I was sitting outside stargazing. I have seen spirits, etc, but never anything like this. It was breath taking, and heart stopping. I stood looking up towards the horizon Northish, I suppose. Not good with direction. I was observing Cassiopeia. It was then that I saw a large light craft. It was apparition like on the outside, but within the blinding light, it appeared to be a solid metallic object, oval on top, but circular in shape underneath. It had a window or transparent front on top, and within it I could make out briefly, someone, who looked ghost like. They were made of light too it appeared. But, they did not look like us. They were humanish, but had a larger head on top, and I couldn't see anything else. I was too blinded by the lights that seemed to switching back and forth.Purple, from white, white from blue, and back to purple in some form of sequence. It made my heart drop into my stomach in fright. It was beautiful, but it was scary too. I stood there feeling dizzy, then my head went blank for a few seconds. My cat started staring too. My son came outside, he is 8, and it was still there. A few moments of being out of it, I heard him saying "Mom, Mom" and I snapped out of it. He asked me what it was, and stood looking at it too. Then, it rose up higher into the air, there was no sound, but I know I heard a light buzzing sound. The buzzing was giving a feeling of vertigo. As it came up higher, it sent down a beam, but before it could send it down all fo the way, the sound of a helicopter was in the distance. Then the beam went back up, and it took off. I saw it zip off to the South, then back to the original location above us int he North, and then went off into the East, and was gone. A few seconds later, a black helicopter approached, and flew over us. It was all black, no markings, I couldn't even see the driver. It went into the same direction that this craft, being, I have no idea went. Me and my son stayed in the spot we were in for a long time just totally in shock or something. I was confused. Then the weird feeling of floating went away, the dizziness went away after that, and we went back in. That is when my daughter said, "That is a UFO. I knew that anyhow, but I didn't want to make such a huge claim. She told me to look for a place to report, and here I am. The helicopter has been back in this area, three times already within the last hour and a half. Otherwise, the whole event itself only lasted for 8 minutes and some change. Very quick sighting.