Appearance / Description of Object(s)

Exhibited a combination of white and colored light emissions. The colored lights appeared to travel in a horizontal pattern from left to right but distance made this directional observation not absolute. ----It looked like the object described on TV in the Illinois sighting by police officers!!!!

Size of Object(s)

Too far away to ascertain size but if I ventured a guess because of its position with regards to the river, I would safely say that it was very large.

Distance to Object(s) & Altitude

A mile or more

Description of Area / Surroundings

Suburban area --In the direction of Albany Airport

Full Description & Details

My wife and I were traveling on a business trip and we were heading home on the Northway just north of Albany. We were just north of the bridge that goes over the Mohawk river and comming upon the Clifton Park area. My wife was sleeping and I was driving. The time was about 2 AM and there were basically no other cars on the highway at that time. I noticed a brighter that usual light in the sky just to the west of us. The object was a good distance from us ( maybe a mile or more) in the general direction of Albany airport. I looked for the lights that would indicate it was a airplane but I could see none. At that point it was just bright white that I noticed. To avoid an accident I slowed the car down to about 30 MPH and kept an eye on the object. I then noticed that it was exhibiting a variety of colored emissions. IT was at this point that I woke my wife up as I could not believe what I was seeing--especially at this hour of the morning. After telling her what was going on she leaned over to look out the driver side window to confirm that I was not loosing my vision. It was at this point after checking for any other cars comming form behind, that I stopped the car. We both noted the colored lights traveling from side to side and the general appearance of a horizontal --cigar shaped display. Distance prevented us from observing other detail but it was definitely not a plane. It did not have any lighting like a plane. We could discern no sounds being emitted either. The object which had been relatively steady in the sky ( maybe even appearing to follow the interstate), made a rapid move vertically and then it sped up and away from our view.

Can sighting be explained as any conventional man-made or natural object?

NO WAY

Witness Background

Development Scientist - semi retired - Masters - Technology Management, B.S. in Bio/ Chem , ASS in Accounting. Top Secret clearance - patents in materials development and adhesive technology.

Views on UFOs, before and after sighting

Open minded with reserves. Read realtively nothing.

Other Comments

I am a highly educated individual with former top level clearances who would rather not have seen what I and my wife saw that evening. I have been trying to ignore it for years but after seeing the report on the Illinois sightings back in 2000 on television, I thought it my responsibility to at least make one other attempt at reporting it. Especially when one of the scientific consults to the incident made comment that these type of sightings are generally unsubstantiated after ten years. 1978 was a hell of a lot longer than ten years ago for me.

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