Size of Object(s)

it had to be huge since we couldn't see any detail, and it seemed to be moving very slowly to our eyes, meaning that it was probably moving very fast in reality

Distance to Object(s) & Altitude

seemed to be closer than the moon, but no way to tell how close for sure.

Color of Object(s):

white lights

Full Description & Details

One night when I was in the third grade I clearly remember waking up to the sounds of geese honking, ducks quacking and dogs barking- I am quite sure that it was a full moon and the sky was clear, except for a few purplish, wispy clouds in the late night (or rather- very early morning) sky. It was such a raucous that my parents, brother and sister rose as well. The whole family looked outside to see what was going on, expecting some sort of large predator or something...but this was much bigger than that...we noticed a strange object in the northwestern sky that looked straight out of a movie or something. The object had white lights: one on the top, one on the bottom, and around five that bisected the first two in a line. It looked like a flying saucer, and we all had to make sure that we weren't dreaming because it was so very strange of an event. Initially, the object was low enough on the horizon that we could scarcely see it above the old oak trees in our backyard, and then it slowly came closer and higher in the sky- moving in a southeastern and upward (from earth) direction. The closest point to us never allowed enough detail to see beyond the lights (which seemed extremely bright- almost a piercing glare- brighter than the stars by quite a bit, and much brighter than any airplane) and shape of the object, and it was moving so slowly that it was impossible to see the movement without allowing several minutes to note the difference. This seemed to be due to the fact that it was so far away, so it must have been quite far away from us in reality, yet it seemed that it had to be studying us- not us as a family, but rather "us" meaning earth. After it was at its closest point to us, the craft moved in an upward (from us) and northeastern direction. It seemed to move a bit more quickly as it was leaving, and it was out of our sight just as the sun was coming up. My older brother took photos, which we had examined by some professors at the University of MInnesota, and they told us that it was a weather balloon. We looked up weather balloons in the encyclopedia (no internet in those days) and the weather balloons did not look a thing like the object we all witnessed. I will try to access the slides from my brother in order to post them with this in the future. By the way, the animals quieted down after about an hour or so...but they new something was up. I remember my parents callilng the police, and they didn't know what it was, either, but I don't recall the exact details of who all was called and said what, other than the garbage about the weather balloon.

Witness Background

I am currently in the final stages of completing my Master's degree in special education (EBD & LD), and prior to this I was employed in advertising and publicity at a radio station and before that I did the same at First Avenue (the club where Purple Rain was filmed).

Other Comments

I plan to speak to the rest of my family about this and will update this if I left anything crucial or of interest out of my description of the event.

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