I was taking a smoke break from typing in a Robert Locke article, just before midnight central time tonight. Standing on my back porch, I noticed an usually bright light low on the horizon, partly obscured by a tree.
I thought "Is that the moon?" No. A planet perhaps?
As I smoked, it wiggled a little bit. A bit more than a twinkling star appears to.
Soon it became clear that it was approaching directly towards me. As the angle increased, I at first thought it was moving very fast. I became able to resolve red and blue navigational lights within the brighter white light, so it was clearly a terrestrial aircraft.
But it was very quiet. I could hear no engine noise.
Before long, as the angle between its line of flight and my sight grew, and there was enough parallax to judge distance a little bit, it became obvious that it wasn't moving fast at all. It was very low.
The thing passed right over my house, couldn't have been much higher than the electrical towers nearby, which are close enough that I can hear their sizzle and hum in the wee hours. It occluded perhaps two handspans of the sky at arms length, so it wasn't tiny, and had a profile unlike anything I've seen before. From below it looked kinda like a manta ray.
The spookiest thing was how quiet it was, and the character of the sound. It wasn't any louder than the directionless background noise from the interstate about two miles away. Kind of a low hollow sound, of understated power -- I kid you not, a lot like how hovering UFOs sound in some sci-fi flicks.
So I scratch my head, finish my cigarette. Start another cig to ponder things.
Another odd bright light appears on the horizon, from almost the same direction.
I run in to grab a camera. But alas I'm no photographer, and the thing didn't get as close. Closest approach was more from the side, occluding about the width of my thumb. All I got was a few meaningless pixels.
Anyone have an idea what the hell this was? Why the hell are they flying over the Chicago burbs?