Sphere over Pavo, FL

The report, as filed

Myself and six friends went out to a favorite stargazing spot at the top of the hill right up the road from where I grew up to watch the Perseid meteors. We arrived right before midnight and planned to stay through the peak of the shower at 3am, then go out to eat at Waffle House afterwards. Two of my friends brought up ufos and were telling stories they had read about, and one of them suddenly went, “Woah, there’s an orb right there!” And of course I thought he was just messing around, but we all looked where he pointed anyway and there was a luminous orange orb. This was at approximately 2am, possibly a few minutes after. It appeared to be hovering over the field across the road from us. In the middle of that field is a strip of trees, it appeared to be right above the trees. If it was as close as it looked, it would have to have been about the size of a small suv. We turned just in time to see it, see it turn white, and see it disappear. Just a few minutes later it reappeared, moved slowly and laterally back and forth, then quickly arced up and disappeared. About 20 minutes later it reappeared on the other side of the road (the side we were parked on) over the wood line farther away and at a higher altitude. It moved back and forth laterally, almost like it was scanning. It disappeared and reappeared several times continuing the scanning motion when it would reappear. At least once we all observed it rotate; it was as if on side was illuminated and one was not, but it didn’t produce a beam of light. We saw the object multiple times for approximately an hour. I packed up our belongings when it reappeared on our side of the road so that we could leave quickly if needed. By 3am we were thoroughly freaked out and decided to get out of there, so we don’t know how long the object actually stayed in the area. When I told my partner and a couple of other friends about the encounter, they asked if we had pictures or a video, and I realized none of us had even tried to take a picture. I had even had my big camera set up on a tripod to take long exposures of the meteors. I realized I hadn’t /wanted/ to take a picture of it. I texted the group of friends I had been with and asked how they felt about that. It is highly unusual behavior that we wouldn’t have at least tried. We had been taking photos all night. We’re a friend group that is always taking pictures of our get togethers. All but one of the others in our group said the thought hadn’t even crossed their minds, and that was extremely strange. One person responded that he hadn’t wanted to share it with us, but he had taken a picture, and as soon as he took it he felt a huge spike of anxiety and nausea, followed by extreme fatigue. As mentioned previously, we were supposed to have an early breakfast at Waffle House after the meteor shower, but the friend that took the picture was so fatigued on the drive back to town that it frightened his passengers and they decided to just go home. The picture isn’t very remarkable, but it is attached to this report.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #177597). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.