we live in a small town in southern iowa. there are no more than 13000 people in the entire county. we don't have to worry to much about leaving the cars or house unlocked as it is usually fairly quiet around here.that night wasn't any different than any other night, there's a street light on the corner just across the street from our house. its been going off and on every few minutes for a week or two prior and still hasn't been repaired so, it was 9:30 pm, my 13 year old grandson, who lives with us. we were sitting on the fronts steps at home talking about football practice. this year was his first year and he is really excited about it. trying to demonstrate one of the exercises his new coach had the team doing that day he rose from the steps of the house and moved maybe 15 foot to the sidewalk.suddenly he stopped talking about football as he looked up and over my head, over the house he pointed and asked is that supposed to be..wait he exclaimed "what is that" look at this he shouts. sitting on the front steps, i arose, walked down five steps and only a few feet away to where he was standing.i looked up and over the house, to see what he was pointing at.. our house sits on the corner.there are trees around and our house is a 2 story house however looking to the north over the house has an unobstructed view to the north and southern skies. it was dark for the moment cause of the malfunctioning street light. the grandson, still pointing, and i stood there in amazement. it looked like it was about 500 foot over the house hovering there. it was a very bright white light, kinda egg shaped, i guessed it at 500 foot because it seemed very close but not close enough to illuminate the ground. i could see a very distinct outline of it and the illumination reached further ,we just stood there staring for a moment when i told the boy to go and get grandma. the front door is only about 20 foot away from us so he didn't take more than a few seconds, as he returned this light began to move slowly toward the south, as it moved i noticed in the night sky a couple of other airplanes flying by also. one to the west and another to the northwest. it was a very clear night so i could easily tell the blinking lights on them . we all three just stood there on the sidewalk in front of the house asking one another if we knew what this thing we were watching was. all of us wear glasses to read otherwise we see just fine. this thing or ship or what ever you may want to call it, proceeded slowly to the south for a few hundred yards. we noticed that it changed direction. moving upwards i exclaimed " look its getting smaller," and in the time it took me to say that, this thing had gone far enough to be a star sized dot in the sky then simply it was gone, it had gone from very close to the ground straight up and gone in only a second. there was no noise , no trail, only a eggs shaped bright white light with discernible edges only. we are still telling the story to our friends and very excited to watch again every night just in case it comes back