Light over Morton Grove, IL

The report, as filed

I am professional firefighter, former Soldier, and amateur astronomer. I saw a bright red light in the Western sky. Approximately 275 degrees, 15 degrees elevation. Brighter than Venus. Laser red. Initially stationary, then suddenly accelerating to the South. This is exceptionally unusual, because it is opposite to the current direction of commercial air travel out of O'Hare Airport at this time. I confirmed that no plans were visible on Plane Finder software at the time. Color remained uniform after the change of Direction. No strobe. At about heading 225, the object disappeared. Object reappeared approximately 7 minutes later, and followed the same pattern. Again, definitely not a plane. Object was seen below the cloud cover, which was approximately 20000 ft. This was immediately following a storm weather event. Alternatively, it could have been a Hobby drone. But I ruled this out, because of the ambient light at this time of night is prohibitive to flying! an RC aircraft. Thank you for your time.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #158906). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.