I’m not sure how to phrase everything I feel that I need to say. I recorded this on the evening of the seventh. It was taken in a very rural area of Northern Louisiana, between Bonita and Mer Rouge. It was late evening, around six o’clock. I was returning home from a family trip out of state. It was just me and my dog in the vehicle. I was listening to a podcast and noticed that the stars were coming out. A storm front recently pushed through and it was cool, crisp, and clear. I was pretty excited when I saw the first one because these conditions are not normal in Louisiana and I was driving in a particularly remote spot with little light pollution. I was hoping that when it got really dark I might pull over for a break to look at the stars. I’m originally from Colorado and miss the sky there.
The star that I first noticed was noticably blurry. Like a star peeking through a cloud or moisture on my windshield. I didn’t really think about it, I just noticed that it was bright. After about ten minutes I saw that it was much lower and more center in my windshield. It was still blurry and it kinda had my attention now. I thought it might be a plane or something.
Not long after, I noticed it had a smoke trail or something behind it. I briefly thought it might be some sort of crazy long burning space debris or something. Then I noticed a nearly perfect elliptical smoke or vapor ring right to the left of the light. I also noticed that it was growing. Until this point, it appeared to be a pinpoint of light behind something hazy. I decided to pull over because this was unusual.
Even though I tried to quickly pull over, it was changing fast. I rushed to get a little video. I’m very, very aware that this video meets the stereotype of shakey and terrible recordings, but I was rushed and didn’t think I was looking at anything strange until it was strange. By the time I was able to get out of the vehicle, the ring was almost imperceptible. If you pause the video at the 0 second mark you can just make out the remnants of the ring to the left.
From here you can see that the orb starts to expand (this is shortly after the ring appeared and disappeared) and continues to glow as it silently drifts to the left.
Everyone I’ve shown this to says “Alien!”, and while I wish it were true, I don’t believe it was. I’ve just been wracking my brain for the last several days trying to come up with a reasonable explanation. I don’t think the conditions were right for ball lightning, and I’m sure it’s not a drone. It didn’t make a sound and I first noticed it almost ten minutes earlier.
The only thing that I can come up with which doesn’t seem very plausible to me is that it could have been some sort of weather monitoring apparatus that popped (the ring?) and fell down while the smoke drifted away. I still don’t know why the smoke/fog stayed lit up because the sun was well below the horizon. This object was not very high in the atmosphere. I would estimate it was a few thousand feet away and probably a thousand feet or less high. I know that estimating distances and heights for things in the atmosphere is notoriously difficult, and as a drone pilot I experience this all the time. I’m just doing the best that I can to provide as many details as I can.
I’m hoping someone can figure this out!
submitted by /u/Skillet007
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