Eyes to the Skies

It started out as a typical Wednesday morning. I was doing my chores in the lab when I discovered I needed to replenish the raspberry plants within the stick insects' enclosures. I headed over to the Heritage Farm to cut some raspberries on this crisp morn. After gathering a nice haul, I started to head back to the lab when I glimpsed something amiss in the sky. There, to the north, over the open fields, I saw a large black line. It was a solid object, there was no doubt in that. It was just incredibly thin. It was nothing I could identify, as it drifted within two miles of my location, occasionally curving in on itself. A hot air balloon was nearby, as well, and some commercial aircraft flew by, too. It was so hard to decipher size or distance, even moreso, as it drifted further away, toward the NNW. Panicked, not wanting to be the only one witnessing this, I was relieved to hear rustling behind me. It was one of the Heritage Farm gardeners, Paula. I called her over, saying, "Hey, check this out!" and she sluggishly came, expecting me to point out some odd bug or something. I pointed at the line and asked her what she thought it was, and she was just as baffled as I. She made a few calls, and eventually about 6 of us converged on the farm, including the curator. I also called Ralph, the curator of arthropods and my boss, and Megan, who swung by as quickly as she could.

We watched it drift away, getting smaller, joking that maybe it was just being pulled back into its original dimension. While watching it, it also changed from black to silver at times, probably reflecting sunlight as it moved. There were absolutely no defining details other than a line...no basket, no bumps or nodules, but it was certain that this was a solid object, easily longer than a hot air balloon is tall. All I could think of was that it may be some sort of experiment from Kirtland Air Force Base, but who really knows! The cool thing was how, for the entire day, I could bump into any other employee around the Bio Park and vaguely say, "Did you see it?" and they ALL knew what I was talking about and DID see it. No one had any idea what it could be, though. We were certain it had to have been spotted by more people, but were baffled how it wasn't mentioned anywhere (despite the UFO sighting in NY being on the news that same night...HELLO, this is LOCAL!!). So I made some calls and emails, to no avail. Talk about some major weirdness, though! I'm so glad I was lucky enough to see it - and for 50 minutes, no less!! What an extraordinary experience.