Light over Kingsport, TN

The report, as filed

I was at my home of which is located out in the country within the rolling hills of East Tennessee; it is worth mentioning that we have good views of the sky from our home. I had been shoveling snow out in the driveway and also along the front walk of our house; the sun had set and so I decided that it was time to call it quits and go inside for the evening. I had been looking down at the ground while I was performing the work, but upon stopping the work I lifted my head and turned towards the house so as to begin making my way back towards the front step. As I took a couple steps towards the house, I immediately realized that the brighter planets and stars had become visible in the evening sky, and so I paused so as to take in the view of the evening sky and enjoy the moment; that is when something else caught my attention. As I was looking towards the western sky I saw what I thought at first to be an extremely bright planet or star visible in the sky; it appeared from behind a low hanging cloud. Now there were a several clouds that were hanging low in the sky but beyond the scattered clouds was a crystal clear winter sky. When I first noticed the object it appeared to be moving and so I immediately began to assess whether it was moving or if it was a stationary planetary object with the low hanging clouds moving across the sky instead; within a second or two it was obvious that the object was traveling west to east at a rather high rate of speed. It appeared to be traveling at an altitude that was consistent with the low hanging clouds or just above them due to the clouds would momentarily block my vision of it as it traveled across the sky towards the east. It was close enough that had I had my 10x50 power binoculars on my person I would have likely gotten a much better look at it and could have likely at least identified a particular shape if not much more detail; for instance, at the distance and altitude of which it appea! red to be I would have easily been able to clearly identify a ! typical aircraft if I had viewed it through my 10x50 binoculars. Upon almost immediately realizing that this could potentially be an interesting aerial anomaly I considered running to get my binoculars, but taking into consideration how fast it was traveling I realized that it would only be visible for a few seconds unless it slowed its pace and so I just decided to try view it best I could from my current vantage point. Its appearance was like that of a bright planet except; more like a light than an object. The color of the object (or light) appeared to me as the tone of yellow/light-orange (much similar to the appearance of afterburners from a conventional fighter jet and had it been only flying away from me then I would have considered this to be a reasonable consideration). The color of the object/light stayed consistent throughout the siting; it stayed a solid tone of yellow/light orange. When I notice this object it was located looking towards the western sky; I watched it closely as it traveled from west to east. It was traveling at a speed that in my opinion is consistent of a fighter jet traveling at least normal cruise. It was quiet out and I was intently listening to see if I could hear any sound coming from the object; I heard no noise coming from or produced by the object, I only heard a dog barking intermittently off in the distance. I am most certain that had this been a conventional aircraft I would have heard some sound associated with the object. There was absolutely no contrail or exhaust visible to me coming from this object. I would say that from my vantage point, when I first saw the object I would have been viewing what should be the side of the object and as it traveled across the sky I would have been looking at the rear of the object as it went away (off into the distance); this prevented me from considering the possibility that what I saw was any kind of landing or taxi lights of an aircraft. I am a former State Section Director for MUFON and so I try to always be on the look-out fo! r things that are out of the ordinary; this particular light or object I felt was worth a report, for it is not often that something appears this low in altitude and close enough that you should be able to hear sound emitted of which I cannot easily identify. If it was an aircraft, then I would certainly think that is was likely of the stealth due to the lack of sound emitted.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #117481). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.