I Saw a Huge Orange Ball of light this am Okeechobee Fl 10/15

It was around 3:30 this morning when I was heading east on rt. 70 in Okeechobee  Fla. I was basically between the Kissimmee River bridge and the town.  To my Left and Right are cow pastures as far as you can see. There is one radio tower with the usual red light at the top, but it was still a couple miles east of me or ahead of me.

I was driving along minding my own busy and enjoying how it was a nice clear night and a bit cooler when out of the corner of my eye to the left of me, or the north, I saw this huge orange light. Perspective wise I would call it a dinner plate if not a bit larger.  I drive this road every night and have done so for over two years. There is no light like this in this area and if there were to be one it would be stuck in the middle of the cow pasture.

So for a good minute and a half between going wtf is that to myself and thinking I should pull over I watch it as much as possible while watching the road too. The more I watched the more I got goosebumps. I was also a bit nervous about pulling over for some reason.

I did pull over because I wanted a picture of it even though all I had was my crummy iPhone. Figured Id try anyway. While fumbling with it I notice that whatever it was, began to slowly start turning to the east. I also noticed it seemed to have a small after burner effect in the rear. It seemed to be moving to slow to be a rocket, it was silent, the curve was very gentle, and it didn't seem to be leaving behind any kind of contrail. Way to slow for a shooting star.

 I tried to take pictures, but I couldn't get the flash to turn off in my excitement. So all I got was gray photos. I was torn between keeping my eye on it and taking the pictures trying to get the flash off that I gave up on that. By this time it had almost  a direct east heading. The moon was very low on the horizon, basically had just begun to rise. It disappeared for a moment, but then reappeared, seemed to use the afterburning effect again then disappeared for good. All in all this lasted for a good 5-6 minutes.

I have no idea what the craft or whatever it was actually looked like. It pretty much just remained a very large orange ball of light. Except for when the afterburning effect was occurring. It wasn't enough to illuminate the craft itself though. While I don't think it was alien by any means, It is still a ufo too me. I also called the police to ask if anyone else had reported the light, no one else had as of yet, but I called them maybe 10 minutes after the occurrence.

I don't know how far it had come from the north by the time I saw it, and it is so dark out there, judging distance is tough. It did seem to maintain a level flight. It never climbed.

I haven't looked up the ISS yet to see if it was possibly it,  came here first to post this. While I have seen the ISS fly over and appear to be very low, I have never known it to bank like that or use a afterburner.

So, if you have any friends in central Florida that mentions something about this, or know of anything else that may have been going on, Id love to know. Thanks

The official line:

That was no alien. The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.

No, I wouldn't buy it either.

a reply to: onehuman

I have seen them too..

"Orange glow". "Afterburner effect". Not saying it was actually a Raptor, but many military jets display this effect.

Start around 4:30.

a reply to: DAVID64


Two things about that. Seems I would have heard that since I was pulled over, and it was moving way to slow to be a jet of that nature. I never saw any of the running lights either. All I saw was a huge solid orange ball of light. Granted it did head straight at me, but when it banked I got more of a side view, but still just the huge orange ball now with a afterburner look. Even that was rather small.

I also checked on the ISS, wasn't that either. That would have come from the southwest, but it wasn't even near my area

a reply to: onehuman

I've seen things myself I couldn't [ and still can't ] find a reasonable explanation for, I'm just trying to help eliminate the obvious first.

a reply to: onehuman

Did it look anything like this sighting from November 2016?

okeechobeenews.net...

a reply to: DAVID64
Oh I understand, trust me. I wish I had a better sense of the elevation. It appeared to be pretty low. Like a chopper would fly. Then again I did a post awhile back when the ISS did fly over and that appeared to be really low to me also because it was just so bright and I could see regular planes above it in their normal flight paths. I felt silly but it was just really hard to wrap my head around from the appearance and what it actually was. I've seen it other times and it is much smaller and way up there. So I'm not even going to venture a guess on altitude.

It was pretty much like the size of the full moon when it is directly overhead if that helps. So pretty big I guess, depending on how high it reallly was. Even the flame was really red orange, but almost cartoon like. 🚀, but round except for the flame. Lol guess you had to see it!

At least the police lady on the phone didn't laugh too hard at me. Thanks for trying though, I do appreciate that

a reply to: Deetermined

Yes thanks, that looks a lot like what I saw. On the other hand I have just come to find out that there was a Atlas V launch from the cape this morning at the same time I was seeing what I saw. Now the only thing that puzzles me is I know those launches usually go out over the ocean and head south east.

I'm more inland likedown the middle of the state. When I spotted it it was coming from due north. Makes sense the cape is north east of me. What I saw made a definite bank to the east. The launch should have headed out east over the ocean with a southeast direction. Seems to it the launch would have been a lot more to my east when I spotted it.

Probably was what I saw though, so at least I'm not crazy!and bonus, it was a secret spy launch! Link to the Atlas V launch:

LINK TO LAUNCH

a reply to: onehuman

Good job researching what it was you probably saw!

Maybe you didn't get any pictures but it looks like someone else did.

a reply to: Arbitrageur
Lol yes I'm sticking with this even though I still have a couple questions! It will be much easier to get through the rest of the day now! I'm just glad I have an actual answer to show my friends I wasn't nuts!

Did you say Florida? Had to be swamp gas, then...

originally posted by: Nickn3
The official line:

That was no alien. The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.

No, I wouldn't buy it either.

Well, there are other explanations other than "alien", as the OP is discovering.

Who knows, maybe it was really an alien craft, but there is no reason to close one's mind and ignore other earthly explanations and go straight to aliens.

a reply to: onehuman

How fast was it? I think I saw it in Idaho. It was a streak looked like it was a meteor almost but it wasn’t in my mind. Hoping someone can validate it was out last night.

Witnessing a UFO sometimes has a strange aftermath attached to it. MIBs, paranormal repercussion, strange phone calls, and even religious ramifications.

Keep us informed....

Sun rise?
a reply to: onehuman

a reply to: onehuman

I saw a launch about that time from KSC. Big rocket of some sort.

originally posted by: DAVID64
"Orange glow". "Afterburner effect". Not saying it was actually a Raptor, but many military jets display this effect.

Start around 4:30.

The object was huge and the size of a dinner plate at arms length. Not an airplane.