OR: UFO sighting from Houge Park.

Last night I saw something both unbelievable and exciting from Houge Park.

Sometime around 10 pm, I was looking through my 10" f/5.7 Dob, pointing
it toward the southwest, when four glowing objects entered the
eyepiece. I was using a 20mm Nagler, so this was at about 72X. I don't
recall what target I was looking for, because what I saw totally
distracted me from it. Heading in a SW to NE direction, fast enough to
make hand tracking difficult, I witnessed the four objects, not in a
line (at first), that were dull red-orange in color, elongated maybe
6x1, flattened on one side (the lower side in my inverted view), and
with a somewhat bell shaped other side. I got very excited, and stated
telling people what I was seeing. I quickly looked up into the 9x63
erect image finder, to see if they were visible there too, which they
were. They were moving into a linear formation. One of my guests at
Houge is a fellow named Ronald Prasad, who was standing next to me. I
instructed him to look in the finder while I continued trying to track
the targets in the eyepieces. Ronald too was astonished at what he was
seeing (how's this for a first time looking through a telescope!). Rich
Neuschaefer was nearby also, and I'm sure heard the commotion we were
making.

Eventually, after these glowing objects crossed the meridian, I was
unable to track them any further, and lost them.

What do I think they were? UFOs. I don't think they are from outer
space, but I have never seen anything like this in the years I've been
observing. I have witnessed some unusual sights before, most notably
the satellites know as the NOSS Trio, which also looked to be UFOs
moving in an obvious triangular formation... although quite dim. I'd
seen those from Fremont Peak, and later places like Mt. Lassen. Other
weird targets were known satellites - the Tether, Disco Ball, etc.

This one last night took the cake. No explanation. Maybe someone here
as some ideas.

Other than that excitement, the night was a very normal Houge Star
Party. Seeing was pretty soft for a lot of the night, changing to
acceptable, and occasionally good. Looked at the moon, Mars, Saturn,
M57, M4, M13, Alberio, Blinking Planetary, Double Double.....

Now that I think about it, I must have been looking for M80 when the UFO
incident occurred. What a sight! If I were to estimate length, each of
the four objects would be approx 6' long. Their color was also obvious
in the finder.

Off to Lick tonight....

Clear skies!

Mark

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