Red/Orange Balls Of Fire Seen In The Western Sky From Boynton Beach Florida

Date:  December 24, 2012
Time:  7:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.

Hey, this one has me stumped. This was one of those things I just had to write down and try to just be factual. 
Suburban neighborhood. Street lights 3 to 4 houses away each side. Holiday lights at residence.  Home on a street running close to North/South.

Sky conditions: Mostly clear and cool, ~68 degrees Fahrenheit. Some high stratus. Near full moon. Moon position about 70 degrees up from east (90 degrees being overhead) and 60 degrees from south at first sighting.

Sky view: Approximately 150 degrees from South to North. (180 degrees being on a flat ocean)

During an early Christmas Eve party 2 guests were leaving at about 7:30 p.m. After exiting the home, one guest quickly ran back inside asking others to come outside immediately. Fearing some sort of accident or injury, I ran outside. 

Upon exiting I saw 2 bright red/orange “balls of fire” in the western sky. Several other guests, including children came outside. When the kids asked what it was, someone made the comment that Rudolph and his child were flying Santa’s sleigh.

The 2 objects were bright. Brighter than any star or planet in sky. Not as bright as the moon. The light emitted was not a point, but rather a ball spreading in all directions from the center. “Like a light bulb”. Color varied from deep orange to bright red.

The objects were about 20 degree of arc apart.  (I am using degrees of arc because I have no idea how far away or how high these things were.) Both objects were traveling from South to North. 

When I first observed them, they were perpendicular to me and kept there intensity of brightness as they moved. With in 20 to 30 seconds, the objects were farther north.

Then the trailing object began to quickly fade. The “ball” became a pin point, flickered and disappeared. 

This was approximately 40 degrees from the north horizon. Within 10 seconds more, the leading “ball” did the same as the trailing “ball”. Position was approximately 30 degrees from north.

At this point my guests, who know I am a pilot, asked me what I thought it was. My reply, I have no idea. The objects made no sound, even 20 seconds after passing. The objects had no other observable lights (rotating beacons or strobes). 

These objects moved from south to north with no visible arcing, i.e. curving down like a falling object. Nor did they take a rocket like trajectory. (We got to see Space Shuttle launches from our back yard all the time.) 

The speed was constant.  The time to go from my first observation to fade out was no more than 40 seconds. Other aircraft were observed in the sky and you could see normal lights and times crossing the sky. 

At this point, this could have been dismissed as too much holiday cheer. However, this was not the case. After our guest got in their car and left, we all waited for a few min and went back inside talking about this. Several jokes about the Mayan Calendar being off a few days were made.

About 30 minutes later, we were back outside seeing off more guests. On of the kids began yelling there’s another one! He was desperately pointing south. I was able to observe a single ball at about 20 degrees up from South horizon. Between the trees and houses to the south, it looked almost like a rocket launch. 

However, this was because it was so low on the horizon. This was the same intensity as first seen with the earlier 2 balls, perhaps slightly brighter. This time the path passed almost overhead. The object held its brightness just as before. 

I walked to several different points in my yard and street to insure that this was not something very low (less than 100 feet). It was not a bug or a bird. When it did fade to a point, it was about 50 degrees from north and appeared to be higher in the sky. 

I was unable to say how high the object was. The time to go from visible horizon to fade out was no more than 70 seconds.  Again, no sound, even after passing. 

Several more witnesses speculated on what it could be. After some discussion, a forth ball was observed. This time more east. The to of the path was about 70 degrees up from east.

All observations were done from the front of my home. I did try to get some photos with my camera phone, but the lighting never allowed a good photo. 

Discussion: As a pilot who did his first solo in 1979. I have seen many things that I could not initially explain. But normally after some quick research or just discussing with others, an explanation was found. This one has me stumped. Some key factors leading to this dilemma. 

1) The balls made no sound. Repeatedly I ask my guests to be quiet and listen. Even after 10 seconds after they passed perpendicular to our observation. No sound was heard from them.  Other aircraft were heard and sounded normal.

2) The time to travel form South to North was about a minute. This is much quicker than a passing jet at high altitude. Even faster than a helicopter at low altitude.

Having no way to tell how big the object really is or what it was, I do not know the altitude of these objects. Therefore, no way to say the actual speed.

3) Light observations were unique. Lights from an aircraft have some unique features. Especially at night.  Strobe lights and rotating beacons can be seen for many miles on a clear night. 

When a plane is coming toward you head on and the landing lights are on, you may not see them, but if the plane turns slightly you can. The ball of light did not change from approaching to parallel to past my position.

The fade out to the north of us, was very quick. If the light was from a normal landing light, it would not be observed when parallel to us. 

4) Positions were different. At first when I saw the 2 lights west of us, I thought maybe it could have been a reflection of some sort. However, the light was the same west of us, overhead and slightly east of us. 

The observations were made over 1 hour.  Jets at high altitudes were observed and at their regular positions and tracks.  These paths of lights were different yet did not matching earth rotation either.

5) The path traveled did not match any know air route in this area. Both high altitude and low altitude. Nor did it match any of the typical helicopter routes that have been seen.

Also, this did not appear to fall or curve like a flare would. It looked more like a rocket launch than an aircraft flight.  But did not match that either. 
  
So, I am stuck.  After checking the www, several other reports were made about this, however, nothing in our local media. I do not believe that ET was going home or coming for a visit.

But I can not explain this one. Let me know if you have any ideas what this could be or other factors I should have included.

If you have seen anything like this in the same area please be kind enough to contact Brian Vike at: sighting@telus.net with the details of your sighting. All personal information is kept confidential.

Also, please feel free to send in your sightings that have happened years ago. So many of these older sightings are nothing short of amazing.

The Vike Factor (Brian Vike) http://the-v-factor-paranormal.blogspot.com/

The Vike Factor 2 (Brian Vike) http://the-v-factor-paranormal-2.blogspot.ca/