Circle over Richmondville, NY

The report, as filed

I’m a professional driver and pulled over to admire the beautiful, clear night sky of rural New York. As I’m gazing up at the stars I notice one moving from east to west. It was white and moving at the speed a passenger jet usually crosses the sky. It was far too high to be a plane however as one did happen to pass overhead later. As I’m watching this light traverse the sky a couple minutes later it approaches another star. It’s been traveling in a straight line and I expect it to just pass. However, as it nears the star, that star flares up and goes out. I’m not sure what I just saw and I continue to watch the light continue to traverse the sky. It shifts slightly to the southwest and continues on a straight path. It seems to be approaching another star and now I’m curious. Suddenly, that star literally takes off straight to the west at a high rate of speed and disappeared into the horizon. The other seemed to stop where that one had taken off from. I watched as it appeared to get smaller until it faded out, perhaps going farther from earth. I’ve seen these lights traverse straight across the sky before as well as seen them abruptly zig zag across the sky before zooming out of site in the literal blink of an eye, but never anything like this.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #141900). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.