Multi Colored, Stadium sized craft disappears at light speed

I am reporting a sighting that my mother and father both experienced before I was born. They claim that they were driving on Route 23 Southbound, right near a reservoir that borders West Milford and Sparta, when they both spotted the object simultaneously. They both give similar descriptions of what they saw. It was an ovular object, the size of a football stadium, hovering about 500 feet above a little mountain due East of the reservoir. It had an external ring of panels of white light, and an internal ring of panels of different color lights. (Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange) Just as they were able to notice the detail, the object shot directly up into the sky, turning into a star sized object, at light speed. My parents were both 21 when they witnessed this event. They tell the story frequently.
We do not know if the witness means the morning, or the evening, of the date indicated.  PD