OWATONNA — Whatever it was that Doug Hughes saw flying over Owatonna on Sunday evening, one thing he knew for sure — it wasn’t a helicopter like his grandson believed. Nor was it a plane or a hot air balloon.

In fact, Hughes has yet to know what to make of the unidentified object. Luckily, Hughes had his camera with him as he and his grandson were at Lake Kohlmier fishing and taking pictures of the sunset. About 8:30 p.m. Hughes’ grandson exclaimed that a helicopter was coming their way, so Hughes got his camera ready to take a few frames. He quickly realized though that what he was taking pictures of was certainly not a helicopter nor any other object he’d ever seen before.

“It was a square, dark gray object that tapered big to small from the top to the bottom and it was about the size of a hot air balloon, but there was no basket underneath for people to be in it. There was an opening at the bottom where a flame came out though,” Hughes described Wednesday afternoon. “It was about 1,000 feet off the ground and I’d say it was traveling about 100 mph, and there was no noise coming from it.”

Hughes estimated he had less than a minute to take the few photos he was able to, as the object suddenly took a 90-degree angle turn and headed east after traveling south over the freeway. An aviation enthusiast, Hughes was curious about what the object could be so he sent his photos to Owatonna Airport manager Dave Beaver.

“Being in aviation, I’ve been to fly-ins and air shows and seen a lot of different aircraft. I’ve had the opportunity to see some pretty unusual flying aircraft and this is definitely a different aircraft. It caught my interest, since I’m familiar enough with things in the airplane world that this was notable,” Hughes said.

Beaver forwarded the photos to some other aviation officials, and they determined the object Hughes saw was nothing more than a Chinese paper lantern, which is made out of a lightweight biodegradable material with a light bamboo frame. The lantern has an opening at the bottom where the flame is lit, and the object is generally 48 inches high and can spend as long as 20 minutes in the sky.

“It’s kind of a weird object, that’s for sure,” Beaver said. “To me, and others who looked at the pictures, it looks like one of those Chinese lanterns.”

And the 90-degree turn?Beaver speculated that the wind current changed and the object simply followed where the wind was pushing it.Hughes isn’t buying Beaver’s theory, though.

“I watched it turn. I was just astonished at how sharp it turned. It came up to like a corner and took a turn, no curve or bank or anything like an airplane or balloon,” he said. “It was clearly the size of a hot air balloon and much too big to be a Chinese lantern. It was huge.”

Beaver said Hughes’ report was the first of its kind, though people have called to ask about different aircraft in the area in the past. Information on the Federal Aviation Administration website points reporters to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies or the National UFO Reporting Center, although Hughes said he probably wouldn’t report the object at that level.

Hughes wouldn’t acknowledge any theory of the object being what most associate with a UFO — he said he knows it wasn’t a spaceship and isn’t trying to claim that’s what it was. For him, stepping forward with the photos is simply to find out if anyone else saw the mysterious object flying over Owatonna Sunday evening.

“It would be fun to know if anyone else saw it,” he said. “I want to know what they think it is.”

Hughes did say he knows he’s not the first to see such an object. Earlier this week someone visiting his work office saw the photos and said they saw the same thing two weeks ago while camping in Lanesboro. They had no idea what it was either, Hughes said.