I had just stepped outside of my door in Las Cruces New Mexico. Looking east over the mountains to observe the storm that was passing through, I noticed a fairly large fireball floating over the mountains to the east, a little to the south of the White Sands Missile Range. It caught my attention because it was very bright, pulsating, and clearly not an aircraft that I was familiar with. after checking the flight schedule for the Halloween Air Force Base, which is about 100 kilometers to the east, I saw there was no scheduled flights today. I watched the objects describe a path which covered approximately 10 miles, including changes in elevation and direction, reversal of direction, and hovering. UFOs are common in this area. I observed the object for approximately 30 minutes, at which point it descended behind the mountains and was lost in the clouds. I did not especially think anything strange of it, because unknown aircraft are fairly common in this area, particularly to the east of the city where there is a NASA base, and the White Sands National Airspace which is restricted from civilian use