Publisher’s Note: Received the following sighting report from Mike Amerson. Mike was kind enough to send us a photo he took as well as a drawings he made shortly after the sighting. Mike’s wife was also a witness to the sighting. Thanks. Dirk
By Mike Amerson
I came across your site (UFODIGEST) when I did a Google search for red orb UFOs.
My name is Mike Amerson, I live in Las Vegas.
2 nights ago my wife, myself and my step daughter (she is 28), were coming home from a day trip to Utah with our dogs.
Although it was a bit out of the way and we were all tired- I decided to take an opportunity to photograph the Las Vegas city scene- because I was on the opposite side of town from where I live and I Never, go over to that side of town for anything. North-East Las Vegas.
I spotted a good place to take an unobstructed photo of the city but the location wasn’t exactly ideal for a stop. there was no place along to park so I had to double back and head to a nearby residential neighborhood- close to the base of Frenchman mountain. I had parked, the neighborhood was quiet and no one was out. I stepped out of my car with camera in hand intending to walk west to get to that spot off the roadway where I could take a nice picture of the city.
I was facing East toward Frenchman mountain- and directly in front of me- at that exact moment, I large fiery, sphere began to rise up from near the base of the mountain. I watched in awe and called to my wife who was sitting in the passenger seat. I said “honey- do you see that?” in a calm tone- eluding that I’m seeing something odd- (but did not think it was a UFO at this point). I thought it was college kids who had lit fire to some kind o material- or it was one of those material balloons which rises up because it’s heated by fire. (like a Chinese lantern). I say college kids because the object was large- in my opinion, I think between about 8-15 feet diameter but I can’t be certain as it was exactly 3/4 a mile from where I was standing. The object itself appeared to glow- but not a bright glow- as it did not illuminate the mountain behind it – as would a fire. It was more self- illuminated and flickering on the inside like a fire. The general shape was spherical but not constant- or solid, but generally round in shape.
My wife was watching it too, It rose up fairly slowly (I think about 10-20 mph?) and then after just a couple seconds, another one appeared to rise up from the same location. (at the base of the mountain). All this activity was completely silent, I heard no people, (as you would expect if there were college kids present), no aircraft, and the neighborhood was pretty void of life. No one out.
The orbs rose up (about 100 – 150 feet apart. Then one the leading one- changed direction and started heading south (no longer rising upward). The lower one was still rising up to the leading one’s location.
at that point I realized these might be some kind of UFO. I started to get a bit excited and kept saying to my wife ” are you seeing this?” she confirmed.
The first orb- then vanished from my naked eye. after seeing it vanish- I realized I need to take a picture (all this took place in about 20 -seconds or so). So at that point I wanted to change my camera lens very quickly to my zoom lens so I could get a good photograph of the remaining one before it disappeared.
I managed to snap 1 picture about 4-5 seconds after I changed my lens and was able to get it in focus. It then went “dark”, became a solid grey orb, (as I continued to watch it head south through my camera). As I was tracking it in a new state- I was really excited because it just changed color and apparently material/composition too. I also began to notice a red light on the bottom, and it started rotating around the lower half of the dark grey orb, (if it weren’t for the red light doing this- I would not be able to see it track it- as it was blended in well with the night sky. It simply looked like a dark silhouette (so I say dark grey), I seen no reflection to indicate metal or anything else, but I did see the round dark silhouette and a red light- that made about 1 revolution per second around the lower half of the object. I tried to snap a picture while I was in this state- but my camera could not auto focus on the dark silhouette against the night sky, so when I depressed the camera button it would not take (newer model digital slr camera). but I continued to follow it- looking through my zoomed camera lens, until I could not longer track it at that zoom length, then I used my naked eyes, to continue to watch it- All I could see was the silhouette with my naked eyes and it was very difficult to see, but I tracked it as it headed south and appeared to descend below my line of site- which was obstructed by the residential homes in that area. I would estimate that it was about 8-10 miles away before I lost sight. It either descended, or it went very far- very fast in the south direction (which would give me the impression it descended).
My wife and step daughter witnessed the whole thing as well. This happened on April 21st, 2012. 8:55 pm.
I just wanted to share my story with you because I had no idea what a red orb UFO was. I believed in UFOs prior to this but always thought of them being metallic saucer like objects.
I’m attaching both the single photo I was able to take, along with a rendition of what occurred, I felt it was important to illustrate the event- before time passed and my brain would start to fill in missing pieces – thereby diluting it’s accuracy.- (using an image taken from the location using Google earth).
Although I’m a graphics artist by trade,- I assure you that the photo I took, was not manipulated in any way, (other than cropping out all the darkness in the original picture, which I can provide if needed..)
I went back there yesterday to hike up to that spot with my wife, I seen nothing of interest or evidence of anykind – (man or otherwise). I stayed till about the same time, to see if it would repeat. It didn’t.
I might try again next week as this is very interesting.
I’ve attached the coordinates on Google earth so you can see exactly where the occurred.
www.google.com/maps?q=36.175375
and where I was standing when I witnessed it.