Cone over Rohnert Park, CA

The report, as filed

At 6:01 in the evening as we were starting our nightly walk with the dogs we noticed a very bright light, shaped like a funnel so that it had the appearance of a searchlight. So much so in fact, that we thought it was a helicopter. We quickly realized that it was something much different. The light was a bright white flame and there was smoke swirling around this flaming cone of light. No sound, spooky. I started to focus my phone camera and saw that at the front, leading the white flame was a dark cone shape. The shape was visible for seconds while we were at an angle to see what looked like the flaming bottom of a large cone shape. As it continue noiselessly across the night sky the flame disappeared from view and except for a few wisps of smoke the sky seemed to revert to its normal inky beauty. The streetlights made it hard to follow but we did pick up a faint outline of a cone moving up and away from us at what seemed to be a 90• angle to the horizon. The general consensus among our group was that we saw a rocket fly overhead. Still not sure what it was. U. S. Navy missile launch. PD

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #123586). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.