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This sighting occurred on October 17, 2009 but was just reported to MUFON.
The witness claims that he and his cousin observed a group of lights, then some type of boiling cloud which emitted a red orb before the entire object faded away.
In his report, the witness then calculates the size and distance of the object, using the distance from other reported sighting in Amarillo and Muleshoe, Texas, to Clovis and Hobbs, New Mexico. His conclusion: an astonishing 2 to 3 miles diameter object.
Here is that unedited report:
MUFON Case #
26065
Date/Time: 2009-10-17 19:15
City/State: Hale Center, Texas
Shape: Circle,Diamond,Flash,Sphere,Star-like,Teardrop,Triangle,Other,Unknown
Duration: 00:13:00
Distance: Over one mile
Location: Prairie
Terrain: Fields
Visibility: Clear
Weather: None
Entity Type: None
Vallee Index: AN1
Summary: Bright Lights, Bubbling Cloud Mass,Dull Red/Silvery Orb-Like Light
Report:
I contacted someone on the phone today at MUFON about an incident my cousin and I observed. She gave me your name and email. I am a 58 year old man with good sense and eyesight. My cousin is 56 and has good eyesight and good sense also.
Please feel free to pass this email to anyone who could help me.
The event I am about to describe was witnessed by my cousin and myself and first noticed at 7:15 PM CDT on October 17th, 2009, a date and time of an occurrence that it seems I will never forget. To help me put closure on the event, I have been encouraged by my cousin who also witnessed the event, and others to write this report over a year after it occurred.
About 7:15 PM CDT on a clear evening, just after sunset, we noticed a large bright close group of lights to the WNW of my country home 10 miles South of Hale Center, Texas . It appeared to be a very bright white-blue light cluster at about a 45 degree angle from the horizon. Although it was hard to distinguish individual lights, it appeared to be a cluster of 4 lights with a total brightness equal to total of 4-5 times the steady brightness of the planet Venus if it were at its peak illumination period. The lights appeared very close together, almost one, with what seemed like three very close bright lights on top, and one very near bright light on the bottom. It nearly seem to have an over all shape of a upside-down bright triangle, or what could have been an upside-down tetrahedron shape if the lines were connected between the very close lights. As I said, the lights appeared very close together from our view point and perspective and almost seemed to be one.
The lights did not move, or have any streaming vapor trails, so we quickly ruled out a jet airplane of any kind, military or jet airliner, besides it was much too bright. We have often seen jets, commercial and military, and are familiar with the point of a jet and its vapor trails. The lights stayed at the same position and brightness for what seemed 10 minutes as we stared and commented how we had never personally seen anything in the sky like this every before in our 50+ years here on this earth. After another minute or two, the lights seemed to dim a little, the bottom light seemed to dim very much.
Then, below the three lights on top, in the position of the bottom fourth light, a small group of what appeared to be small light bluish-grey actively bubbling blob of clouds (like a raspberry shape or a round bunch of grapes) about what seemed to be the size of an English pea or shirt button at arms length. To describe this further let me say it looked like a like a small bubbling light blue/grey-silver raspberry on which the individual seeds of the raspberry seemed to exploding randomly with flashes of light over and over again. The cloud cluster seemed to have the many bubbles exploding, also looking like boiling syrup.
This bubbly mass appeared in seconds right out of the clear dark blue October sky in and below the place of the lower fourth bright blue light. The little bubbles, or raspberry seeds, in my analogy seemed to be exploding in this cloudy mass, and it would take about a second for what would be each the seeds on a raspberry to flash, expand, bust, and start new little bubbles over and over again (like boiling).
This went on for about 15 seconds or so, when the bottom of this little cloud mass seemed to flatten out forming what looked like a bubbling half sphere of raspberry shape. The flat bottom immediately started making expanding concentric rings, like what forms when a drop of water hits a puddle. Out of the bottom of the bubble mass, in the center of the expanding eccentric circles, appeared a dull red orb-like light.
It moved to a distance one diameter of the size of the bubbling mass before stopping and hovering momentarily below the bubbling cloud mass and top 3 bright bluish white lights. The bubble clouds had returned to their raspberry shape within seconds and was no longer flat on the bottom. Then the dim red light moved down another diameter of the bubbling raspberry mass started moving erratically, zigzagging in the small area below the mass. After several seconds, the red light moved up again and disappeared behind the bubbling mass of clouds while flashing in sequence with the small explosions of individual bubbles, which still had its bright lights on top. The red light then re-appeared on top from behind the bubbling mass, and came out above the top 3 white lights.
At this moment there was a dimming of the bright lights and bubble cloud mass, and the red light hovered for a second or two above the white lights and bubbles. Then EVERYTHING suddenly faded out within a second. The bright top lights, the bubbling raspberry cloud mass , and the small dim red orb light, all gone, leaving only the darkened evening sky with its stars beginning to come out. There were no weather clouds in that visible area of the sky. The time all this ended was about 7:25 -7:30 PM CDT. All of this time, this event was in the same position, WNW, and at a 45 degree angle to the horizon, as viewed from my house here in the country south of Hale Center.
My cousin and myself talked about our sighting as described above for the next week. We could not get the images out of our minds. There was no mention of this event on the television, or newspapers about this to my knowledge. We just could not believe we were the only ones who could have witness such an amazingly visible sight in the early evening sky.
That’s when found the MUFON web sight. Finally today I decided to call the MUFON telephone number a little more than a year after all our sightings in Texas Panhandle and bordering Eastern New Mexico. We had searched the MUFON data base and found out there were about 5-6 other people who had what must have been the same sighting, at the same time, in the same area geographically, just from different observation points. To see these same earlier reported MUFON incidents, use only the search parameters of the EVENT DATE and the STATE ( 10-17-2009 to 10-17-2009) and enter TEXAS as the state. Then search NEW MEXICO and EVENT DATE 10-17-2009 to 10-17-2009). You can see one event observation was in Clovis/Portales area of New Mexico, and one from Hobbs, New Mexico. In the Texas search, you will find another observation in Amarillo, and perhaps my report will be on your sight soon. Note that the New Mexico MDT times are an hour earlier than we are here in Hale Center, Texas CDT.
Hobbs, New Mexico reported the incident to the NE (perhaps it could have been NNE). In Clovis/Portales area it appeared to the East. Amarillo reported it to the SW (perhaps it could have been SSW), and finally we reported it here 10 miles of the Hale Center area at WNW at 45 degrees above the horizon. All of these sights point to the same area of Texas.
Get your map out. Using a little triangulations and interpolations of these sightings points of 4 other MUFON reports of this incident, together with our on sighting of this same event, we can calculate using geometry, the height and distance from our observation point here 10 miles South of Hale Center, Texas. We can calculate not only the distance and height about the horizon, but using trigonometry we can also get a real good approximation of SIZE of the this object with its bright lights and bubbling mass and even the red orb light.
We can even approximate the red orb light size in addition to the top lights with its attached bubbling mass of clouds. These triangulating and interpolating all the sightings including my own in combination point to the same area on the Texas map (approximately 10-15 miles ESE of Muleshoe, Texas (for estimates use 12 miles) , Texas and about miles to the WNW of my house 10 MILES South of Hale Center, TX).
By triangulating our sighting and the sightings of others allowed us to put the distance on the object about miles from my house using the flat land distance to the point directly below the lights and blob. Since it was at a 45 degree angle from my horizon, together with the observation triangulations and interpolations, the observed object was approximately 42-47 miles ( for estimates use 45 miles ) WNW from my house or about 10-15 miles to the ESE of Muleshoe, TX).
{By letting the right angle of a right triangle be directly below the object of about 12 miles ESE if Muleshoe, TX. If the Observation point at my house was at a 45 degree angle from the horizon, it would mean that the leg of the triangle measuring altitude would also be about 42-47 miles (for estimates use 45 miles) above the earth the other leg that is about to my house. Geometrically, right triangles with a 45 degrees angles in them have equal sides, that would be altitude and the distance.
I wish I was there to explain this in person, but make a triangle by connecting the points from my house here near Hale Center to 10-15 miles (for estimates use 12 miles) ESE of Muleshoe Texas as the first point. The second point of this right triangle is directly ABOVE the 12 miles ESE of Muleshoe. The third point of the right triangle is my house 10 miles South of Hale Center, TX, and the second point is DIRECTLY ABOVE first point (or above the map or earth) at the point on the ground 12 miles ESE of Muleshoe, Texas. That describes the right triangle where I can show that the height of the object observed at 45 degrees above my horizon is the same length as the leg from my house 10 miles South of Hale Center to the estimated point 12 miles ESE of Muleshoe.}
So, so far, in summary, I have proven the object was WNW of me, and miles high above 12 miles ESE of Muleshoe, Texas. ( since my angle of observation was 45 degrees above my horizon). Now using trigonometry we can roughly calculate the approximate diameter of the light cluster and blob, both of which made about a 2-2.5 degree viewing angle ( remember it was about the size of a shirt button held at arms length, or about the size of a English pea at arms length) . In order for the object to be our observed size, making a 2-2.5 degree arch, the size of the bright lights and light blue-grey-silvery raspberry-like bubbling clouds) and object by my rough trigonometry would be about 2-3 miles in DIAMETER. That IS Bluish- Bright White lights, and light blue grey silvery bubbling cloud mass an astonishing 2-3 miles in diameter.
The red light was small, and was not as bright as the blue-white lights. The red orb-like light appeared a dull silvery red color. The red orb light did not radiate bright radians like the bright blue-white lights points at the top of the bubble cloud. Using rough trigonometry the red orbs size would have to be in the neighborhood of approximately 1175-1465 feet across by its corresponding size to the rest of the light and bubbles of 2-3 miles diameter. (if my trigonometric calculations are correct, I hope).
To comment a bit further on the red orb light’s size, it did seem to be about the same size as the seeds (the individual bubbles of the mass below the sparkling bright white lights). It was about the same size as the bubbling exploding seeds on the raspberry shape. Each of the exploding raspberry seeds in the bubble clouds were about the same size as the red orb-like light that appeared below them.
I am exhausted. I must quit for a while. I would be glad to make drawings if somebody show me how to do it best. My geometry is good. The trigonometry I could use someone to recheck my figures on the size of the various shapes observed by us. I also would like to say I am disturbed by this haunting observation, and feel like that my writing this will someday help me with some kind of closure for my mind. Perhaps someone can help me through contacts using MUFON.
PS. Forgive my rambling and re-iterations. Also, you might observe I am not too good at proof reading. I hope my descriptions make sense. Please forgive the sentence structure and grammar.
Please feel free to pass this email to anyone who could help me and direct replies through the DFW Chapter of MUFON attention State Director, *(Name and email address removed--CMS/sg. Thanks
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