Fireball over Yakima, WA

The report, as filed

The first page of this report was submitted on 02/12/18 but I have been observing the lights for an additional two weeks now so I kept notes with the original statement and am now submitting notes on the entire 14 nights of observation. Please, if possible, do respond to me as offered in the Center's voice message, these appearances are growing disturbingly unsettling and no one else can offer any advice or explanation. Last night, Feb. 12, 2018, I was watching television in the back room at about 7 p.m. When through the window I noticed an unusually bright star in an unfamiliar area of the sky. As I watched, the star seemed to move back and forth quickly and repeatedly. My curiosity was aroused, so I went out to the front porch and turning off the porch light, stood looking at the unusual star. In the full darkness (we live in a rural area) I could also see that the star was giving off faint alternating red, yellow and green glows. It would remain steady for a time and then suddenly, with no warning, shoot rapidly off to one side then without visibly stopping, shoot rapidly back in the direction from which it came. It did not turn around, it simply reversed direction midflight. And it was very fast, like a ball hit by a bat! My curiosity grew and I got a pair of binoculars to get a better look as the star was, of course, distant. Although it was very dark, with the binoculars I could see that the glow I was glimpsing was comprised of a double row of lights which appeared to encircle what I was beginning to suspect was an aircraft of some type. I went in and called the Sheriff's Dept. and reported the sighting and asked if anyone else had reported seeing the object. The dispatcher said they had received no other calls but suggested I contact the Military Training Center located near my home. I called them and was told that they weren't doing any aerial maneuvers that night and no one had mentioned seeing the unusual light in the sky. It was shift change and I was not able to get anyone to go out and look into the sky to see if they could see it. (I called again later and the person I spoke with just advised me to call local authorities as the light wasn't appearing over the base, so was outside their jurisdiction.) I continued watching the light until 11:00 p.m. During this time it became much more active, shooting rapidly from a motionless position sometimes straight up, sometimes horizontally, then, without pausing at all, reversing direction and returning to its original position. It never appeared to turn, it simply reversed itself on its existing plane without slowing, one moment it was going east and then suddenly it was going west! Eventually the light began traveling in a wide arc around my house, passing over the town of Selah and disappearing behind the leafless branches of the trees in my back yard. As it made these passes it seemed to come much closer, with the binoculars I could make out a faint gray shape, somewhat like a clamshell form with lights circling the middle. It didn't come close enough to see clearly even with the binoculars because it was very dark and I could only see the vague shape due to the illumination from encircling lights it carried. Over the four hours that I observed it, I didn't watch it constantly, just kept checking every few minutes to see where it was and what it was doing as it had begun to make me nervous, it performed many odd maneuvers. A few times it would dart back and forth in an “invisible” perimeter, similar to a “superball” slamming wildly about in every direction inside a translucent globe. Other times it would unexpectedly shoot straight up until it disappeared and then suddenly reappear in the distance exactly retracing its upward path on its return. Sometimes it would suddenly disappear, like turning off a light bulb, then reappear somewhere else in the sky, usually at a distance but unmistakable because of its shape and colors. Once or twice two other smaller lights appeared and darted around the original for a few minutes and then disappeared. The smaller lights moved just as quickly and deftly as the larger but didn't give off any colors apart from their “starlight” glow. As the h! ours passed the original light seemed to grow larger and more vivid. By the time I went to bed at 11:00 p.m., It was much easier to make out without binoculars, looking like a tiny burst of fireworks high in the distant sky. When I first spotted the light I called my sister-in-law and her husband outside to view it as well, they saw it and commented on how odd it was, how quickly it moved and we all wondered what it was. I also called a neighbor to see if she had a phone which could snap pictures or take video of this light. I walked over to her house and pointed it out to her, she commented that she had seen odd lights once or twice before in the area. She tried to film it but her phone wasn't capable of capturing a viable image, in the distance it just looked like a star and she didn't have video capability. 02/13/18 –-The light is again in the night sky in relatively the same spot it was “based” last night. It moves around but always seems to return to the same spot. At first it appears to just be a very bright star, one among many in the sky just brighter and slightly larger than the others. But after a few seconds observation it begins to move, always returning to its original position in the sky. It is very high, far above the flight path of passing airplanes and MUCH faster than the planes. With binoculars you can see that it gives off an alternating red and green glow, sometimes the glow is barely visible without binoculars. It is cloudy tonight but the light and some stars are still visible although at times they are partially obscured by the clouds but the bright moving light is visible as a glow even when obscured by clouds. The light blinks off and on at times as well as occasionally giving off the alternating red and green glow. 02/14/18 – Light again in the sky tonight, neither as bright nor as active as the past two nights but still moves around, then returns to “base” and remains immobile for 5-20 seconds then begins to move again. At 7:14 p.m. it suddenly erupted into a miniature “fireworks” display for about 30 seconds – a burst of cascading colors which in the distance appears to be about the size of a pencil eraser. Again tonight I checked on it sporadically for hours and it is always there. 02/15/18 – Very overcast tonight, can’t even see the moon much less stars or the strange light. 02/16/18 – The object is again in the sky in its usual spot, as each time before it is motionless until I watch it for a few seconds, then it begins to move. Honestly this is beginning to disturb me, it is almost as if it remains motionless until it becomes aware of me either inside at the unlit window or on the back porch. Does it remain motionless when not being observed? If so, how does it detect observation from such a distance? I wish I could film it to see if it only moves when being observed. I have wondered if it is an illusion, but I asked Mark and Karen to come to look as well again tonight and both of them remarked on how quickly and obviously it moved and how agile it appears to be. They are not small movements, it goes both short and long distances but always eventually returns to its “base”. It is very obviously not a plane. We are near an airport and planes pass by fairly regularly, the light is far above them, moves much faster, can stop completely an! d remain still and performs maneuvers that a plane could never do and I suspect neither could a helicopter. What is this thing?? 02/17/18 – The light is not as active tonight as usual, also it has moved its “base” slightly to the west. I have tried looking for it during the day but it only seems to be visible after dark. I have gotten up at odd hours, midnight, 3:00 a.m. and 5 a.m. and since it is still da

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #138983). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.