I grabbed my cell phone and shot two photos of it, the latter photo included the moon to the upper left of the object for comparison.You can see the trail and it shows that the object arched upwards and then descended, bearing the trail above it as it came toward us."