As reported

Sphere over Siesta Key, FL

A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.

The report, as filed

orange color, appeared about the sizeof a tennis ball, moved vertically until barely visible, then moved at a high speed westward

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center. Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.

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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2010-05-30 → 2010-06-16

From the same sky

Related entries

July 14, 2019 · 10:20 PM · FIREBALL

Siesta Key, FL

On 07/14/19 near 2220 hours at Siesta Key on the West coast of Central Florida, I was sitting outside in a chair in the courtyard of a single story resort. The area is mostly dark, unlit, with only a few area street/building lights. The sky was clear and there were about three puffy storm clouds nearby but all out over the Gulf or Mexico and to the South of my location. It was a typical Florida summer night, hot and muggy with little to no wind and almost a full moon. I had a clear view of the sky straight ahead and to my left. To the right side of my view, the sky was mostly visible between the sparse tree branches/leaves of a 15 foot tall decorative tree. I noticed through the foliage of the tree was a very bright fiery orange ball. It was at approximately a 45 degree angle in the sky from my seated position. The object was as intense as the flames typically seen coming from rockets after leaving Kennedy Space Center. However, this was not an oblong flame, it appeared circular. The object had the same orange intensity on all sides and across the middle. It did not appear that any side was more or less lit up as it slowly moved across the sky. There was no visible trail left behind the object as it moved, no blinking lights, no change in intensity and no audible sound. It was moving very slowly from the north to the south almost horizontal. I confirmed its movement by watching it traverse across openings between the stationary tree branches. I estimated it traveled from my view approximately one inch across the sky in twenty seconds. After watching it move for approximately five minutes, I estimated it was approximately one mile up in the sky and about a mile west of my location out over the Gulf of Mexico. Watching the object, I walked through the open courtyard and then into the street to be in an unlit area when the object disappeared over the course of four seconds. It went from its standard full size and brightness to half the circumference and half brightness and intense orange color. Then half of that circumference and a dimmer orange-grey color, then half of that circumference and grey, then completely non-visible. I gave the appearance that the orange sphere moved due West out of sight at a very high speed. I initially thought it was possible a storm cloud had begun to cross in front of the object obstructing the view, but the lonely storm cloud was still south of where the light disappeared. ( Total visibility time of approximately 6 minutes.) I went inside and told the wife and kids of the weird light. I went back outside with the kids two minutes later. At 2229 hours, back in the courtyard we all see it the orange object. It was the same size, shape, color, fiery intensity and distance away as before. It was again very slowly traversing the sky from North to South. We walked out to the dark street monitoring it. It still appeared to be about a mile out over the gulf and a mile up in the sky as we watched it for three minutes. Comparing it to the stars in the sky it appears to be 15 times the largest visible star or 20 times larger than the smaller stars. If a pencil point on a paper was a star, the eraser of the pencil was the size of the orange object. Moving at a very slow speed horizontally from North to South, the light stopped moving for approximately two to three seconds, then changed direction and began to traverse in the complete opposite directions now from South to North at the same speed. Nothing changed with the fiery orb during the direction change other than the direction of travel. We all quickly return to the room and enter.(Total visibility time 4 minutes) I grabbed my camera with zoom lens and rush back outside one minute later. The light is gone and unable to be located. I walked to the beach and find no one with drones or Chinese lanterns. Returning inside I checked the weather website and determined cloud elevation was 6000 feet. When the object disappeared the first time it was half way up in height from the bottom of the storm cloud it was near so the object was possibly at 6200 feet. I estimate the object was moving at approximately 10-15 mph.

April 3, 2015 · 10:01 PM · SPHERE

Siesta Key, FL

My brother and I walked to the beach in Siesta Key FL from our room at the Jamaican Royal at about 9:45pm on 4/3/15. I started observing the sky once we arrived and I saw what I believe to be an airplane NW of my location. The plane looked very far away. It was below Orion's Belt but above the horizon line. This is not the object in question. I was almost constantly staring at the sky/stars since we arrived, when at about 10:01pm I suddenly noticed to the left of the airplane that a bright red glowing ball of light was just suddenly there in the sky. If I had a ruler in my hand at arms length it would have been about a foot away from the airplane and to the left of it, at the same elevation. I did not witness it enter my field of view by crossing the horizon line or anything else; there was no red light in the sky, then I look left, and when I look to my right again it was suddenly there. It did not have any flashing lights on it, it was rather a single ball of red glowing light that once I noticed it seemed to be moving down the coast line NW to SE at a brisk-to-moderate pace through the sky. As for its elevation in the sky, it was also above the horizon line but below Orion's Belt. The object was at first moving in a straight line and I thought it was some odd airplane that I had never seen before; one that only had on one bright light. About halfway through my sighting it began a very slow and gradual slope upwards, although kept to its general direction of movement. I started thinking to myself, that I have never witnessed quite such a light in the sky before; I have worked at two airport's in times past. I said to my self, "If it disappears suddenly, only then do I know I have never seen anything like this before." About 15 seconds after completing that thought, the objects light started to pulsate slightly and dim until it just vanished in the middle of the sky. The time from which it began to dim/pulsate to when it vanished was about 10 seconds. The entire duration from when I first noticed the object till it vanished was about one min 45 seconds. I find it odd that the object never made a sound as it seemed to come closer to us. The entire event was eerily silent. Once the object vanished I knew I was looking at something I had never seen before in person and it is my interpretation that the ball of light was a UFO.

July 12, 2012 · 10:50 PM · DIAMOND