Sphere over Phoenix, NY

The report, as filed

On Friday, July 3rd, 2015, at 9:20pm, as I was leaving the Nice-n-Easy parking lot in Phoenix, NY, I saw a stationary object in the southern sky above St. Stephen’s Church. I extended my left arm toward the object and raised my thumb as a reference for size. This object was the size of my thumbnail. I estimated it to be approximately eight hundred feet above the ground. I based this estimate on the objects location in relation to the peak of St Stevens Church below it, and the cumulus cloud cover behind it. I would describe this object as a ball of light. It was bright red, and twinkled orange to yellow at its core. I had determined at this point it was not an airplane, helicopter, drone, or fire work flare. It was stationary. There was no sound associated with the object. I drove out of the parking lot on to Culver Street and traveled west intending to cross the bridge to lock island. I continued to view the object. I slowed down in order to observe the object for three or four seconds at a glance. The object was now moving west parallel to my line of travel. It had matched my speed of fifteen miles an hour and was visible at sixty degrees to my left as I traveled South West. While I was on the bridge I again compared the object to the landscape and my thumb nail. The cumulus cloud cover remained a reliable reference in the background. It was now just above the trees located in the area of the old paper mill. I estimated the object to be approximately two hundred feet above the ground. Its size was still consistent with my thumbnail. I continued on Lamson Road and turned onto Pendegast Road. After traveling only a short distance, I pulled to the side of the road. The object was behind me. I stepped out of my truck. At this point the object passed very close to me, approximately fifteen degrees off my zenith. As the object moved in front of me I began to record it on my cell phone. It was now in front of me traveling in a Northwest direction. The object climbed steadily and maintained a trajectory of approximately sixty degrees above the horizon. The length of my recording was forty-one seconds. The time stamp of the recording was 20150707_213513. I estimate the entire event lasted approximately fifteen minutes. If you have questions please contact me I would be happy to talk with you.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #120097). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.