SIGHTING: TUCSON, ARIZONA (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"Location: Tucson, AZ. Time: 22:05 Conditions: clear sky, stars visible.Visibility: 10 miles. i was trying to get back home by the time coast to coast started at 10:06. we were delayed by watching a bright orange ball in the sky that approached from the NNE. There were no navigation lights. The object appeared to move very slowly then hover. at first i thought it was a helicopter but, the absence of navigation lights and rotor noise ruled it out. the object appeared to hover a few times then continued to move. it was NOT at high altitude and well below the standard flight altitude of commercial and military aircraft over populated areas. i was clearly able to see that at one point it was moving directly toward my position; this is important because it tells me that i did see it hovering and not only appearing to do so while it was actually moving toward me. it then turned to a directly west heading. it began to pulse and flicker, much like a match or candle about to burn out; it blinked three times and quickly (5 sec.) disappeared in mid air. it made no noise or crackling/hissing sound as objects do when descending through the atmosphere. it was a very bright orange, steady and stable colour and intensity until it suddenly went out. it appeared much like a light bulb: steady, consistent brightness without pulsing. i estimate that it was about one to two miles up and within 5 miles of where i stood. it may have been descending but, it was a very slow descent. it turned dark/faded/disappeared within ten seconds after turning to the west, it was no longer visible after this point. i have seen two very distinct unexplainable craft of obvious non-human origin in my lifetime, i have seen a failing Russian space rocket reenter the atmosphere and burn up as it descended. this case was different from both as it was clearly an orange ball of light, not flame or fireball. the Perseid meteor showers are late tonight but, they are not in our atmosphere. i have seen many, 'falling stars,' meteors, etc. this is not like anything i've seen before. i am a longtime sky watcher, amateur astronomer; my best guess is that it was a falling piece of space debris but, it was maintaining altitude and moving so slow that it is difficult for me to believe that it was a meteor, etc. the city of Tucson is adjacent to Davis-Monthan air base, that said, there was nothing about this object that would compel any reasonable person to believe that it was human made. if it was descending i was unable to discern that it was doing so. there were no aircraft visible any where over the city or vicinity at the time. "