Witness reports having seen blimp-like UFO in Arizona desert

My own depiction of the object seen by the witness.- SW

In a report to MUFON a witness recounts a 2005 daylight sighting in Arizona, of what could best be described as a Mylar balloon with a bright light on the bottom and indentations in the middle edge. 

Was this a 24" wide Mylar balloon, or was it a 230' space craft?  Read the witness's compelling (unedited) report and then you decide...
-SW


MUFON Case # 25337
Date:    04/16/2005
Time:    12:41
Location:    Payson, Arizona
Shape:    Blimp
Distance:    One mile or less
Terrain:    Desert, Mountains
Visibility:    Clear
Summary:    (tg) Oval - like a balloon, silver, had a bright light underneath about a quarter as bright as the sun.

Report:
Object appeared about a half mile away, had sun-bright light underneath, notches around the periphery, silent. It appeared about 5 degrees wide, so at a half mile that would make it something like 210' in diameter. All of this is subjective based on my interpretation of its distance. What I have attached is not a picture, but a creation I made which looks exactly like the real object---I didn't have my camera and in the ten seconds or so it took to get it out, the object disappeared. I took a pic of where it was and created the image I saw in that picture. Read my report attached to the file attached to this report. I'll always regret not having the camera to hand, but standing at the road side taking a whiz, I didn't.

Link to Original Attached Document


Attached Document

          Witness's depiction of UFO sighting.
                 Click on images for larger view.
     

              Cropped view


My UFO Sighting

UFO meaning Unidentified Flying Object, not alien spaceship or anything like that.

I watched this object for about 30 seconds before going for the camera. When I got back in about seven to ten seconds, it was gone. I took a pic of where it had been and then had Wolfgang (graphic artist) draw the UFO to my specifications where I saw it. We went back and forth until he had it the right relative size with as much detail as I could remember.

The object came from the right (north) moving south and made a slow turn away from me going west at constant altitude. Judging from it being on my line of sight to the ridgeline, a review of a topo of this area says it was about four to five hundred feet above the valley floor. It appeared to me to be about halfway to the ridge that the topo shows as being between one and one point two miles from where I was standing on the road.


What was it?

My first guess was a Mylar balloon. But, there are some problems with that explanation. The object appeared to be five degrees wide from my viewpoint and a Mylar balloon of 24-inch diameter (standard size) would have to have been no more than about twenty feet away to appear five degrees wide. I think it was much farther away, like half way to the ridge. The second issue is the light underneath: It appeared as bright as the sun, though only about a quarter of the sun's apparent diameter, and did not change in intensity as the object turned (I could tell it was turning by the perimeter features going around.)

I contacted three Mylar balloon manufacturers serving the southwest who all told me they could not explain how a reflection of the sun could have occurred underneath if it were a balloon floating horizontally---they did not produce any kind of balloon which could do that. Of course, it could have been a balloon from some other manufacturer with a clear window on its side (on top at that orientation), but what did the reflecting underneath? And, wouldn't it have changed intensity as the balloon rotated? A flat reflecting surface under it pointing sunlight toward me would have changed apparent intensity as the balloon turned, but that did not happen.

Another problem: If it was a balloon, where did it go? Let’s say it popped just as I turned away, and that it took me at least ten seconds to return with my camera, then where was it? It couldn’t have fallen out of sight fluttering down, as it would have if it were a balloon, and been out of sight in that amount of time. And, let’s say I am wrong and it was a balloon only twenty feet or so away, it would have landed on the slope in front of me and been visible, but there was nothing there. I looked. You might say it landed behind a bush or rock and I couldn’t see it. That’s a fair point, I think it unlikely, but I can’t say it couldn’t have done that. This argument hinges on how far away it was and I think I would have known it was only twenty feet or so away from me and I’m sure it was much farther than that.

It was a still day with the sun near zenith. This area was dead quiet with no breeze at my location and I heard no sounds from the object. I had been riding in the area for a couple hours and saw nothing unusual before or after seeing this. No other people were noticed in the area. I stayed and watched for about a half hour and saw nothing else to report.

The moral of this story is to keep your camera at hand when out in the desert! The only time I have ever seen anything and I didn't have the camera around my neck! Ratts!

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