Drawing of Illinois Sighting

Image Courtesy of Todd ©

Sunday, Jan. 2, 2000
Rockford Register Star
Long before the fireworks New Year's Eve, folks in the Rock River Valley got a different kind of light show.
Mysterious orange and red lights were reported over the skies of Rockford and surrounding communities before the clock turned to midnight Friday. Another eyewitness says he saw a comet about three hours later. Theories on what might explain the unusual sightings range from errant fireworks to a meteor shower to extraterrestrial visitors.

Officials at Rockford police headquarters, the Greater Rockford Airport and the National Weather Service are unable to provide a concrete explanation. One eyewitness would prefer to think she misunderstood something in the night sky. But knowing that others saw something, too, she said:  "Now that's scary."

"By SCOTT WILLIAMS & GEORGETTE BRAUN"
Rockford Register Star
Sunday, Jan. 2, 2000
ROCKFORD - To George Steven's, a 57-year-old state health worker, it looked like a bright orange light cruising silently over the Rock River. Alice Veroni, a 34-year-old news paper carrier, said it looked more like a barrage of missiles from a foreign country-or planet. Glowing objects seen in the skies over Rockford as residents celebrated the new millennium New Year's Eve have left experts baffled-and eyewitnesses unnerved.

Bethany Akre, a 20-year-old waitress, said she was more comfortable when she thought her eyes had played a trick on her. "Now it's scary, knowing that someone else saw it," she said Saturday. The unusual sightings were reported Friday night by several spectators at Rockford's downtown New Year's Eve celebration. Accounts continued surfacing Saturday from outlying areas as well.

Most described reddish-orange lights moving across the sky about 10 or 11p.m. - before most fireworks demonstrations began. Veroni, who was celebrating on main street north of downtown Rockford, was startled enough to stop at a gas station and dial 9-1-1. She said she feared a Y2K computer foul-up had launched missiles at the United States. "It was either missiles,or- man, I'm telling you-spaceships," she said. "It was like nothing I've ever seen."

Police were skeptical about the reports, and officials at Greater Rockford Airport said they hadn't seen anything unusual in the night sky. Ann McCarthy, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service near Chicago, said the weather agency likewise had no explanation for any strange lights in the sky over the Rockford area. "We're at a loss," McCarthy said, "other than the normal things, like fireworks or maybe a meteor shower."

As far away as Pecatonica in western Winnabago County, residents offered similar stories about strange things in the sky. Ron McFarland, a 31-year-old Loves Park volunteer firefighter, said he doesn't believe it was a supernatural phenomenon. But he agreed the bright orange lights were quite unusual. "It wasn't any kind of fireworks or anything," he said. "It was solid orange." Peter Gagliano, 61, a businessman in Rockford, offered a somewhat different account. Gagliano said he watched a bright white comet streak across the sky over his home about 3 a.m. Saturday. Gagliano said he's convinced it was a comet, and he was stunned at how close it appeared to pass near earth.

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