very fast, silent cylinder seen with swirling red lights on its ends.At 3:45 am this morning, dec. 30, 2008, I witnessed an objected in the sky to the south of my backyard. I was outside smoking and watching highflying planes flying from west to east, I like to watch planes late at night coming out of Memphis or going into Memphis to land.This morning though while watching two jets that were miles away and could only barely be seen an object with "swirling" (the only way I can describe them) red lights on it’s ends swooped through my field of view.It was a cylinder but flying long ways, not straight along its axis. It had to be less than a half-mile away and was very fast yet silent. I could see it’s outline and could tell it was under control of something, it was flying with a pourpose and not just falling or streaking through the sky. It seemed to make a sloping turn during the short time I saw it.It flew behind a tree in my backyard and did not emerge on the other side. I scanned the sky for a long time afterwards looking for it but never saw it or anything similar again.Over the past 5 years I have nightly gone outside to smoke, since I don’t smoke in the house. I have seen hundreds of airplanes and helicopters fly over and numerous shooting stars, but this time I saw something that I could not explain as any sort of conventional aircraft or a meteorite at all.