SIGHTING: TROY (EAST OF), NY

Witness Testimony

"6 bright orange lights in a configuration similar to the Big Dipper very low on horizonUnidentified lights in sky 9/8/2012 8:52PM My wife and I were returning home from a small dinner party traveling east on Tamarac Road, Town of Brunswick, east of Troy, NY. I first noticed 6 bright orange lights when I glanced out of the driver’s side window of my van. At first I thought it was simply a reflection and mentioned it to my wife. When she looked she said…”that is no reflection!” We both saw the phenomena…a series of 6 bright orange lights arranged in a pattern very similar to the Big Dipper constellation. The pattern was only 10-15 degrees above the horizon and would be in a northwest direction from our observing position. The pattern did not apppear to be in motion vertically or horizontally. The lights were definitely not stars. They were a definite orange in color and much brighter than stars. Also, they were all of a seemingly identical brightness and size.We decided to continue to travel east on the road to a spot about a mile farther where we knew we could get a clear view of the sky. During our travel, we continued to glance at the formation and noted that the lghts started to move apart and disappear, one or two at a time. They did not fade…they simply vanished as if moving away out of sight. By the time we reached the area we intended to stop, all the lights were gone except for two, which left shortly thereafter. When we stopped, we also noticed another vehicle perhaps 100 yards ahead of us also stopped. We suspect that they may have seen the same phenomena and also stopped to observe. This is simply conjecture on our part since they moved on shortly after we stopped and noticed the lights were gone.Neither my wife nor I have ever observed anything similar to this phenomena before. We would be anxious to know if others in our area observed anything similar. When we arrrived home last evening, I immediately wrote a note to a local television news room (WNYT Albany, NY) detailing our observation in hopes that if any others had observed, we might hear of the matter on that station. "