“Where were you? Sounds a little like it could have been a fata morgana.”
That is very interesting. I was standing midway on V street SW DC between 1st and 2nd street SW (aka Buzzards Point) but the object was over my left shoulder perhaps to what appeared to be 5 miles away over Alexandra Va, in the flats of Anacostia or further up. The target angle was around 45° perhaps 55°... it was 15 to 18 years ago.
Well, I guess they can appear anywhere the right kind of temperature inversion sets up; but they seem to happen most in particular regions...