text:  you get kind of a ring around it, and it's almost blinding, so your instinct is to take the night vision away from your eyes because it's so bright. Well, this amber ball of light that came off the desert floor, low enough that we couldn't see the exact spot where it came from, did just that. It powered up, if you will, and was so bright that I instinctively pulled the goggles away and then put them back on my eyes. It was a little bit more dim, and it got to about the same altitude as these helicopters.