Mystery object in southern sky on Friday Night

A friend of mine called from the Pacific Northwest saying that he and
his family saw an object in the south unlike anything he's seen before.
He saw it in the late evening, around 10pm.

He described it as a series of alternating colored lights, like a
plane, but fixed in the sky. They watched it for about an hour,
inspected it with a small telescope and took pictures with a long
telephoto.

Brightness was described as near Venus brightness. He didn't think it
was as bright, his son thought it was brighter.

Position was about 30 degrees up from the horizon, nearly due south,
maybe 10 degrees west. As noted, it was at a fixed position relative to
the stars and moved with the sky. He said it went behind his treeline
at about 11-12

He said it was not resolved in any of the optics.

I tried to determine if it was just atmospheric twinkling. He said the
rest of the stars visible that night were still and showed nothing like
that affect.

Anybody have any ideas as to what this was?

Thanks,
Ted