My father, 5-year-old niece, two golden-retriever dogs, and I had just made ourselves comfortable in our tent to sleep for the night at our family farm-site near the middle of North Dakota. My dad had glanced up and behind him while lying down and said "Oh, look, the North Star!". I was tired and so did not sit up to see for myself for a couple of seconds. When I did, I immediately realized that what he thought was the North Star was actually much larger, brighter and coming quickly towards us, so I said "Dad, it's coming AT us!" and was very alarmed. Dad then grabbed his glasses and sat up to look. When he said "Oh, wow!", my niece was intrigued and looked too. She was not as interested, so layed back down. Dad and I sat quietly watching the object for a few seconds while contemplating WHAT the object coming at us could possibly be. I ruled out any aircraft that I had ever seen, whether in person or photographs (I grew up watching the activity at Air Force bases in Fargo, then Grand Forks, now Duluth, MN - in addition to attending many airshows, perusing many aviation periodicals, and generally just being interested in aircraft). Initially, due to the fast speed, large size, and intensely bright white light of the object in spite of the dusk condition of the sky, I decided it must be a meteor - probably a large one. I then became very afraid and sad because it seemed to me that based on the trajectory it would hit land within 20 miles of us - killing us and many for miles around. I was thinking to myself, "Great - I'm gonna die in a tent in the middle of ND...". Then I realized it was actually slowing down. When it kept slowing, I knew it wasn't a meteor, and started contemplating whether to retrieve my camera from the vehicle or not. This is the point when Dad asked if I had my camera handy, to which I lamented was in the truck. As a few more seconds passed and it was still slowing, I decided to get the camera and said "Well, if it's gonna do that, I'm going to get my camera!", to which my dad said would be a good idea. I got up, unzipped the tent, jogged the 50' or so to the vehicle, opened the driver-side door, grabbed the camera, unzipped the case, and jogged 1/2-way back to the tent in order to get a good view of the UFO. I kept sight of the UFO minus standing and exiting the tent, and reaching into my vehicle. As I was nearing the vehicle, I could see the object was an enormous (size of a football stadium), round, bright white glowing "ball" with a silver/grey metallic-looking ring around. I would guess that when it was nearest to us, it was between 10-15,000' altitude, and between 5-20 miles to the northeast. What was most intriguing was that it emitted absolutely no sound, even though it had nearly stopped, and then started going straight east (and away from us). Because it was quickly heading away from us, I needed to jog back toward the tent in order to get a clear view of the skies it was headed toward for any possibility of photographing it. It sped up, making it difficult to find in the viewfinder of my camera, but I was able to take two photos a second or two before it completely vanished. I immediately got back into the tent to show my dad the photos, which is when I noticed that my niece had fallen asleep in what must have been such a short amount of time. What also struck me then was that the entire sky was dark-black, though there was a hint of dusk when we first noticed the object. These two things, in addition to the UFO itself, seemed odd possibilities for an event that must have taken a minute or less. Dad and I were so bewildered that we were awake for many hours afterward - comparing notes about what the object could possibly be, watching the sky in the event the object was to return, and seeing and listening to many aircraft. This event is one of the few times in my life where I felt certain that my life was in danger, and the oddest experience.

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