UFO SIGHTING DATE:JULY 29, 2008TIME:ROUGHLY BETWEEN 9:30 AND 10:15PM CDTSUNRISE/SUNSET INFO FOR FESSENDEN, ND, JULY 29, 2008:Twi: 5:35amSunrise: 6:12amSunset: 9:17pmTwi: 9:54pmMoonrise: 2:24amMoonset: 7:41pmLOCATION: WELLS COUNTY, ND6.6 MILES NORTH AND 2 MILES EAST OF FESSENDEN, ND(23RD ST NE AND 47TH AVE NE)WEST NORWAY TOWNSHIPSPECIFICS:My daughter, my granddaughter, and I were camping at our family farm north of Fessenden, ND, on the night of July 29, 2008. Since the farm house there is no longer used, we pitched my daughter's tent in a large open lawn space between a large, steel machinery building and an old wooden grain elevator on the farmstead property. The tent was a 4-person dome tent with a large hemispherical screen of very fine white mesh at the rear and a large zippered hemispherical screen door of the same material at the front. The tent rear faced north. The tent front - the zippered dome opening - faced south.The tent was approximately 20 yards northwest of the steel building front and about 50 yards southeast of the old wooden, grain elevator. While there was a U-shaped tree row west of the tent, it was not a factor in our sighting. In other words, we were in a vast open area that afforded a clear view - both inside and outside the tent - of the entire sky in which the object in question traveled.We pitched the tent in the fading light of sundown and had later finished situating all the bedding just as twilight and darkness took over. The sky had darkened considerably to the extreme south-southeast but there was a lingering and very pale corona of yellow-red twilight to the north-northwest. A significant band of sky in between progressed in degrees from light grey north-northwest to nearly nighttime dark at the extreme south-southeast. Stars were either already clearly visible south-southeast, or just barely beginning to emerge and be visible in a sweeping band along the darkening edge of the twilight corona.As we finally started settling in for the night, I was on my back, on my sleeping bag parallel along the east wall of the tent with my head at the north tent wall and was looking straight up overhead to the north through the rear screen doing my usual routine of star-gazing - looking to see what stars and constellations might be visible. Almost immediately I saw a very bright star just above the lower edge of the screen window. I said, "(my daughter's name), look, it's the North Star!"My daughter was in the process of settling in parallel along the west wall of the tent and my granddaughter was already snuggled up in her sleeping bag between us.My daughter looked out the window and said, "It's moving!" I immediately twisted around and when I propped myself up for a better look, I realized it was far too low in the sky and far too bright to be the North Star, and, sure enough, it WAS moving! It was a very bright, single glowing light that was clearly far brighter than any other star at the time. It was coming from the north on a course that seemed to be straight south, in which case, had it continued on that course, it would have passed by very close to our location just to the east of us. It seemed to be moving along at a leisurely pace but as it approached, it was obvious it was moving very fast. The angle it was approaching us at made it appear slower than it actually was. It covered ALOT of distance in the short span of time we observed it moving toward us and, as it got closer, the light - which was already very bright - grew in size and brilliance. It was on a flat, straight trajectory. It did not rise or fall. It did not waver side to side. The light did not flicker, blink, fade or flare in any way. It was just a steady, stable, bright, round, glowing light emanating from something with obvious mass. It appeared to maintain roughly the same size and brilliance throughout irregardless of distance from us. (The only exception was just before and during it's turn described below).The light stayed on a flat, straight, unwavering course, at an altitude that I am guessing was perhaps between 1,000 and 2,000 feet. It made absolutely NO sound! It was DEAD SILENT! It had NO strobes! It had NO navigation lights! We had observed it for just a few seconds - perhaps only 6 to 10 seconds - when the single light split into 3 bright, round, equidistant lights arranged horizontally. I can't recall if these lights appeared to be smaller and/or dimmer than the original single light we saw - as if the main light actually split into 3 smaller ones such that the sum of the size and brightness of the 3 smaller ones equalled the initial, primary light. Within a few seconds after splitting into 3 lights, it clearly reduced speed, made a slow, precise 90 degree left-turn, resumed speed, and proceeded again on an absolutely flat, straight trajectory and moved VERY quickly a VERY long way staight into the east before it disappeared into the night. It was NOT a sweeping, banking turn that a typical aircraft would make. It seemed to turn as if pivoting in-place. It appeared to maintain an absolutely perfect horizontal attitude through the entire turn.It sped east a VERY long way and we could see it clearly far, FAR longer than should have been normal before it finally disappeared from view. It's easterly course would have taken it almost directly over New Rockford, ND roughly 25 miles away straight East. I suspect it was probably already over or past New Rockford before it disappeared from our view.Sometime during it's left turn, the 3 bright lights merged into 1 again. And also, just before and during the very brief time it took to make it's turn, I distinctly saw light reflected from the inboard light and from the right outboard light off of what appeared to be a smooth, grey, polished, metallic surface that was clearly disk shaped and sloped down from the top, center of the object straight out to an edge that ran the length of it's outter perimeter. It was clearly shaped like many previous observations, descriptions, and photos of disk-shaped flying saucers in which the object is thick at it's center and at least the upper surface slopes to a sharp edge at it's perimeter. Other than the light(s), the movement, the silence, and the brief glimpse of the disk-shape, there were no other visible, distinguishing, physical features or marks observeable.Almost at the moment my daughter and I realized this thing was moving, we both furiously initiated independent, individual processes-of-elimination trying to figure out what this thing really was. Both my daughter and I know airplanes inside and out. We know what satellites, stars, meteors, blimps, gliders, helicopters, and airplanes - both jets and prop-jobs, look like and act like in the night sky. This thing was NOT any of these!While my daughter's first concern was that it was a meteor headed right for us, she dismissed that possibility right away. We both then quickly realized that because of it's appearance, speed, trajectory, behavior, and dead silence, it was nothing we'd EVER seen before!!!!! Our almost simultaneous conclusion was, "This is a UFO!!!"About the time the light split into 3 separate lights, my daughter jumped up, flew out of the tent, and ran over to her truck (about 15 yards away) to get her digital camera. I believe she returned to the side of the tent with her camera about the time the object began it's turn. She had difficulty getting the object into the viewfinder of her camera but she was able to snap 2 photos of the object as it began to speed away. Unfortunately, because of camera jiggle, both photos she managed to capture have ghost images of the bright object we saw, but, quality notwithstanding, her quick thinking at least yielded 2 photos as physical evidence.My daughter ALSO saw what appeared to be a distinct, polished, metallic, saucer-shaped surface as it made it's turn. The object appeared to be quite large. It was probably never very close to us but none-the-less my impression was that it was very, VERY big! It was very difficult to get a reliable sense of it's exact size, altitude, or distance at any given time because of it's speed and the lack of any recognizable, distinguishing features either in the background or from the object itself that would have given us more accurate, visual comparative information. That being the case, I couldn't tell if it was 1, 2, 3 or more miles from us at it's closest. It appeared to be roughly 2 miles away at it's closest.It appeared to be about the approximate diameter of perhaps a round baseball stadium. Again, lacking any other visual cues, it's size was hard to judge. It is possible it was far smaller - or even far larger - than the diameter of a round baseball stadium, but still, the overwhelming impression I had was that had to be at least several hundred feet in diameter. It seemed HUGE!!!Similarly, the absence of visual cues made it difficult to judge it's altitude. My best guess is that it held it's altitude throughout it's course with absolutely no deviation at between roughly 1,000 to 2,000 feet.I've been an airplane nut since I was little and have watched close up and from afar; studied; flown in; and built, flown, and collected models of more aircraft than any typical person would ever know existed. I can identify and name the designations of just about every military and civilian aircraft ever produced. And, while I am not a pilot, I could very easily hop into the cockpit of just about any small, single engine aircraft and get it off the ground and then land it safely. I am VERY knowledgeable about what is man-made - and natural and normal - in our world that flies! As for my daughter, her husband is a pilot. They own a Beechcraft Sundowner. She knows aircraft probably better than I. She has spent more time in the air than a significant portion of the population. She, too, knows very, VERY well what is and what is not normal in the night sky.This object was not anything either of us could recognize as belonging in any normal night sky.We know the light and/or lights were not landing lights. Landing lights usually flicker or jiggle in sometimes obvious, sometimes minute ways. Landing lights are directional - they would have been visible to us on-approach, but after the turn, we would not have seen any bright lights at all. One can often see the light beams - not the bright lights themselves but the light rays - projected from landing lights shining away from the source and away from one's point of view into the sky and illuminated in certain atmospherics of high humidity, dust, or smoke. We saw one bright light or three bright lights the ENTIRE time and they were steady, stable, bright, and constant. These were NOT landing lights from any aircraft!There were absolutely NO navigation lights. There were absolutely NO strobe lights. These are absolute FAA flight rules but were clearly absent.However, doing some cursory online research regarding possible military operations in the area, I found out that the USAF petitioned the FAA for exemptions to the aircraft marking and navigation lights requirements for night flights for certain Military Operations Areas (MOA) several years ago, which the FAA approved. The USAF asked for the exemptions in order to conduct "complete blackout navigation and radar exercises" for the training of aircrews, as well as to "test night vision goggles and equipment". Plus, the USAF agreed to give civilian pilots advance warnings through the FAA of any scheduled operations in these areas. One of these MOA's is designated "Devils Lake East/West". Because both the lake and city named Devils Lake in North Dakota is only 45 miles away from our farm, it's possible we were in the Devils Lake East/West MOA when we saw the airborne object. However, the only online MOA map I could find lacked the detail necessary to conclusively determine whether our camping location was included in the Devils Lake East/West MOA . However, the possibility that the object we saw was military can still be eliminated because:1. Blackout exercises are not conducted while lit up like a small town.2. The lights we observed exhibited no features whatsoever in common with aircraft landing lights.3. The USAF itself stated it would be tasking standard, current military squadron aircraft - fighters and bombers currently in inventory and on active duty - for these exercises. In other words, they would not be using any exotic, experimental aircraft designs or technology during MOA operations.4. Whatever this object was, it was not USAF or any other military or civilian aircraft because it was DEAD SILENT. At no time did we hear either jet or prop engine noise of any kind. The air was completely calm - no wind. The humidity was very high and the night absolutely clear and warm. Because of the speed, flight characteristics, and course of the object; at the distance we were from the object; and under these atmospherics, we would CERTAINLY have heard this object if it was ANY kind of military or civilian aircraft.Yet there was absolutely NO sound. We saw - and ALWAYS heard - several other aircraft in the night sky after seeing the UFO. In absolutely EVERY case, there were navigation lights, strobes, AND sound even though some of these aircraft were probably overhead at 30,000 feet or more. We even heard helicopters 2 different times early the next morning.We also saw several satellites overhead streaking through the night sky after spotting the UFO.The object we saw was not satellite. It was not a balloon. It was not a meteor. It was not a blimp. It was not a kite. It was not a glider. It was not a helicopter. It was not a jet aircraft. It was not a conventional propeller-driven aircraft. It was not an airplane of any kind - not any kind that we know of anyway. The only circumstance we could think of under which it could possibly be a man-made aircraft is that it was military. But additionally, if it was military, then one would assume this new, silent-stealth, massive type of military aircraft would be, by default, necessarily shrouded in utmost secrecy. Again, lighting up the sky like a small city is counterintuitive to secrecy. So, even if it was military, it makes no sense whatsoever to fly it around in the night sky all lit up as it was for all the world to see.The entire event lasted probably no more than 15 to 30 seconds.My daughter and I have no idea what this object was other than a UFO. We each know what we saw and are very clear about it, but . . . we STILL don't believe it!!!Since seeing this object, I don't know how many times we've said to each other, "I'm sure glad we both saw this thing together at the same time because had either of us been alone to see it, no one would believe us!"I have encouraged my daughter to file her own, independent report and submit her photos as well, which she intends to do soon.