Was it this guy?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisascenic/146336538/

Cecropia Moth

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/

Let us know what you find out!
Thee's a great website called What's that Bug that may be able to help.

Nope, that is not it...too pretty! This one is brown

it's probably the moth of the tomato hornworm- here's a picture showing scale

Here is a link that might be useful: tomato hornworm moth

With the "glowing red eyes" description, it sounds like a {{gwi:538832}}. They make quite a racket, too.

Brenda

I took it out to a local nursery and was told it was a Gypsy moth, it think they were wrong because it looks exactly like the Tomato Hornworm picture that DavisSue posted a link to.

I've had Sphinx moths in my yard.

Here is a link that might be useful: sphinx moth

I think you answered your own question. It is a huge moth.

I grew up in Modesto (Ceres, actually) but now live in the bay area (Albany/Berkeley area) and had one of these a couple of months ago. It scared me to death, just about. It was quietly perched on a hanging basket made out of willow branches, so I didn't see it right away. I stood there and stared at that thing for the longest time-- I'm sure my neighbors thought I was crazy (they already did, I think). I took pictures of my Mothzilla to show the people at my local nursery, but they couldn't tell me anything. I had the same one as you-- looked exactly like DavisSue's picture. Now I know what to call him! (Of course, he's gone now...)

Amanda 'romando'

Ya I get that's a huge moth, thank u dr. Obvious. I've seen one of these monsters too. Twice in fact. I was sitting on my front patio n one flew out of my sycamore in started crashing around the roofed-in area where I was sitting. It was about 6-9 inches long though. I wanted to take a picture of it holding my husbands shoe up nxt to it to compare length but it kept fluttering it's wings when I got too close n I was totally freaked out by it. A cpl of nights later I was stopped at a red light in the inner lft turn lane when I heard in the truck nxt to me a woman screaming. I looked ovr n saw another mammoth moth on her windshield n she was goin batsh** cuz she cldnt get it off. Needless to say we all missed the red light watching her wail in fear until I shouted to her to turn on her wipers n the beast was scared off. This scene happened about 2 miles from my house so I don't kno if it was tge same one or nit but in all the yrs I've visited n lived in Palmdale, ca those were the only 2 times I've seen or heard of an insect like that!