SIGHTING: WALLOWA, OREGON (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

" i left my house on the morning of june 30, at about 6:30am, for a walk. as i turned to the east, i noticed what looked like a planet in the eastern sky, slightly to my right, but since the sun was well up above the horizon, it should have washed out any planet or bright star. the object was slightly above and well to the south of the sun's location. as i walked east for the next 30 minutes or so, i kept watching the object and it appeared to be stationary the entire time. i turned around and headed back to the west and arrived back at my house around 7:30am. the object was still visible, although maybe a bit more to the south. by 8:30am it have moved noticeably south when compared to trees in the yard. i never detected any visible motion, no flashing lights, no contrail, no noise. i went inside for awhile and the object was still visible. i got a pair of binoculars and saw that the object was round and milky white, looking like a giant round balloon that was reflecting sunlight. however, it wasn't moving like a balloon. i had my husband come out and look and he saw the object as well. i got my camera and took several pictures over the next couple of hours, as the object very slowly moved toward the south. it never seemed to change elevation or distance, nor was it's movement ever noticeable to the naked eye for the few minutes i would watch at a time. i would check on it every 15 minutes or so, and it had always moved a bit more to the south but didn't seem to be changing distance from me. it was more like it was slowly circling. by 9:45am, it was almost due south of me. while watching through the binoculars again, i saw a silver plane, with what looked like either a red tail or a red stripe on the tail, pass below the object. i was unable to tell if it was closer/farther from me than the object, and i really didn't think much of it, other than to wonder if people on the plane could see anything. some time later, while watching through the camera zoom, i saw the same or an identical plane pass under the object again. both times, the plane was flying west, and the flight paths seemed identical. neither time was the plane easily visible to the naked eye, except for the second time when i knew where to look after lowering my camera. i seriously doubt it would have been noticeable if i hadn't first seen it in the zoom, just as the object was not truly noticeable unless you happened to look right at it. the entire time, there was little or no breeze at ground level. skies were extremely clear, although some cloud cover started to move in shortly before i lost track of the object. at one point, thin clouds looked like they moved in front of the object, hiding it for a few seconds. i did not notice any other air traffic, not even contrails, during the time i was watching the object. it was a sunday morning, so perhaps the lack of air traffic is normal. we do get quite a few over-flights as we are kind of between boise/portland/seattle. i did some research and there are weather balloons that look almost identical to what i saw. however, the closest launch site i could find is in boise, idaho, which is the right direction but i think further away than the couple of hundred miles those balloons typically float. also, i did not see the orange instrument package these balloons carry on a tether, nor did the object i saw significantly change elevation, and it never changed direction. the weather balloons apparently move fairly quickly to around 100,000 feet, then burst, which is almost the opposite of what this object did. it may still be some sort of balloon, but i have no idea how it remained so stable and stationary for so long. i finally lost sight of the object when i looked again around 10:30am. i don't know if it left or was behind clouds, or i just couldn't spot it. i would appreciate any explanation you may have. the photos i've attached are scaled down to email-able size. i would be happy to provide the full-size files if needed."