WKBT La Crosse, WI-NewsChannel 8-Was That a UFO Over Monroe County?

Reported by Sara Kronenberg

Was That a UFO Over Monroe County?

If you saw an unknown, glowing object floating in the sky, you could assume it was a lot of things, including a UFO.

One Monroe County family says they still have no idea what they saw over their home last weekend, but they made sure they caught it on video so someone could figure it out.

"I have no idea. It could be a goverment thing, I don't know, it could be aliens. I have no idea," says Zach Rueckheim.

All Zach and his dad, Paul, knows is it was it was something weird.

"I always look out in the sky this way and all of a sudden I saw a light and it was like nothing I've ever seen before," Paul says.

"I didn't believe him at first so I came out and looked at it for a little bit then I went back in and got my camera," Zach says.

They spent nearly a half hour last Saturday night, watching the object floating not far from their farm outside of Sparta.

Changing colors between green and red, they can't explain what it was. But it wasn't just the changing colors that was weird, but how, as the Rueckheim's say, the object would appear and then just disappear.

Not ones to jump to conclusions, the Rueckheim's shot video for an answer. An answer one expert says might be pretty simple.

"I don't think it's a meteor," says Gordon Stewart, director of the UW-La Crosse Planetarium. "I don't think it's a comet. No comet I've ever seen behaves like that. I don't think it's a satellite because a satellite would move regular. I could suspect first by its behavior of being a weather balloon."

Although not as common as they used to be, Stewart says weather balloons would reflect light like this and can get very large in size.

But just in case, he too is looking into the glowing object.

"I always watch the sky, always watch the sky. When I come out to the barn there's no lights like the city so you can see tons of things," Paul says.

Even the things they can't explain.

NewsChannel 8 contacted the National Weather Service office in the Twin Cities. Their office launches weather balloons twice a day, at 6:00 am and 6:00 pm.

A representative says the object floating in the sky that was spotted Saturday evening in the skies near Sparta probably wasn't one of their balloons. They say their balloons would likely have already been on the ground.