I was laying on picnic table in my yard looking at the stars. My head was on S. side of the table, feet were on N. The moon was at about 45 degrees from horizontal to the E. of me. I was looking at stars with a small monocular golf range finder in the easterly direction. With my peripheral vision I noticed a light almost directly above me that out-shown the moon-light that night. And thought to myself, "darn I missed whatever that was". Thinking maybe it was a meteor. I looked in the general direction of the light and was shocked a few seconds later to observe what can only be decribed as a cigar shaped craft descending into the atmosphere almost directly above me (no time to point the small range finder at the craft and get it in the field of vision) The reason I say descending into the atmospehere is that when the craft appeared, it formed a halo affect around it that was bright and lit up the sky. Once again, brighter than the moon that night. The halo which I would have to describe as somthing that looked like a ring of smoke that people can make while smoking - it looked almost like a cloud. Inside that ring were rays of light which at first glance appeared being emitting from the cylindrical obect, completely encircling it, but then I realized they weren't being emitted from or by the object - they both(the 2 rings of light around the object)appeared more like they were created from the entry of the object into our atmosphere. To make this point clear, I would say that both rings of light were created by the entry or flight in our atmophere rather than being created by or being emitted by the object itself. The object moved in what I beleive was direct entry into our atmosphere for about 7-9 seconds. And, not in motion in which I would think would be the most effective or efficient. It moved down with its ends facing north and south. Not head-on or perpendicular to the atmosphere at the entry point, nor at an angle into our atmosphere, but rather straight down. I guess an analogy would be - like a belly-flop into a pool. The object after what appeared to be the approximate 7-9 seconds entry, then traveled directly S. at a high rate of speed, again forming a cloud like shield around it, but this time, because of the curvature of the earth and it's atmosphere it must have exited the atmosphere. At first, I thought it was traveling S. in our skies, but it disappeared so quickly out of sight, that I now believe it exited our atmosphere. That time span was probably 3-4 seconds. The event seemed like it took longer than I was thinking, but now as I write it down, I know it took only 10-13 seconds from first sighting to conclusion. The object must have been huge, being that I could discern it's shape being at that altitude. I would say that if I put my thumb and first finger at arms length and tried to hold it between those 2 fingers the measurement would have been approximately 1/4 inch, and at that approximate altitude, you all can approximate it's size. This was a real, what appeared to be solid, object. Certainly not any acknowledged man-made craft. By the way, I have a B.S. in Biology - I am trained in science. Trained to question things and then try to prove or disprove things. I can't prove to you what I saw, but Nobody out there will ever debunk what I saw, or make me believe I didn't see what I know I saw. I just want you all to know that there are individuals out there, that are Scientist that know something real is happening. It may or may not be documented or verified at this moment, but the truth will eventually come out. I May post drawings of what I saw on a future post.