One crisp evening in Ames, Iowa, the sky unfolded a spectacle that felt both eerie and awe-inspiring—a brilliant white orb, perfectly circular, hovered silently against the eastern horizon. Its glow was unmatched by any star or planet, casting an otherworldly aura that seemed thick with anticipation. For those of us watching, time slowed; the orb moved at a languid pace, sometimes holding still as if contemplating the earth below.
Capturing it on a digital camera revealed a hidden secret: a strobe of colors flickered—red, green, white, blue—painting a spectrum unseen by the naked eye. This silent sentinel eventually ceased all motion, floating in eerie stillness for several minutes, before a falling star traced its fleeting path and, as if summoned by some cosmic conductor, two more distant objects emerged.
These newcomers, performing their silent ballet, displayed the same chromatic sweep, their lights interweaving to form a perfect triangle with the original orb. It was an elaborate celestial light show—a choreography that felt deliberate and breathtaking. Nearby, a jet aircraft drifted southeast, its blinking white, red, and blue lights grounding the scene in our earthly reality.
Witnessed by three young adults that night, this encounter didn’t merely feel like a glimpse of the unknown—it was a haunting reminder of the mysteries that hover just beyond the threshold of our understanding, inviting us to look up and wonder what secrets the night sky keeps.