1981 strange gyrating lights in desert outside Las vegas

In june of 1981 my parents and I where visiting my brother.He Knew that I would enjoy going out into the desert to see really dark skies with lots of stars since I was and still am an amature astonomer. looking at the sky the stars were brilliant. Several miles off in the distance on the horizon I noticed somthing was moving, I wasnt sure but there was a mountain that I could use as a refrence point. A light was moving up, down and sidways. When it would get close to the ground, it looked like lightning or electricity was being discharged from it, then it would shoot up in the air a good distance and start gyrating around like an angry bee, great big loops and zigzags.
We all watched for over an hour as it just did the same thing over and over,then got back in our motorhome and went back too Henderson where my brother lived. I cant say for sure where I was at, I wasnt familiar with the area. But I was looking into the Northern sky, and we were to the East of Las Vegas.
 
Date is approximate.  PD