On September 19th 2002 at 7:31 p.m I took these pictures (below). I had 4 witnesses, and there was no sound. We where standing in a parking lot in Topanga Canyon, CA when we suddenly saw a glowing ball flying up in the sky (you can see the ball in the first image on the top). The ball disappeared in no time, but the traces (clouds) stayed for at least half an hour, ever changing...some people said it might be a rocket launched, others said it is a UFO (I guess they where readers of the book "UFO's Over Topanga").

The ball disappeared so fast that I do not think it was a rocket...I witnessed a similar thing years before, too bad i had no cam with me then...First I saw a bright halo with rainbow colors and out of this halo a glowing object disappeared into space...We were discussing the sighting for the longest time, but we were (of course) not able to come to a conclusion...

--Thomas Breiter

Update: Several people wrote in to identify this image as the launch of the Minuteman III missile from Vandenburg AFB. Click here for documentation.