Multiple people in Waukesha County called WTMJ reporters and the Waukesha Sheriff's Department, reporting unusual lights in the evening sky.
Could it have been something from another world, a UFO?
"Somebody saw something," said Waukesha County Sheriff's Captain Karen Ruff.
"I don't know if it was just a planet, the sky, the clouds, the stars or what it was. There was something out there.
"We do let our officers know, because it could be a plane or a helicopter in trouble. We do have them go out and look. Nobody saw anything, so we don't quite know what it was."
Well, some astronomers think they identified it as the comet Lulin, making a one-time journey near Earth.
Those of us that don't follow astronomy, however, wondered just what in X-Files was going on.
"The first call we got was from a woman from the Town of Ottawa," said Ruff.
"She called in at about 6:30 p.m., and she said she saw a red and blue light in the sky. It wasn't moving. She thought it could be a satellite, but just thought that she should just call it in and let us know what was going on.
"We got a second call a little after that, probably about a little after 7:15 p.m. A lady in Waukesha called and said that she saw it to the west, that it was standing still in the sky, numerous lights, appearing to be too large to be a planet. It wasn't moving. She didn't think it was an airplane or a helicopter.
That second call corresponded to what one caller told us.
"I looked in the sky and saw this bright light," said the caller.
"It was changing colors, so I knew it was not a star. It actually started changing shapes and stayed stationary. It was not an airplane, and it was not a helicopter.
"It had red and gold, it had blue and green. I don't know what the heck it is. I did see color changes. You did see red at the bottom. Then there would be a red spot at the top, then there would be a blue light at the left, and almost like a tail that gave shape to it."
Another caller into WTMJ gave us this description.
"I saw this white light above the horizon in the city of Waukesha, and it had green and red lights circulating around it," said the caller.
"It was moving. It was really low to the ground, and it was moving slow. It didn't look like a helicopter, and it wasn't making any noise.
"We saw two of the exact same thing, at the same height, looking the same colors, and the one went towards the other one and disappeared. We were watching it and, all of a sudden, couldn't see it anymore.
"When I was standing on my back porch, it looked like it had an aura around it."
That's because comets typically do have auras as they travel.
The Chicago Tribune reported that the comet was as close as 38 million miles away from Earth, and that close approach to Earth caused the light show.
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