SIGHTING: DIXON, ILLINOIS (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"I went out to get the mail at 7:00pm. there, due west in the darkness about 45 degrees from the horizon was the brightest star i had ever seen. it appeared to be a golden/white with a red tail. sort of like depictions of the star of bethlehem. i couldn't take my eyes off of it. my husband came out looking for me, and ran inside and got binoculars. what i saw was this: picture an oval shaped plate standing on its edge. the plate's surface is covered with brilliant white lights, evenly spaced, maybe 20 or so of them. the object was mostly stationary, but occasionally would drift northward slightly. once or twice i knew that a light had discharged from the side i couldn't see, because the whispy cloud cover above the object would flash in reflection. it moved kind of like a kite does. gently and erratically. i watched it for 1.5 hrs, but i had had a very long day and fell asleep. i woke up at midnight and looked outside. it was still there, but had tracked further to the north. i went back to bed, and when i woke up at 4:00am, it was gone. i have video and stills, but they were taken with my iphone and don't show much. the video makes it look like the thing is very agitated, but it's only because my hand was shaking. i'm not attaching them because there's really nothing to see. there were small planes in the sky at the same time, so i called the local airport (for single-engine aircraft) and exchanged numbers with the manager. he said no one reported anything. i flashed it 3 times with my iphone flashlight, but got no response."