SIGHTING: ALACHUA, FLORIDA (UNITED STATES)
Witness Testimony
"On thursday september 8th at 6am i was walking to my car when my wife noticed two lights flashing directly overhead, but at a very high altitude. at first she thought it was a satellite based on the intensity. we regularly observe the iss and the lights were about the same magnitude as when the iss first becomes visible, or about that of a medium magnitude satellite. however, we quickly ruled that out because there were 2 lights flashing in close proximity. after watching for about 7-10 seconds the lights appeared to move vertically and faded out. i would estimate the lights were seen approximately 90 degrees from the horizon. on friday september 9th i walked out to my car, again right at 6am, and because of the lights from the day before i looked up. i was shocked to see the lights again, but this time there were far more of them in a line. they were again at approximately 85-90 degrees above the horizon. unlike the lights from the day before which appeared to be independent, the lights this time appeared to be fixed on a structure. i could not see the structure but it looked like a sliver of deeper black than the still dark sky. (at this time of morning the sun is still well below the horizon and the sky is still very dark) as i watched the lights it did not look like there was a pattern to the flashes, they appeared to flash more randomly. i can’t be certain but the object looked like it tilted along a vertical plain as the lights seemed to compress at an angle at which point they faded out. total observation time was 15 seconds. i have a lot of experience with aviation and i can say for certain this was not an airplane, helicopter, or anything of that nature. i’ve seen military jets on maneuvers over a bomb range at night, and all kinds of aircraft both civil and military. i also have spent many hours stargazing. i have seen hundreds of satellites, meteors, space shuttle fuel dumps, and other manmade things in space. this was unlike like anything i have ever witnessed, and was not the flash of spinning space junk. i’m an open-minded skeptic. to think we are alone in the universe is ignorant. i have no idea what it was that i saw, but i know i’ve never seen anything like it before. i would guess that the altitude of the object was suborbital, but well above 20,000 feet. an airplane passed within approximately 20 degrees of the object along the path commercial aircraft fly over my house so i am guessing that plane was between 20,000 and 30,000. the lights were very obviously not aircraft anti-collision lights. they were one color, not red/green and were in a sting. they also did not move, but remained stationary. i don’t think i would call it a hover, more like an absence of movement, or a slow drift, until it tilted on the vertical plain. at the time there was zero cloud cover, and the object was in proximity to the pleiades. due to the clarity of the conditions i could easily see 7 stars in the constellation. the conditions on both days were identical. "
