Sphere over Vancouver, WA

The report, as filed

I was doing a late night stroll on 8/14/16. I noticed off to my left an orange/red ball of light in the sky. It was well above the tree and house lines on the opposite side of the street and there was nothing to obstruct my view. It was 1:56am and I was looking in southern direction. Towards Portland, Oregon, from Vancouver, Washington. Right away, I noticed something different about the light. It was it's glow. It was like a light orange at the center and grew a bit darker moving from center to outer edges. Where it was more of a redish color. There was also a blinking, or some kind of flashing. It was rhythmic in sequence, but it was of the same color as the orb. The light did not illuminate any distinguishable features. The light was large. Imagine holding a match head at arms length, that's about how big it looked to me. I would roughly estimate it being 5 to 10 miles away. It was moving in a flat, arc like pattern. From the west to east, then finally heading south. After it was heading what looked like south, for about 3 seconds. It grew dim real fast then blinked out of existence. For a moment, I thought it might be a plane. Because of its flight pattern and the fact that the Portland airport lies just south west from where I saw it. Yet, there were no other light markers on it. No green and white flashing lights. No landing/takeoff lights or the tall tale pattern of said lights. This glowin, orange ball had no defining mark or any light source. At 1:57 I texted my friend to see if he was awake....nope. At 1:59 it re appeared. This time I had phone in hand and got some video. During it's second run. The light just appeared out of nowhere. It moved from east to west. Then quickly back in the easterly direction. Where it stopped in mid flight and mid air. It danced around a bit. It popped up, then down, then it jutted to the west and slowly moved back to its original spot. At this time, it looked as though it was moving south again. Because after a couple of seconds it dimmed in brightness rather fast, then blinked 2 or 3 times like before and gone! There was no chance of it being a helicopter. Like the plane, there were no external light markers. It moved to fast and too random for it to be a helicopter. Not to mention the whole orange glow as well as it appearing out of nowhere. I have also given thought to its departures. With the whole light dimming, then blinking out. No plane or helicopter could move so fast that you would loose sight of it. Especially one as bright as the ball I witnessed. It would take minutes for it to gradually fade from sgh. This ball went from a big, bright, glowing orb to nothing in 3 seconds.....two times did this. Unfortunately, like all lowlight/nighttime video, it came out not showing much. You can see what looks like a star, a white dwarf. The camera could not pick up its orange glow and without it, it was considerably smaller. Yet, it was much larger and brighter than the North Star. But the camera was having a hard time focusing on it. Something else I noticed, it was the difference in shape between what I saw with the naked eye and what the camera was able to detect. With the naked eye, the object (or shape of the glow if you will) was not necessarily round. It was more cylindrical, a shape more like a soda can. There was no source to the glow, nor did that glow cast anylight upon itself. That being said, any defining details like silhouette, shadows, outlines, etc; were not present. I have no explanation for the shape it had with what I just said. It just had one. Now, looking through the eye of a camera, you see a perfectly round object. It was bright white in color. Not pure white, but a few shades off. It also flickered like a star. I can't be sure what was causing the flicker. Sometimes it looked like something on the object was pulsating. Sometimes it looked like it could be distortion caused by heat or gasses in the atmosphere. I have described this sighting the best I could. I have mulled over it for a bit , let it sink into my brain, chewed on it for a while and analyzed it from every angle. I tend to believe nothing of what I hear and only half of what I see. I have tried to debunk the video the best I could. I have ruled out helicopters and any fixed wing aircraft. A drone of sorts is possible, but unlikely. I hope this information is helpful. Because I'm only a skeptic when it comes to finding the truth.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #129280). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.