Close orange fiery object flying slow and lowA friend and I had been returning from a bike ride after dark on the Hockhocking Adena Bikeway when we stopped alongside the Hocking River behind the Athens Public Library. This is a wide-open area with a great view of the night sky. It was mostly cloudy with no stars visible. Sunset was an hour before at 7:20 PM EDT. As soon as we stopped, we noticed what we thought was a low flying helicopter approaching from north to south heading directly toward us with what appeared to be a bright deep orange light shining from it. It was close being only about 150 to 250 feet high (twice as high as a tall tree) and about 200 yards in front of us traveling very slow. The closer it approached, the more we realized that it wasn’t normal. For a moment we both thought it was a helicopter or a small plane that was on fire and about to crash. What we had first thought was a light turned out to be more of an intense deep orange glow that encompassed the entire roundish obje! ct and changed hues so that it resembled a fire. It made no sound at all. It was a very quiet evening and we made a point to listen closely. The object was definitely about the same size as a helicopter. I signaled at it for about 15 seconds with a flashlight until it was about 50 yards in front of us (alarmingly close), still at about 150-250 feet high. It then made a sharp 90 degree turn and moved rapidly out of sight toward the east. The whole event lasted about 90 seconds with about 85 seconds of approaching toward us and about 5 seconds moving quickly away from us. (Note: Although I am just now submitting this description, it was written the morning after the sighting.)