I saw a UFO

[Loss Leader]

Any aircraft moving directly away or towards me at a sufficient altitude looks like it has stopped in the sky.

The brain just was not built to judge high flying objects with no knowledge of size or speed.

 

[novaphile]

I built a UFO

It wasn't intended, honestly.

You see, I'd been playing with astable multivibrator circuits (AKA flip-flops), and had built a couple of quite small ones, with red and green LEDs to show which side of the circuit was active.

Then, it occurred to me, that I could put these circuits inside balloons...

So I put them inside a couple of three foot, white balloons, and then filled the balloons with hydrogen.

(Made the hydrogen by dissolving aluminium foil in a strong solution of caustic soda).

Then, because I had two giant balloons, which were each alternately flashing red and green... I tied the two balloons together with a short length of string, and released them into the night sky.

Next thing I know, people are phoning radio stations in Canberra (where I was) and reporting a UFO performing impossible manouvres in the sky.

I am ashamed that I caused this, I was just playing with stuff for my own entertainment.

 

[Garrette]

It wasn't intended, honestly.

You see, I'd been playing with astable multivibrator circuits (AKA flip-flops), and had built a couple of quite small ones, with red and green LEDs to show which side of the circuit was active.

Then, it occurred to me, that I could put these circuits inside balloons...

So I put them inside a couple of three foot, white balloons, and then filled the balloons with hydrogen.

(Made the hydrogen by dissolving aluminium foil in a strong solution of caustic soda).

Then, because I had two giant balloons, which were each alternately flashing red and green... I tied the two balloons together with a short length of string, and released them into the night sky.

Next thing I know, people are phoning radio stations in Canberra (where I was) and reporting a UFO performing impossible manouvres in the sky.

I am ashamed that I caused this, I was just playing with stuff for my own entertainment.

So......

What you're saying is that the people of Canberra witnessed an actual extraterrestrial craft, and to quell the uproar the government of Australia (no doubt strong-armed into it by the US government) convinced you to make up this cover story either for cash payment or to prevent release of those photos of you and the Koala-TasmanianDevil hybrid.

 

[Jodie]

It wasn't intended, honestly.

You see, I'd been playing with astable multivibrator circuits (AKA flip-flops), and had built a couple of quite small ones, with red and green LEDs to show which side of the circuit was active.

Then, it occurred to me, that I could put these circuits inside balloons...

So I put them inside a couple of three foot, white balloons, and then filled the balloons with hydrogen.

(Made the hydrogen by dissolving aluminium foil in a strong solution of caustic soda).

Then, because I had two giant balloons, which were each alternately flashing red and green... I tied the two balloons together with a short length of string, and released them into the night sky.

Next thing I know, people are phoning radio stations in Canberra (where I was) and reporting a UFO performing impossible manouvres in the sky.

I am ashamed that I caused this, I was just playing with stuff for my own entertainment.

Giant balloons with LED lights are UFO's, who expects to ever see that?

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

I would love to know what this object was, anyone got any ideas?

A UFO. I've seen thousands of them.

 

[novaphile]

Giant balloons with LED lights are UFO's, who expects to ever see that?

Yes, but the "impossible manouvres" part had me beat.

Clearly they were possible, they could see them happening in the sky.

 

[Scorpion]

Anything in the sky you cannot identify could be called a UFO. Now days it is impossible to claim something you see might be extra terrestrial because we have so much stuff up in space its bound to be one of ours. Added to that there are going to be many more drones buzzing around soon. But in my opening post I spoke of a strange object at the time of sputnik one, and in those days there was not supposed to be anything else up there.

 

[Darat]

Anything in the sky you cannot identify could be called a UFO. Now days it is impossible to claim something you see might be extra terrestrial because we have so much stuff up in space its bound to be one of ours. Added to that there are going to be many more drones buzzing around soon. But in my opening post I spoke of a strange object at the time of sputnik one, and in those days there was not supposed to be anything else up there.

There were still plenty of known objects in the sky and as this thread shows your recollections are rather suspect.

 

[Laiswyn]

It's really UFO

 

[Wolrab]

The term UFO needs to be discarded because of all the baggage associated with it. I suggest replacing it with WTF (What There Floats).

 

[John Jones]

Anything in the sky you cannot identify could be called a UFO. Now days it is impossible to claim something you see might be extra terrestrial because we have so much stuff up in space its bound to be one of ours. Added to that there are going to be many more drones buzzing around soon. But in my opening post I spoke of a strange object at the time of sputnik one, and in those days there was not supposed to be anything else up there.

Says who? You saw something you couldn't identify. QED. It's not evidence of anything except the fact that you couldn't identify it.

I go for the term UAP - Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon. It's more exact, and it's not as likely to draw kooks out of the woodwork.

 

[Scorpion]

There were still plenty of known objects in the sky and as this thread shows your recollections are rather suspect.

So there were, weather balloons, dirigible's, planes, helicopters, I don't know what else,
The object I saw did not behave like any of those, and I am sure my recollection is fairly accurate.

 

[Cosmic Yak]

So there were, weather balloons, dirigible's, planes, helicopters, I don't know what else,
The object I saw did not behave like any of those, and I am sure my recollection is fairly accurate.

To restate my (much earlier point), I have no doubt that you believe that you saw something in the sky that you couldn't identify. However, that's about as far as you can go with that.
If you are going to suggest that it was an alien craft, for example, then you need more than an inability to identify. You need some actual evidence of alien craft.
I also find it strange that you appear not to have gone looking for this evidence at the time. You've witnessed something apparently world-changing, yet you seem to have thought "cool!", shrugged your shoulders and got on with your life.
Did you try to get any corroboration for this sighting? For example, did anyone else (either with you or not) report seeing something? Did you contact the police, air traffic control or the military to see of they'd picked anything up on radar, or had reports themselves? Did you go to the papers? How about the local UFO organisation?

 

[Scorpion]

To restate my (much earlier point), I have no doubt that you believe that you saw something in the sky that you couldn't identify. However, that's about as far as you can go with that.
If you are going to suggest that it was an alien craft, for example, then you need more than an inability to identify. You need some actual evidence of alien craft.
I also find it strange that you appear not to have gone looking for this evidence at the time. You've witnessed something apparently world-changing, yet you seem to have thought "cool!", shrugged your shoulders and got on with your life.
Did you try to get any corroboration for this sighting? For example, did anyone else (either with you or not) report seeing something? Did you contact the police, air traffic control or the military to see of they'd picked anything up on radar, or had reports themselves? Did you go to the papers? How about the local UFO organisation?

I am not saying I think it was an alien craft, it's just that it did not behave like anything I knew of at the time. I did not tell anyone about it at the time, I just wondered what it was, and I still wonder.

 

[Cosmic Yak]

I am not saying I think it was an alien craft, it's just that it did not behave like anything I knew of at the time. I did not tell anyone about it at the time, I just wondered what it was, and I still wonder.

In which case refer you to my previous post:

Scorpion- and apologies if this has already been asked- surely the obvious question is "so what?"
OK, fine, you saw something in the sky you couldn't identify. I would wager that almost everyone on earth has, at some point in their lives, seen something they couldn't identify.

Yes, it happens. Our view is blocked. Our perspective is unusual and/or misleading. There are tricks of the light, and tricks of the mind. There are things of which we have no knowledge, especially when we are children.
What do you want answered here? You saw something you couldn't explain. No-one on this forum was there with you at the time, so no-one can tell you with any certainty what it was. There's nothing we can do. It was, and is, a puzzle. That's it. Just leave it at that and get on with your life.

 

[Myriad]

In 1957 I went out into the garden in Kent to watch for sputnik one. I heard it was due to pass overhead so I waited for it at night time. I was watching for a while and while I was looking at the stars I noticed one had changed position in relation to the nearby stars. I started watching it and it moved slowly along, then stopped. It stopped for a minute or two then moved off again. This happened several times before it disappeared from view. It looked like just another star and it moved systematically and stopped and moved again at regular intervals. I am absolutely certain it was not a helicopter as it was soundless, and it could not have been a weather balloon as it moved and stopped regularly. It could not have been a U2 spy plane as I don't think they could hover. I have no explanation as to what it was so I call it a UFO. An unidentified flying object.
Not long after it disappeared sputnik one flew over, and it was brighter and faster than the object I saw, and sputnik moved smoothly across the sky in a couple of minutes.
I would love to know what this object was, anyone got any ideas?

I've been thinking about this some more. This is a longshot guess, but I once flew an ordinary kite at night with a small light attached. (I wasn't trying to create any particular effect; I just wanted to try the kite out and had been disappointed by a lack of wind during the daylight hours.)

During the flight, the light appeared similar to a star, and at the same time, seemed to be a much larger (than the light itself actually was, not larger than a star!) and faster-moving object much farther away. The ordinary undramatic movements of the kite (it was not a fast-maneuvering "fighting" or multi-line kite) appeared as periods of hovering in place alternating with rapid changes of position as the kite moved with small changes in the wind and in the line tension I was giving it. The illusion was strong, even knowing I was flying the kite and how much line I had let out. In the dark the flying line was quite invisible (and even in daylight, the line is usually difficult or impossible to see from any perspective other than the foreshortened view of the person flying it).

I realized I'd stumbled on a potentially very effective way of hoaxing UFOs, one that might not occur to investigators accustomed to thinking in terms of balloons, astronomical bodies, satellites, and conventional aircraft. Which might therefore be a possible explanation (innocent or otherwise) for some of the more unusual recorded sightings.

Most kites don't fly very high, so the illusion would only work within a small area. And for most accidental witnesses more than a few hundred feet away, the light would appear "low on the horizon" which is also a frequent characteristic of such sightings as well.

Depending on a kite's design and the flying conditions, its movements can easily include hovering in place, darting, circling, swooping, very sudden changes of direction ("high acceleration"), and sudden stops; the combination of such behaviors, as in your account, can seem to rule out the object as being any type of known aircraft, especially if the distance/size illusion is also in play. Kites have very low mass and they have the tension of their flying line to lever against, so they actually can and do move in ways that would be impossible for conventional free-flying craft (although present-day quad-copter drones might be able to match them in most cases). And they're often (though not always) quite silent.

Do you happen to recall what the wind conditions were like that night in Kent in 1957?

 

[Ron_Tomkins]

Anything in the sky you cannot identify could be called a UFO.

Not "could be". It is, by definition, a UFO. Which lots of people equate to "Aliens", which is not what UFO means.

 

[CynicalSkeptic]

Thread needs more pedants.

 

[novaphile]

... This is a longshot guess, but I once flew an ordinary kite at night with a small light attached...

Oooooh! You've reminded me of another one.

My father was really interested in kites, and he made many kites, for himself, and for us kids.

One day, he made a huge box kite, and used mylar for the "fabric" sections.

He took it out to a local oval (Smithfield) and it flew very well, and very high.

To our astonishment, after we'd been out there for a while, a plain station wagon with military plates, drove out on to the oval, and the driver got out to talk to my father.

He explained that he was from the local air base (Edinburgh) and Dad's kite was making a blib on their RADAR.

He was very polite, but asked if we could bring the kite in, and not fly it so close to their air-space, and of course, Dad complied.



I guess that one didn't stay "unidentified" for long.

PS. If you're trying to find a "Smithfield" next to an "Edinburgh" air-base, you need to be looking in South Australia.

 

[Darat]

Thread needs more pedants.

In this case it isn't being pedantic it is making sure no hidden claims or assumptions are sneaking in. If someone wants to make a claim about what UFO was/is then they are not saying they saw a UFO but that they saw (for example) an alien spacecraft. It is the same when most people claim to have seen something and identify what it is by saying they saw a ghost.