UFO Description: A UFO sighting of one clustered UFO consisting of one luminescent blue, one luminescent white, and one luminescent red, more or less spherical orbs seen "drifting" in daylight blue sky.
Witness(es): Keith Rowell saw and videotaped the UFO.
Time and Date: About 2:45 to 2:55 PM PDT, September 24, 2006.
Duration: Total duration of sighting about 30 seconds.
Place: Front lawn of 2333 Appaloosa Way, West Linn, Oregon.
Weather: Sunshine, no clouds. Winds light: 0 to 10 mph.
Case Report: Appaloosa Way UFO Case Report (long download PDF). Investigated by Keith Rowell, Assistant State Director, Oregon MUFON.
Brief Narrative
Keith Rowell (the Assistant State Director of Oregon MUFON) walked out his front door on September 24, 2006, looked up and saw something interesting directly in front of his house about 45º or so up in the clear blue sky. He realized quickly after looking at it for a few seconds that it was somewhat unusual and interesting and immediately went back inside his house to get his camcorder. He came out, the object was still there, and he began videotaping the object at maximum zoomed in (highest optical magnification) extent. He ended up getting just six seconds of video before the battery went dead! Wouldn't you know it?!
The UFO looks like a cluster of party balloons, but behaved and looked enough different that it is classified as a true unknown beyond a reasonable doubt. (Not beyond a shadow of a doubt, however, but few UFOs reach that level of certainty.)
For all the gory details, including Keith's experiment with some real party balloons just for comparison, see the full Appaloosa Way UFO MUFON case report (long download PDF).
The following photos show the UFO from the videotape and set the scene.
A Still Frame from the UFO Video
This is a blow up showing the UFO in one of the clearest frames of the six seconds of videotape. In the frames, it also showed up as just a red and white orb and other shapes as it moved along to the left in the sky and tumbled around on itself. (This image is not manipulated in any way except for what capturing the video frames via iMovieHD does, which is minimal.)
Illustration of the UFO Movement (UFO not to scale)
From the front yard of 2333 Appaloosa, you can see the approximate position and path of the "drifting" and tumbling UFO. The UFO was gone the second time I came out of my house with my digital SLR and telephoto lens. The arrow shows a tree behind which the UFO might have disappeared. I walked up and down the street to look behind the tree and other trees, houses, etc., but it was gone. The UFO was actually higher up in the sky at initial viewing, I believe. The arrow and UFO in this photo are drawn in with a graphics program. See the top photo above for how the UFO actually looks in camcorder Digital 8 video.