Oval over Moundridge, KS

The report, as filed

while outside at 430 am, at 38°12′9″N 97°31′7″W (38.202497, −97.518506), looking westward and up with a moderately powered telescope at a star grouping, an oval shaped object came into field of view. This object was moving at a very fast rate and traveled the entire range of view from west to east in a matter of four seconds. The object moved many times faster than a jet airplane could travel. The oval object was dimly lit but visible, It appeared to be lit like a standard passenger vehicle would look if it were traveling a highway in the night without headlights on but had the interior dome light on. There was no light leading the object and there was no light trailing the object. The light appeared to be centered inside the object. I watched the object without losing sight of it in the telescope for about 4 seconds before it was out of view entirely. It traveled a linear path with no variation of its course. The object was lit up inside with a brightness only slightly less than that of the stars it passed by. I could not accurately define a specific color of the object because of the darkness surrounding, but I would compare what I saw to the color of a "meatball." Additionally, the object looked as if it had a bubble encapsulating it. A mostly clear but slightly hazy bubble that seemed to be filled with light smog came into view first, then what looked like the front half of a meatball, still encapsulated in a smokey bubble, than a clear spot with a slight dull shimmer and a soft light, then the back half of the smoky bubble, the edge of the bubble, and then nothing as it faded and I could no longer see the faint light. I would estimate the object was around 5 light years from Earth or slightly more.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #167591). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.