It was a very clear night with unlimited visibility. I was testing some night vision equipment, viewing several inbound and outbound commercial and civilian air traffic. I then focused my attention on two bright stars/planets in the southern sky, then on the horizon to fine tune the focus of the equipment. I then observed a high altitude commercial flight with a contrail, which would have been invisible to the naked eye, with exception to the anti-collision lights. Finally I panned down to view the moon, which was a low crescent near the two brightest stars/planets in the southern night sky. Since the stars were extraordinarily bright when observed through the night vision, I panned slightly to the west and caught a glimpse of what I initially perceived to be some type of aircraft, traveling at high speed in a trajectory, parallel to the horizon, slightly away from my position. As a trained observer by profession, oriented and familiar with all types of aircraft, it quickly became apparent that I was observing some type of an unconventional craft, totally unfamiliar to me. Had I not been utilizing night vision, I would have never seen the object. The object was elongated, appeared a dull gray, with no appendages or flight surfaces. The object was traveling at a high velocity, parallel with the horizon and appeared to reflect, what I believed to be the moonlight off of the top portion of the cylinder. The object emitted no interior or exterior illumination, with no visible windows. After tracking the object for approximately 4 second, I observed some type of concave haze on the front of the object that appeared as some type of front illumination or light was being projected from the front of the object, similar to the haze that appears on the wings of tactical fighter aircraft as they pull excessive G forces. As this occurred, the object quickly disappeared as though it passed behind an invisible barrier. Extremely unusual...have never witnessed this type of event before.