I saw a UFO

Scorpion said:
I do not think so, I discounted a weather balloon for the same reason. The object moved and stopped at regular intervals.
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That can appear to happen at low altitudes if there are local shifts in wind. What happens is that the wind at a certain spot is blowing towards or away from you. Objects entrained in the flow move towards or away from you at those times. At night, when the object is merely a point of light, you usually cannot detect this motion and the object appears stationary.
 
Scorpion said:
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?
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All things considered (including the time period and the time of night you would have been out looking for the satellite) I think the most likely explanation is a high-altitude balloon. The movements of objects in a dark sky are very difficult to judge. If not for the star background you would not have been able to tell for sure whether it was ever moving or not. (Research simulating such visual conditions results in observers reporting completely stationary lights as making all sorts of maneuvers). With the star background, it would seem to be stationary when not close to any stars, and moving when it passed near a star for reference. And keep in mind that the stars themselves move in relation to the night sky (not really, of course, it's the earth rotating).
 
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Myriad said:
All things considered (including the time period and the time of night you would have been out looking for the satellite) I think the most likely explanation is a high-altitude balloon. The movement of objects in a dark sky are very difficult to judge. If not for the star background you would not have been able to tell for sure whether it was ever moving or not. (Research simulating such visual conditions results in observers reporting completely stationary lights as making all sorts of maneuvers). With the star background, it would seem to be stationary when not close to any stars, and moving when it passed near a star for reference. And keep in mind that the stars themselves move in relation to the night sky (not really, of course, it's the earth rotating).
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Nonsense. Of course stars move, just very slowly.
 
Darat said:
Remember this was something so faint that most of us wouldn't have been able to see it!
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Over a decade of working across Kent, in the depths of night, in remote corners of the countryside, with a territory stretching from Bexhill to the Medway towns, I saw a lot of aircraft. Even with modern lights there are some that look faint with distance, and the effects can be spooky.

Working on the railway there was an optical effect we all came to be wary off. The lights on the front. Of a train,can look more milky and faint in the distance. On a straight road it doesn't appear to get any bigger of closer, just brighter, and dies not look as though the train is even moving. But of course it is. I can suppose the same would be true of airborn lights.
 
Scorpion said:
I do not think so, I discounted a weather balloon for the same reason. The object moved and stopped at regular intervals.
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The object stopped as you remember it, 59 years later.

At regular intervals, as you remember them, 59 years later.

Memory is an unreliable witness. Over time, imprecise recollection can become precise data. This is a notorious problem of memory.

It is improper to attribute any properties, or rule any out, based on your memory alone.

Sometimes there just isn't enough evidence to even speculate. Sorry.
 
I've seen plenty of unidentified lights in the sky. Usually I will notice a bright light that seems to be standing still. All the while I will try to see if it is moving by comparing it to nearby stars or tree branches. It is sometimes hard to see any apparent motion for quite some time. Most of the time I can tell it is an airplane coming my way. The times clouds interfere or I lose interest and turn away I know it must have been an extra-terrestrial craft, I mean what else could it be? (insert appropriate smilie here)

Every time I am outdoors on a clear night I look for satellites. I have seen enough to know their probable path. They can be brighter than Venus as with an Iridium flare or just at the edge of perception. I couldn't tell you how many times a faint light spotted with indirect vision will seem to be moving against the background stars then either disappear or seemingly stop when I look directly at it only to reappear and move when I attempt to reacquire it with indirect vision. Since I can only confirm satellites previously announced on Heaven's Above, the rest are technically UFO's.

I have posted my most unusual UFO sighting where my friends and I saw a huge triangular shaped craft fly silently in a curved course directly over our heads. My worldview was shattered as we all discussed the attributes of the UFO. I would probably still claiming it was some exotic tech or an alien craft if the flock of geese hadn't circled back around and started honking.
Your eyes and brain can and do mess with your head all the time.
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I saw two UFOs in the past ... It was exciting and scary for a few minutes ... Untill I identified them ... Then I felt relieved and kinda disappointed and silly 😀

Both were experienced while driving late at night ... One turned out to be a flashing cell tower light in fog that was basically just in that area (the fog) ... The other was a very bright and long lasting meteor of some kind traveling almost parallel to the horizon line
 
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.
 
I see those kinds of things around here in SC all of the time. If it's on the typical flight paths around here I assume it's a plane at high altitude and at an odd angle where I can't see all of the warning lights. If the plane is heading straight towards you it appears to not move yet the light gets a little bit brighter.

I did see some odd lights in the clouds when Hurricane Matthew was passing over, they were perfectly round, brightness would vary, and they were in the lower level clouds that were moving extremely fast. I'm assuming they were ball lightening since they didn't last very long.

One other experience here was what I assume was a plasma ball that I saw up close. It looked like it was a result of a short in an air conditioner since that's where the sparks came from, then this blob rose up and slowly moved in my direction overhead. As it passed over, it had 3 dull phosphorescent red balls inside of it and the whole thing seemed to turn in on itself like an intestine will do when intussusception occurs.

Before that, one night we had a massive black out during a mild rain storm. That didn't wake me up, what woke me up was the oscillating hum sound and resonating glow that lit up the entire neighborhood. As I peered out the window and looked up, whatever was causing the light and sound was above the cloud cover. This lasted for about 3 hours as it slowly drifted southeast towards Charleston.
 
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i used to work with someone who spent much of his spare time staring at the sky, and often saw UFOs. However, since he was a volunteer for the Royal Observer Corps, he was able to get straight on the phone to the authorities and make enquiries. He never saw an FO which remained Unidentified.


(Of course, you'd expect to get a cover story...)
 
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