Plasmic bluish white orb of light east of Mono LakeThe night was cold, moonless and clear. I was northeast of Lee Vining and while star gazing with a telescope I noticed a brillant light sitting on the ground appox 3 miles away near the east shore of Mono Lake.It rose straight off the ground and began making slow circles in the sky.Absolutely silent. At one point it passed over a mountain ridge to the east and lit up the entire ridge line so that every detail of the terrain could be seen. I later checked a topo map and this ridge was almost 12 miles away.It was so brillant that I noticed that when it came within 3 miles of me that my body casted a shadow on the ground. I also had a pair of binoculars but the orb of light was just a bluish white plasmic blob. At no time did I ever see the red and green running lights that would readily identify it as an aircraft. At one point it was joined by a much smaller and dimmer orb of light.Through a pair of binoculars this orb also had no red or green running lights and made no sounds. They circled each other and made severl "passes" at each other. I eventually lost track of the smaller object and don't know what happened too it. After about 2.5 hours the large bright orb of light landed on the ground about three miles from me. I put all my scope gear on the backseat of my car, turned off the lights, and headed slowly down a dirt road directly towards the object. When I got within two miles of it, the dirt road dipped into a dry wash that was about 1/4 of a mile wide, and when I came up the other side of the wash the object was gone. I turned of the engine and stepped into the darkness but the object was gone. The only sound were several upset packs of coyotes howling in the darkness. THEY WERE SPOOKED AND SO WAS I. I have never reported this incident until now. I have seen a lot of strange lights in the sky after twenty years of star gazing but I could always explain them away. But this one has me baffled. At no time did I ever hear the tell tale noise of an aircraft engine. I am reporting it now because I noticed in your data of sightings that others at the same time camping near Bodie also saw the same thing but I was much closer. There had been several strong series of earthquakes in the area and I often wonder if what I observed were "earthquake lights".