Large white glowing shape size of moon appears in sky at sunset in ABQ for 5 seconds; suddenly disappears.

Was walking west on University of New Mexico campus right after sunset to meet a friend.  Noticed above one of the campus buildings that there was a glowing light, like the color of the moon, as big as the moon might be as it rises about 60 degrees above the horizon. It was shaped like a street lamp or as if the moon were elongated. Kept eye on it wondering what it was, but not thinking it was anything out of the ordinary.  After about 5 seconds, it suddenly disappeared.  Shocked, I started running to friend's building to tell her what I had seen.  She came running up to me asking me if I had seen it.  She saw the exact same thing I had.  There were others who were out that we asked if they too had seen it, but no one had.  We spent the night trying to contact Kirkland AFB and Sandia Observatory to see if anything out of the ordinary had been spotted and to report what we saw.  The next day I told my astronomy professor about it and his explanation was that it was probably the air force testing something.  To this day, we wonder what we saw.
Witness indicates that the date of the event is approximate.  PD