At approximately 5 a.m. on the morning of August 28,2014,I stepped out to smoke a cigarette and looked to the sky as I usually do. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, except for one which appeared back-lit, and which was located between the feet of Orion. My first thought was that this cloud was illuminated by the moon. However, no sooner did I think this when the cloud began expanding and pulsating with a blue-green, blue-gray, and blue-white light. Realizing that this wasn't the moon, my next thought was, "Supernova?" At this point I rushed into the house and yelled for my son to get out of bed and bring his camera, because I had never seen anything like this. In just a few seconds he was on the porch, but was unable to photograph the cloud, because it was already fading.As we watched it fade, the same phenomenon occurred in a straight-line trajectory, but further to the South. We continued to watch in the event the same phenomenon would occur a third time. In a way it did, however this time, instead of a cloud, there was a bright white flash, as if a star appeared and then disappeared. If the object or phenomenon repeated a fourth time, I'm unaware due to any further activity being out of my line of sight. I have watched the night sky all my life and have seen many meteors. This was no meteor. Likewise, I have seen the occasional light in the sky, and have always explained them away as aircraft, weather balloons, or satellites. I don't believe those explanations fit this event. The strangeness of it all, and my desire for answers has led me to file this report. Additionally, there were two airplanes in the sky during this event, but they were so far removed from where this took place that I don't believe the pilots were associated with this phenomenon. At no time did I observe a craft. I saw only these illuminated clouds and that one flash of light.