Florida UFO Sightings in 1989

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TRIANGULAR CRAFT MADE 90 DEGREE TURNS Isaw a light approaching from about 5 miles away.After several minutes it looked like the end light on a plane.It executed a 90 degree turn and went directly over my head.

I trained my binocular on it and I saw a light at each end and one in the center,It was a triangle about 2500 feet up.It executed another 90 and it went toward Ocklawaha area, It was silent.That night my friends son saw it in the ocklawaha area.

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I saw a slow moving triangle shaped craft moving northward. It's perimeter was light up a burgundy color. I went outside to check the current temperature at my weather station located in the middle of a 20 acre pasture in a rural are 10 miles west of town.

It was a clear and very cold night with a dead calm wind and no moon so it was very dark. Suddenly I felt a breeze come up at approximately 5 mph. As a Space & Atmospheric Weather Forecaster I instinctively looked up and much to my surprise saw a diamond shaped object at a zenith of approximately 70 deg.

The object was completely light up all along the edges with a dull very dark red or burgundy color. It made absolutely no noise and was moving northward at a slow rate of speed. I sized it up by stretching my right arm upward and at that distance comparing it to my finger length.

It was as long as my middle finger. I watched it for approximately 5 minutes until it disappeared across the northern horizon.

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small spheres flying in formation near approach to Tallahassee airport The event occurred on the Friday after Thanksgiving 1989 at around 12 noon. My wife, brother in law, and myself were playing golf at the city course on the south side of Tallahassee, Jake Gaither Golf course. We teed off in late morning, and were on the 5th hole, a par 3, around noontime.

Weather was perfect, clear blue sky. While waiting to tee off, I noticed a USAIR turboprop flying south along the east edge of the golf course at maybe 1500 ft. altitude.

The plane was approx. a mile away. It was heading towards Tallahassee regional airport.

I noticed that it was starting to make a right hand turn for final approach and it was going to collide with a flock of birds that was also flying south. I watched for a few seconds and as my eyes changed focus from the plane to the birds I then realized that the flock of birds was not a flock of birds but rather several small grey spheres flying in formation heading south but at a slightly higher altitude than the! plane, or maybe a little farther east of the plane. The plane made its turn and the spheres continued south.

I yelled to my wife and brother in law to look but they could not locate them before they passed behind the trees. The entire event lasted about 5-10 seconds.

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Couple witness arrowhead triangle, w/ 7 lights, streak overhead during night launch of Space Shuttle. Mailed Report: My wife and I observed a very large, dark triangle (arrowhead shaped) flying low from east to west. It was completely silent.

We counted seven (7) circular white lights on the underside. The triangle craft was moving at a high rate of speed, surrounded by a white haze. The lights on the underside were NOT flashing or pulsating.

The craft was darker than the night sky. It appeared to be heading from east to southwest from the ocean, i.e.

from Fort Lauderdale area towards the Everglades. The altitude appeared to be no more than one mile. What impressed us both was the speed, shape, lights, haze, and silence of this craft.

It was observed from our rear yard at night. ((END TEXT OF WRITTEN REPORT)) ((ADDENDUM FROM LETTER, WRITTEN BY WITNESS)) .Prior to contacting you, I watched the Peter Jennings Special on television and your Reporting Center was shown.

My reason for calling was to learn if others had observed the craft similar to the one my wife and I observed in 1989. I have agreed to submit the sighting forms, as you suggested, and I would appreciate a telephone response as promised. After all these years, I really desire an answer as to the question of were we the only persons to observe this type of unidentified craft.

One evening in 1989 (month not remembered), my wife and I were sitting in our open back yard patio hoping to observe the fire trail of a launching at Cape Kennedy, which could be visible unobstructed, as we reside on a lake. For reasons unknown, we did not see the flame tail and were returning to the house. Suddenly, my wife became very excited and pointed towards the Eastern sky.

Approaching us east to west from the ocean/Fort Lauderdale area, was a strange flying vehicle. It was moving very quickly at a low altitude and turning southwest directly towards our home. We both observed a very large triangle, or arrowhead shaped craft, surrounded by a haze at approximately 3/4, or a mile, altitude.

As it passed above us, it made no sound. It was completely silent. Clearly visible were circular white lights, seven in number, on the underside, beginning at the nose, and evenly spaced towards the rear.

It disappeared from view, going towards the Everglades. I build model aircraft as a hobby, and this vehicle was not shaped like anything I have ever seen, including the stealth F-117, or the B2 Bomber. My wife and I mentioned this incident to several of our friends and neighbors immediately; however, they expressed no interest.

We did not contact any official agency for obvious reasons. I hope that this information will be useful. Please keep our identities confidential, as my former work in Law enforcement raised certain hostilities.

I would appreciate a short collect telephone response. I now have great interest in determining whether my wife and I were the only persons that observed this triangle type of UFO. Thank you in advance.

((END CORRESPONDENCE)) ((NUFORC Note: We have spoken with the source of this report on several occasions, and he appears to us to be an exceptionally qualified observer. He served as a senior law enforcement officer in several positions over the course of several decades. He writes that neither he, nor his wife, is a UFO "buff," although he enjoys watching television programs on the subject.

The party who submitted the report, we suspect, is an exceptionally good witness, and exceptionally reliable. We express our gratitude to this witness for sharing the report, given his initial hesitancy to come forward with it. PD)).

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After reading the 1966 acount of Jack Brown in cal, talked about a butane shaped craft. I thought I would tell you about the one I saw with my son. My son and I had just left our home to go get gas in the car for a trip that we were going on the next day.

as we were driving something caught my eye in the sky. I looked up and saw a silver glow in the sky. It was shaped like a butane tank but maybe the size of three traincars.

It was just over the tree line. I slowed down and pulled over. and then like a shot it went stright up and turn to the west and was gone.

I looked over at my son and asked if he had seen that. He said woo mom what was that thing. He was 18 at the time.

I am a nurse and my husband at the time worked for nasa. so when we got back home I asked him if there were any test or flights that he new of for that night. He said no but after telling him what we had seen, he made a call to nasa to see.

Thay also said no none at all. We nevrer knew what it was but I sill keep looking at the sky. ((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that the date of the incident is approximate.

PD)).

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As a law enforcement officer I was dispatched to a UFO sighting near a military base. This event took place while I was a deputy shereff several years before I retired. I was dispatched to a UFO sighting in the west end of the county.

Once I arrived there were several people standing by the road looking up at the UFO. It was round about the size of two football fields. The color was much like the center of an egg.

The UFO remained stationary. Every few seconds a small UFO would drop from the center of the mother ship. It would hover for a moment then dart of at a high rate of speed.

This was taking place within a mile of one of the highest security military bases in the country and within 12 miles of another secure base. I call dispatch and ask if they would call both bases and let me know it they knew what this UFO was and if they could see it. I knew the one base could not help but see it.

Being only one mile from the base they would have been able to see same from there flight tower. After all sources had been checked no one admitted to seeing or knowig anything about the UFO. I did not think much of it at the time for one simple reason.

There was no way the two bases could not have know about this UFO. When I call this a UFO I mean it in the truest form. I did not know what it was, but given its location I knew good and well the military knew what it was.

Because of this I took it to be something from earth. Now after all these years I still believe it was not from outer space. It was an amazing sight.

To see this huge round stationary UFO located at about 1,000 ft with these small round UFOs dropping from under the belly of the mother UFO and darting off at great speed in every direction was a sight to behold. What was it, I have no idea, but I do know this much. The nearest base could not help but see this object.

The point is they knew what is was snd were not about to tell lawenforcement anything. After about 20 min. the mother took of and vanished from sight.

At that point I went back on patrol.

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Silent orange rotating light over McAlpin, Florida field. At this time, I was home alone with 3 small children which had been put to bed. We had 5 outside dogs that began barking up a storm.

There was a large fenced pasture behind and adjacent to our property, with a tree-lined driveway leading toward and then turning to parallel this pasture. I went out of my front door and rounded the corner of the house facing the pasture and didn't see anything. I saw the dogs sitting side by side and barking in the direction of the pasture.

I walked closer and past the dogs (who did not move forward with me). I thought it odd that the dogs did not come with me to investigate. When I had moved a few steps closer to the pasture, I saw a large orange light that seemed to be slowly rotating the circumference of an object.

The object itself, I could not see againt the night sky. The light seemed to move from right to left, disappear momentarily as if on the back side of the object, and re-emerge on the right again. I also noticed that the object itself seemed to be silently moving in a forward, downward and zig-zagging motion (closer to my property).

I ran back into the house and locked the doors. I called my husband who was bowling with friends, and he scoffed as I explained what I had seen. I was terrified, and realizing he wasn't going to come home immediately as I had hoped, I instead called a friend long distance, and stayed on the phone with her for well over an hour until he did arrive home.

I did not report the sighting to any authorities for fear of ridicule. ((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that the date of the event is approximate. PD)).

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Dark boomerang shaped UFO hovers over MIA airport then flies upward past arriving airliner I am not the eye witness, but I questioned closely the controller involved. I was an air traffic controller at Miami International at the time this event occured. I came on duty at 10 o'clock am on this day.

The whole facility was buzzing so I asked what was going on. The person I asked said that the midnighters had seen a UFO at the airport early.I did not get the full details for several weeks.

The controller was obviously upset over what he had witnessed and refused to talk about it. I waited a few weeks for the right time and when it was quiet I asked this controller to tell me the whole story. Bob said that he working the midnight shift and his relief had arrived up in the tower cab as well as a flight data assistant (three total).

They were chatting and one them looked up at the tower radar display. Something was quickly moving across the scope from the north and toward the airport. The observer called out and they all started looking out the windows (it's dark but getting light in the east).

To the north something low was covering up the lights on the ground. At this point the UFO is almost over airport. They all saw it as it came to a hover over the commuter ramp, (low, 100 feet or less) which is in the middle of the airport.

At this point I stopped the story to ask a question; how big was it? Bob said it was about the size a B-727, which is quite large. He also said that it was dark in color, maybe dark olive. The object hovered over a vehicle and turned on a bright light.

There was a ramp person in the vehicle asleep. The ramp vehicles all have radios tuned to the ground control frequency. This person started screaming on frequency for the tower to quit playing pranks.

The light stayed on for several minutes. Remember it's getting lighter outside every minute. The light turned off and it continued to hover.

Now it's light enough to see detail. The object the rises vertically and passes very close to a an arriving Eastern Airlines A-300. The aircraft was coming in from the south and was on downwind and preparing to land.

The pilot asked "what the hell was that?" The controllers said that they did not know. The object continued up to many thousands of feet, but still visible fron the ground. At this point two other controllers were driving into work.

One was coming in from the south and the other from the north. They both saw the object ascend and watched it until it stopped. When it stopped it stayed motionless for several minutes and then it started to gyrate wildly.

While it was gyrating it had many multi-colored lights flashing. The object performed like this for several more minutes. When it stopped it stayed motionless for several minutes and then suddenly went vertically out of sight.

In the the tower things were hectic trying to see if the radar room could see anything and getting the airliner on the ground. While taxiing in the pilot asked if the controllers knew anything more and then stated "well I guess I've seen one now". Over the next hour or so "answers" started coming from various agencies, none of which were accepted by the controller witnesses.

In the end the FAA told them to say nothing of the event. One final thing, Bob mentioned that for the next couple of hours (no wind) a yellow-green haze was seen to stay in the area where the object was hovering.This event was a catalyst, of sorts, to open a host of stories from other controllers.

All very interesting. You can e-mail or call for more details if you wold like. ((NUFORC Note: Date is approximate.

PD)).

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LOOKED LIKE SEVEN STARS IN V FORMATION MOVING HIGH RATE OF SPEED,FASTER THAN A SATALITE,AND SEEMED TO BE FARTHER OUT THAN A SATTALITE ((NUFORC Note: Date is approximate. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous. PD)).

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ON OR ABOUT THE DATE LISTED ABOVE I,ALONG WITH MY FAMILY, WERE DRIVING HOME FROM THE BEACH WHEN MY WIFE ,WHO WAS LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW, ASKED ME "WHAT KIND OF AIRCRAFT IS THAT?" I TURNED TO LOOK AND AT ABOUT 100YDS OFF SHORE ,COMING SLOWLY FROM THE EAST TOWARDS US I SAW WHAT APPEARED TO BE TWO BRIGHT LIGHTS (BRIGHTER THAN AN ARC WELDERS TOURCH ) I PULLED OVER AIMING THE FRONT OF THE CAR DIRECTLY TOWARDS THE INBOUND OBJECT THUS GIVING US A MUCH BETTER VIEW. THE OBJECT CONTINUED FLYING TOWARDS US AND STOPPED ABOUT 15 FEET DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF US, HOVERING OVER THE WATER AT AN ALTITUDE OF ABOUT 10 FEET. I COULD NOW SEE IT MUCH CLEARER.

THE OBJECT WAS IN THE SHAPE OF A TEARDROP SLIGHTLY FLATTENED. SILVER IN COLOR WITH NO IDENTIFIEABLE MARKINGS. IT MEASURED APPROXIMATELY 7 FEET LONG, 18 INCHES HIGH AND ABOUT 3 FEET WIDE ALL MEASUREMENTS COMING TO A TAPERED TIP WHICH I BELIEVED TO BE THE TAIL OF THIS CRAFT.

IT HOVERED FOR A FEW SECONDS THEN IT, QUITE EFFORTLESSLY, WHILE REMAINING IN ITS' PRESENT POSITION, IT TURNED RIGHT FACING NORTH THEN IT TURNED LEFT FACING SOUTH. AFTER A FEW MORE SECONDS IT LOWERED ITSELF TO ABOUT 6 TO 12 INCHES OVER THE WATER AND REMAINED THERE FOR SEVERAL MINUTES. I FIND IT QUITE INTERESTING THAT WHILE IT HOVERED AND EXECUTED THESE FEW MANEUVERS I COULDN'T HELP BUT NOTICE THAT IT: 1.

HAD NO PITCH AND YAW, 2. HAD NO VISIBLE HEAT SIGNATURE, 3. IT HAD NO RIVETS OR WELD SEAMS TO SHOW HOW IT HAD BEEN PUT TOGETHER,AND 4.

THERE WAS NO DISPERSAL OF THE WATER AS THIS CRAFT HOVERED DIRECTLY OVER IT, AND 5. THAT THE TWO BRIGHT LIGHTS THAT I SAW I BELIEVED THEM TO BE ITS' PROPULSION SYSTEM BUT INSTEAD OF PUSHING THE CRAFT IT APPEARED TO BE PULLING THE CRAFT. AFTER SEVERAL MINUTES OF JUST HOVERING ABOVE THE WATER THE CRAFT RAISED ITSELF TO ABOUT 3 FEET ABOVE THE WATER AND PROCEEDED SOUTH OUT TO SEA.

AS IT WAS OUTBOUND IT STOPPED AND SLOWLY STARTED TO RISE AS IT WAS RISING I NOTICED THE SUNSET CRUISE BOAT WAS OUTBOUND IN THE CHANNEL. IT WAS AS IF THIS OBJECT KNEW THAT TO CONTINUE ON ITS' PRESENT! COURSE THAT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN STRUCK BY THE SHIP. THE SHIP PASSED UNDERNEATH THE OBJECT WHICH WAS NOW AT AN ALTITUDE OF ABOUT 200 FEET AND CONTINUED OUTBOUND UNTIL I LOST IT IN THE DISTANCE.

ABOUT TWO WEEKS LATER A STORY APPEARED IN THE KEY WEST CITIZEN OF A MASS SIGHTING OF A UFO THAT HOVERED OUTSIDE OF THE SEATTLE SPACE NEEDLE. AT THE TIME OF THE SIGHTING I WAS ASSIGNED TO THE HYDRAFOIL USS PEGASUS (PHM-1) STATIONED AT KEY WEST FLORIDA. AND AS AN OPERATION SPECIALIST (RADAR OPERATOR) I WAS TRAINED, BY THE US NAVY, IN LOOKOUT AND REPORTING PROCEDURES WITH EMPHASIS ON ATTENTION TO DETAIL.

DATES LISTED ABOVE ARE APPROXIMATE. ((NUFORC Note: We have spoken with this witness, and he seems credible and serious-minded to us. Date is approximate.

PD)).

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Blue Green fanning light covered entire night sky at the same time as power outage. Daytona summer 1989 Many details are fuzzy, I had to guess on time and date. It's been a long time but has been on my mind often since it occurred.

During the summer of 1989 me and two of my friends were house sitting about a block away from Daytona Beach shore. The house was on a bit of a hill so more than just our street was visible. Late in the evening around midnight, all the lights went out.

We rushed outside to see what was going on and noticed that all the lights in the neighborhood were out. I do not remember if there was a sound. I remember this sighting coming from the non-water side of the city.

This much I know for sure: In the horizon a giant blue-ish light shot from lower ground to miles in the sky. It then fanned out, covering the entire sky in an incredible blue green display that lasted many seconds. It looked like a laser light show but the size and complexity was way too enormous to have been man made.

Think of the movie Tron and a peacock tail. Both of my friends witnessed this. What we all agreed on instantly was it's size and that the power outage had to be related.

Moments after, the lights in the neighborhood began to come back on. We were absolutely blown away and speechless at what we saw. We called 911 to see if anyone had reported lights but I only remember getting no feedback from the operator.

If you were outside that night in Daytona or any surrounding city you would have seen this. This is the first time I have reported it because it is so difficult to describe and at the time there was no internet or easily accessed reporting agency. I would really like to know if more people witnessed this.

((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that the date of the event is approximate. PD)).

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Several red balls of light flying in formation over the gulf of mexico with no sound at high speed. There were a number of red balls of light flying in a sort of formation over the Gulf of Mexico. They were flying low to the Gulf and made no sound.

They flew at high speeds and made turns at right angles in such a way that any man made air craft would not be able to do. They appeared and disappeared. They flew back and forth within I'd say a 5 mile length of area.

((NUFORC Note: Witness indicates that date of incident is approximate. PD)).

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Bright orb, hovering just above the tree tops for about 5 minutes. It was a light green color. It seems like I can remember this experience like it was yesterday, although it occurred decades ago.

I vividly remember the feeling it gave me when I saw it, yet somehow I can never really explain it. I still remember weeks later when Independence Day came around I saw all the fireworks and used that as a way in my mind to rationalize away what I saw, though, I always knew that it was nothing like a firework. I never did tell anyone, not one of my seven siblings, parents, or friends.

I knew I would be made fun of, I was smarter than that. It wasn’t long ago that I told my wife about it, she is very supportive and takes things at face value with me. In spite not speaking a word of this to anyone else in the 19 or so years since the occurrence, it seems reasonable to report the incident in case it has some value to someone out there studying the subject.

I was fairly young, 11 years old to be exact. We lived in a comfortably large home in the spread out private community of Martin Downs. We had 3 or 4 acres on nice little lake in the back yard.

All the homes were spread out, our area of the neighborhood was fairly open, and we had a great view of all the homes on the lake. Most of the homes on the other side of the lake were nestled in trees, very private. Mostly long needle pines with Palm trees speckled in with Palmetto underbrush, standard Florida Foliage.

I remember it being a late summer evening, it was a Friday night and all my older siblings were at a church dance down in Palm Beach. My younger siblings were in their rooms, I remember turning the corner from the long hallway that lead from our rooms to the living room and shockingly seeing this very bright light hovering just above the treetops on the other side of the lake. Under normal conditions the view from our living room is breathtaking at night; the wall toward the outside is mostly glass going into our ‘Florida room’ which outside wall was entirely glass sliding doors down the breath of it.

The house is built up a little bit so you have a great view when normally things are very flat in the area. So looking through the two rooms you can see the light from the houses on the other side. It must be between 200 and 300 yards to the other side of the lake, and this light was bright, frighteningly so.

It was a light green color; I really couldn’t tell what shape it must have been so I would guess an orb would be a great description from what I could discern. It frightened me to the bone, but at the same time it was so mesmerizing, I could not take my eyes off it. So I stood there, half hiding behind the corner of the wall, as it hovered, moving ever so slightly to the west for about 5 min.

The westward movement was so slight, during that time it probably only traveled about 40 yards or so. Then, as I watched it, it just disappeared. As I thought about what I saw I was astounded! , shocke d, my world of what I knew had changed.

That image still sits in my mind today, hovering just over the treetops, as I go back and look at pictures of my back yard, I can see that it moved directly over a house. I wonder if anyone else saw it, I really do wonder.

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Orb of light, thought it was the north star, until it jetted up and away so fast that it left a streak of light behind it We thought it was the North star as we sat talking, our eyes fixed on it. until it Took off so fast it left a streak of light behind it (like lightening or something, only it was a perfectly straight line) that caught up to it after the fact. We were fishing at the foot of the three mile bridge when my brother and his wife began arguing.

I was tired of hearing it, so I went and sat down on the seawall and cast my line. I started staring at the sky and became fixed on what I thought was the north star. after they finished their fight, my brother came over to chew my ear off in his venting process.

Because the light was so bright, he also became fixed on it as we sat there talking. then, all of the sudden, at light speed it zipped up and away leaving that streak of light behind it. I was still disbelieving what I saw when my brother asked 'did you see THAT?' I let him tell me, just to be sure that he had really seen it too.

He described the exact same thing and thereby validated what I saw for me. ((NUFORC Note: Date is approximate. PD)).

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Saw a florescent orange sphere in the sky while driving to work. It was low.The bottom was in the tree tops.

It seemed to glow from within. There was a black sort of platform in the sky at the bottom. It was the size of a round water tower's bowl.

It seemed to glide in a very controlled maner as if on a magnetic field. It did not float nor look like a ballon. It was moving rather slow maybe 35 mph.

It descended into the trees and went out of sight and seemed to be landing back in the trees about a half a mile away. I was driving to work at about 06:50 when I suddenly realized there was a florescent orange sphere low in the sky just ahead to the right. It seemed to glow from within.

It made no sound. It was the size of a round water tower's bowl. At the bottom of the sphere was what looked like a black sort of platform.

(Shape wise it looked like a basketball sitting ontop of a cassette box) Except the sphere was perfectly round and had sort of a mesmerizing presence to it,an aura . It sat directly on top of the rectangular shaped black object at the bottom, no straps or anything visible holding it down or attaching it. The black part was obscured by the tree tops.

I was trying to make it out, although it was hard to see the black part, it seemed to have some part of it folded up under it at the bottom like legs or something. As I was traveling about 50 mph heading west it was moving north west out over the trees and slightly slower about 35mph. I was gaining on it.

When I came to a stop light the car behind me pulled up along side me to turn right. The driver gave me a look like, you see that? And nodded towards it, just before he made his turn. The light turned green and then I was trying to get as close as I could trying to see it better.

I kept saying "what is that". It continued out over the trees and it seemed to glide as if it were being controlled some how and like it was riding on a magnetic field. It did not float like a ballon or appear to be a balloon.

The road I was on began to bare to the left and south. As it did I was looking back over my right shoulder as I watched it go down into the trees about a half a mile away until I could no longer see it. I have never been able to forget seeing it.

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Orange/gold colored glowing metallic disk, 1/4 mile away, only 50-100 ft above ground, slow moving, no sound, no navigation lights. WHERE. Mahogany Hammock, Florida has a boardwalk trail popular with hikers and bird watchers.

There is a large parking area which is also very popular with local astronomers during 'new moon' weekends. The land is flat with groups of trees being the only things sticking up here and there. (see park map at www.

nps.gov/ever/map.htm) WHO.

Approx. 25 people where in the Mahogany Hammock parking area during this sighting although I am not sure if only a half dozen people actually saw it. The rectangular shaped parking area's longest sides run on about east/west orientation, my wife and I were set up on the north side near center with our 12.

5" and 8" inch telescopes. Observing conditions were clear and steady, visibility unlimited, very dark, no moon, an excellent and cool nite. Everyone was busy observing or photographing Messier or NGC objects.

The usual lone observer, mingling small groups, and muted conversations were all evident. By the way, dark adapted eyes are needed for deep-sky 'visual' observations such as nebulae, distant galaxy clusters, etc. and no white lights were allowed.

Only very dim red flashlights were seen around the area. I should mention that deep-sky observers avoid viewing the planets since their brightness will ruin 'dark adaptation' for a long time. If by accident anyone opens a car door and white light is seen.

angry screams always follow! Dark adaptation is guarded by all. Anyway, it was one of those perfect nights you rarely get.especially on the weekend.

so everyone was head down into sky charts or squinting into eyepieces on their quests to log as many objects as possible on their personal observing "hit lists"! I came to believe this is one reason why only a few of us saw the craft or were even interested enough to look at it! I still can't believe only a few of us said anything about it. Thankfully, my wife was there. We both saw it, and this fact has made my homelife easier as I probably would never mention it if I would have been alone.

I mean people think you are crazy or something, you know, because of all the official 'denial' going on about these things. Anyway, please excuse my ramble, but it does point out the irony that this happened to people who know the sky and know what is up there! WHAT. The details as I remember them.

Sometime around midnite I heard a man's voice to the west of me say, "There's something flying over there!" So I looked about due west and also saw this bright object hovering just over the trees about a 1/2 mile away. It may have actually came up out of the trees we don't know for sure. At first glance it was bright with orangish/goldish color.

At second glance, a few seconds later, there were no navigation lights, no strobe lights, no sound! It was a glowing disk and it wasn't flying in the sense of 'aerodynamic' flight. As a former private pilot I am aware of the factors of flight: when lift and thrust overcome weight and drag anything will fly. Also, the FAA regulations require red (left) and green (right) nav lights on the wingtips and white strobes and all aircraft.

This disk was a 'craft' but it was not flying. Floating along through our atmosphere in spite of gravity is a better description (than flying). As an amateur astronomer, I can tell you this was not Venus, not Jupiter, not the Moon and not swamp gas.

It was a low level sighting of a craft that was moving about 10 mph. We observed it for about 12 minutes or so until the trees obscured it as it slowly disappeared to the south of us in the direction of Flamingo, FL. I should mention that it changed direction twice.

I first saw it above the trees to our west. It was heading east, at us. Then it slowly headed ESE just missing us to the south of our position and only about 1/4 mile or less away.

This was our best view as it remained just above the nearby treeline for the length of the parking lot. I quickly lowered my telescope enough to catch a glimpse, but the focuser didn't move enough to focus clearly at this short distance and the guide scope was a Telrad which has no magnification. However, we could easily see, with just our eyes, that the basic shape was a slightly domed disc looking about twice as wide as it was high.

It had its own colorful luminosity yet it was metallic looking, sleek and strangely beautiful I thought. My guess at the time was 30 feet diameter craft and about 16 feet high with the domed part being on top. We were on the north side of the parking area and so we had the best angle of view over the trees to the south.

This may also explain why the people in the other parts of the parking area didn't or couldn't see it. As I am writing this, I am thinking this may be the biggest reason why not everyone saw it. Also, it is interesting that being among many astronomers that nobody, including myself, hollered out for everyone to 'check this thing out'.

fear of ridicule probably.or disbelief at what we were looking at. who knows why! So, by the time it was passing close along the treeline in front of us, I knew this was no airplane, no blimp, no balloon.

Oddly, at the same time, there was a small private plane flying (I flew Cessnas) a few miles away to our right and we could hear its engine and see the navigation lights and strobe but the disk shaped craft that was gliding by us was much closer and was not making a sound! Eventually, the disk turned south and went out of my sight. It somewhat paralleled the park road that leads past West Lake and then to Flamingo, FL. My last view of it was when I was standing on the bumper of my van and stre! tching t o see it go behind the distant treeline several miles away.

It was at a very low level at that time also. TIME. Feb 1989 PS.

It is funny but we never thought or talked about this sighting for many years. No special reason why. It's just that.

you know.you have to get up the next day and go to work, and put the kids through college and all that. So it goes into the back of your mind for later recall if needed.

Since then, but only recently, I have been reading up on the UFO topic. When I heard an interview with Travis Walton and Mike Rodgers, it hit me that the description of the craft they saw in 1975 sounds identical to what we saw in 1989 and I just wanted to put it in writing. I realize that this is an old sighting but I just wanted to add my two cents and say, "I know they are out there!", period.

Thanks, and keep up the good work.