“On Sunday night, Oct. 9 about 11:30 p.m. I was sitting on my front porch off Carmel between Fourth and Fifth streets. While on the phone with a friend, I saw in the sky a reddish glowing sphere. It looked like a balloon with a candle attached. This object was really odd and got me wondering what can this be? The object in question then began to get closer and become more clear. It was a quiet night and I didn’t hear any noise coming from the object. It was about 300 to 400 feet in the sky. I ran inside to get my mom and dad to check it out. My dad thought it was weird looking too. And as soon as we watched it for a few more moments, the object started to lift further into the sky and it started to ‘sail’ southeast still glowing red. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Just wanted to get a response. Did anyone else in Gilroy see this? Please advise.”
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Red Phone: Dear  The Truth Is Out There, Sounds interesting. Since we haven’t heard of any UFOs that landed in the area recently, we posed your question to several astronomers in the Bay Area. From your description, the consensus was that it could be a small balloon or Chinese lantern that are sometimes released at weddings or parties. The sky lanterns use a small candle or another type of fuel to heat the canvas. The lanterns don’t usually float that far because they depend on the flame to stay lit to provide the lifting power. For more on Chinese lanterns and balloons see www.ufo-blog.com/ifos/ufo_balloons/ifo_ufo_balloons.htm.Â
Readers, did you hear of anything like this being released at a party or did you see anything flying overhead? If so, we would love to hear about it.
