RedOrange Bright star morphed to glowing jellyfish

Could it have been a meteor burning up in the atmosphere?
At first guess it looked like an unusually bright mars - unusual enough to stop and look. It got brighter and I thought it must be a helicopter but there was no noise. The color was too orange to be a navigation light. From stationary, it began to move in a single spiral loop heading south while it faded almost to nothing before morphing into a diffused orange glowing jellyfish like object. It even moved in a pulsing jellyfish like fashion! I couldn't believe I was sane while I saw this. It became obscured by a rooftop or tree (I was too zeroed in on the strange sight to register anything in the way). I hurried to follow it but here were too many street lights at the next clearing and by the time I found a dark clear area it was gone. There were no clouds in the sky. Maybe a toy parachute? It was way too high though. High enough to resemble a star. It was adjacent to the big dipper on the handle side (as if handle were pointing at it) Nanaimo BC Canada