1:00 am, 7-14-2018. i had just returned home from going to the local convenience store. as i exited my vehicle, i proceeded to move a few steps towards my open driveway gate, which i always close after returning home. my driveway runs roughly east/west and the gate faces east/southeast. i saw a very bright, deep red orb in the sky, just a bit south of east. it started at about 25 degrees above the horizon and, at first glance, seemed stationary. on the compass, i would estimate it direction to be e/se, perhaps 120 degrees. all this summer i have been keeping tabs on mars and it's transit in the night sky. knowing this orb to be too large, too low in the horizon, and not in the expected location in the night sky, i wanted to confirm it wasn't mars. as it was 1am, mars would be much higher in the sky. i quickly looked up and to my right quickly finding mars. it could clearly be seen (still a somewhat pale peach/red) and there were no clouds in the sky at the time. i then looked back at the original large red orb. to be clear: both mars and this unknown orb were easily visible in the night sky - and quite clearly apart from one another. i am accustomed to seeing all manner of airplane traffic, as i am located under an approach path to lax. this was absolutely not standard aircraft running or collision lights, nor a helicopter. the object itself was a very deep, brilliant red. it was orb-shaped, with a somewhat more bright center - radiating out to deep red. the visual size of the orb (from my location) i would describe as appearing about 3 times the size of the brightest star or planet in the night sky (venus for example). its size was absolutely not typical of anything in my night sky - far too large and brilliant. i stared at the object - as it was something so unusual to see in the night sky. at first i thought it was stationary / hovering, and perhaps it was. then it very slowly made a descent, which appeared to go straight down from my perspective. it did not make erratic movements or descend at an angle, but as it got lower - perhaps 10 degrees above the horizon, it seemed to "flip over" and it's color and brightness "fluttered" and winked out to darkness. my initial thought was that it may have been some sort of flare, but there were none of the typical signs... no parachute or similar device; no self-illumination of a smoke trail, no burning-like behavior or flame-like variation in brightness or intensity. there was no parabolic descent... it seemed very linear. it seem much, much further away to me, which also raises doubts it was a flare in my mind. if it were a very distant flare, it would have been far higher up than what is typical for a flare, nor would it have been anything close to the intensity this object was at such a distance. since it was such a strange thing to see in the sky, i continued to stand - fixed on the area of the sky - looking directly in the area i last saw it for about 2-3 minutes more, with no luck. i then went into my home and asked my roommate to come outside while i told him the story of what i just saw. he and i stood at the rear of my car, facing my gate, and i showed him the area where i saw it, and also mars. to my knowledge, it did not reappear.