I saw a large, round, bright white light, like small moon rising slowly above the Mesa around 10:30-10:45PM..pausing and then going straight up into the atmosphere until it diminished from view- almost like a slow-motion rocket,but without any sound. Thought it unusual, or perhaps a helicopter, but didn't consider much more of it because I have been very busy... until an acquaintance about 6 miles away related seeing the same thing on the same evening, except that it was much closer to and directly above him, illuminating the entire mesa and observatory for a length of time. He tried to report it to the owners of the observatory thinking it was a celestial event that might be captured by the cameras and telescopes. They dismissed him since there were no recorded or known celestial events that night. Interestingly, all telescopes stopped working that evening, as did the computers and my phone upon arriving at the observatory that same night. It took several hours to reboot and correct everything. I joked that we must have had a small EMP, until another friend drew correlation between the electronics shutting down and the time I had mentioned seeing the light -which was roughly 20-30 minutes before-hand and 6-8 miles north.