On Election night I went outside of the front door to my apartment which faces North to an open courtyard. Walked far enough out my front door to see the northwestern sky which was clear and free of air traffic, only 3-4 stars visible. To the northwest a very bright object was seen flashing lights and hovering in place. I went inside for about 5-10 minutes, came back outside and the object was still there. I grabbed my Canon Powershot A3400IS HD camera and took a short video, and a few photographs with the same camera. I also attempted photos with a Samsung Replenish smartphone after the batteries on the camera had depleted (figures...). I did not download the photos until November 8, and looked at them November 10th. The photos clearly show the object, much closer than the stars that were in the photograph, one shows it in a disc/orb shape and a bit unclear due to the limited zoom range and clarity of the camera I used, the second showed it changing shape, greyish even against the night sky, and in a different shape or fluctuation.I initially had no opinion of the object as a star, aircraft, etc. it was shing like an extremely close planet, but was significantly closer than any other stars in the sky, was flashing but not moving, and not making any sound. I went inside and came back out a brief but substantial enough time for any helicopter, plane, balloon or whatever to move off, but the object remained in place.After photographing the object and shooting the video I went back inside for a few (10-15) minutes, came back out side and the object was gone. There was no other air traffic before, during or after the event to mistake this object for anything else, and the photos show clearly that it could not be a plane, helicopter, or balloon.