Bright Yellow Orb hovering low in the night sky

Witnessed a bright yellow orb, not completely round, hovering in the sky to our northwest, possibly over the area of Highlands, NC.  Called my husband outside to witness this sighting.  It was not high in the sky and seemed to hover at least 15 minutes.  We had never seen anything like this before.  We set a pair of binoculars upon a stone ledge to keep our hands still and get a good look at this object.  It appeared to slightly float up/down.  It had a distinct repetitive pattern on its surface.  I took several pictures of it with my cell phone.  The wind was calm.  It eventually moved farther away heading NNW.