I saw a UFO

[Scorpion]

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

I cannot recall the weather except it was a cloudless night, as I had a clear view of the stars.

 

[Jodie]

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

 

[Jodie]

I did see a strange UFO once and I'm still not certain of what it was but I do believe it had a reasonable explanation.

I was outside on my front stoop when I heard a popping noise to my left across the street. I could see sparks coming up from the neighbor's heat pump and a small gray blob thing rose into the air. There wasn't any wind but it slowly floated my way. It looked like a tiny bag or undulating cloud. As it passed over my head it stretched out and looked square with rounded corners with a serrated edge like a quarter. It was bluish green with tiny flecks in it and had three round reddish phosphorescent balls in it that were connected by a thin reddish line/branch? It looked like a flying amoeba or the way a skin cell looks under a microscope. It flipped itself up and undulated over the top of my house towards the river. Weirdest thing I've ever seen.

THe other things I see around here are these bright flashes of light, which draws your attention to it, then as a cloud passes by it looks like a miniature sun in the sky.....ball lightening maybe?

 

[fuelair]

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.

No you aren't!!!!!! Nor should you be!!!

 

[Sabrina]

I did see something unidentified in the sky once that I have no explanation for. I'm not willing to claim little green men at this point, but as I am not sure what it was I saw, best I can do is categorize it as a UFO since it was unidentified, it was flying, and it was an object.

I was on vacation with my grandparents and my sister and we were driving along Skyline Drive in Virginia to see the sights. We had stopped at a motel that had a small playground in the front and butted up against a wooded area in the back (there were deer that would come and eat out of your hands, which in retrospect is probably not a good thing to have encouraged wild animals to do, but what do you want from me; I was all of ten or eleven at the time!) I was out on the playground sitting on one of the swings when I saw it. I should probably mention the sky was completely overcast with no hint of sunlight peeking through and absolutely no breaks in the cloud cover that I can recall. At any rate, I saw a large, bright orange disc in the sky that proceeded to move very rapidly overhead, occasionally being partially hidden by lower gray clouds, but for the most part visible as it moved across the sky. It was clearly not the sun, because the sun does not move that fast, and as I mentioned the sky was completely overcast with no hint of a break in the clouds.

I never bothered to mention it to my grandparents or my sister because I was completely alone when I saw it and I wasn't sure WHAT I saw to begin with. I highly doubt it was some kind of alien spacecraft, but I don't really know what it actually could have been in real life. I don't know of any aircraft or air devices that are perfectly spherical, bright orange, and move rapidly across the sky even today, much less back in the early '90s. If anyone has any logical suggestions, I'm willing to entertain them though.

 

[Myriad]

I did see something unidentified in the sky once that I have no explanation for. I'm not willing to claim little green men at this point, but as I am not sure what it was I saw, best I can do is categorize it as a UFO since it was unidentified, it was flying, and it was an object.

I was on vacation with my grandparents and my sister and we were driving along Skyline Drive in Virginia to see the sights. We had stopped at a motel that had a small playground in the front and butted up against a wooded area in the back (there were deer that would come and eat out of your hands, which in retrospect is probably not a good thing to have encouraged wild animals to do, but what do you want from me; I was all of ten or eleven at the time!) I was out on the playground sitting on one of the swings when I saw it. I should probably mention the sky was completely overcast with no hint of sunlight peeking through and absolutely no breaks in the cloud cover that I can recall. At any rate, I saw a large, bright orange disc in the sky that proceeded to move very rapidly overhead, occasionally being partially hidden by lower gray clouds, but for the most part visible as it moved across the sky. It was clearly not the sun, because the sun does not move that fast, and as I mentioned the sky was completely overcast with no hint of a break in the clouds.

I never bothered to mention it to my grandparents or my sister because I was completely alone when I saw it and I wasn't sure WHAT I saw to begin with. I highly doubt it was some kind of alien spacecraft, but I don't really know what it actually could have been in real life. I don't know of any aircraft or air devices that are perfectly spherical, bright orange, and move rapidly across the sky even today, much less back in the early '90s. If anyone has any logical suggestions, I'm willing to entertain them though.

Some variety of balloon, perhaps?

The bottoms of low overcast clouds can be pretty close, a few hundred or even tens of feet, and it can be hard to tell that height by eye. That might have helped cause the object to appear farther away, and therefore larger and faster-moving, than it actually was.

 

[Pixel42]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_lantern

 

[Sabrina]

Some variety of balloon, perhaps?

The bottoms of low overcast clouds can be pretty close, a few hundred or even tens of feet, and it can be hard to tell that height by eye. That might have helped cause the object to appear farther away, and therefore larger and faster-moving, than it actually was.

I thought about that, but it wasn't drifting; this was clear, purposeful movement. I'm rubbish at estimating this sort of thing, but I'd guesstimate that it's speed was similar to that of a smaller airplane, and it moved in a straight line. Also, the orange that I saw appeared to be from an internal glow; it didn't have a reflective appearance like you'd expect from a mylar balloon or something similar.

I suppose it's possible it was a weather balloon that was under remote control, so that theory isn't entirely out, but I doubt it was a regular balloon that would be subject to the vagaries of the wind and such.

 

[Castro]

Maybe a sky lantern as suggested by Pixel42?

 

[Sabrina]

Maybe a sky lantern as suggested by Pixel42?

Possibly, although again those are subject to the vagaries of the wind and don't travel as fast as this seemed to. I'm not kidding when I say it was fast; it traveled clear across the sky in a matter of a minute or so. Maybe two or three; I was so fascinated by it that I didn't actually try to time it, but from the time I noticed it to the time it disappeared beyond the horizon couldn't have been more than three minutes, tops.

ETA: Also, the orange glow of my object wasn't in the least bit flicker-y like the lanterns shown above; it was a steady, orange glow. Like a lightbulb more than a flame of some sort, but then again it was pretty high in the sky, so perhaps the flicker-y effect was hidden by distance.

 

[Pixel42]

I'm not kidding when I say it was fast; it traveled clear across the sky in a matter of a minute or so. Maybe two or three; I was so fascinated by it that I didn't actually try to time it, but from the time I noticed it to the time it disappeared beyond the horizon couldn't have been more than three minutes, tops.

An accurate estimate of the speed of an object in the sky depends on knowing what it is, and therefore being able to accurately estimate both its size and its distance. A large satellite orbiting at high speed appears to crawl quite slowly from horizon to horizon; a fly crosses your field of vision very fast.

If the object you saw was smaller (and therefore nearer) than you're assuming it would actually have been moving slower than you think. This is why fireflies and the planet Venus have both been mistaken for aircraft-sized objects moving at typical aircraft heights and speeds.

 

[Sabrina]

You're very possibly right. I'm working off of a memory that's over twenty-five years old at this point, but it is one of my more vivid memories strictly because of the sheer unusualness of the situation. I have no idea of the actual size of the object, but I remember thinking when I first saw it that the sun was peeking through the clouds because it most closely resembled the size of the sun in the sky. It wasn't until I saw it visibly moving that I realized it wasn't the sun at all, plus the color was all wrong; it was more orange than yellow. But my initial reaction was "hey, it's the sun", very definitely.

I really have no idea what it was, nor has it really been of much concern to me over the years; when I think of it at all, it's merely to ponder how strange the object appeared before I dismiss it from my thoughts in favor of things I consider more important. I certainly won't lose any sleep over not being able to identify it.

 

[Carlotta]

That's the UFO I saw one evening on my way home. A coworker was going the same way and saw them, too. At least they were UFOs until I got home and applied Google. Coworker wasn't so sure..

I beg your pardon! I meant to quote Pixel42 about the sky lanterns.

Edit, again... they were following over a river and may have seemed more purposeful than they might have otherwise.

 

[fuelair]

I saw something similar way back in August of 69. It was an unusually unhumid night so taking advantage I looked up to view three stars that formed an equilateral triangle; as I watched, them two of these stars moved apart a short distance then stopped. They did not move after that for a long as I observed them which was a few minutes. After that, I observed some other nearby stars and one of them moved then stopped. For as long as I observed that star it did not move. Ever since that time to this day it remains a mystery what I observed.

I have observed Thanksgiving over 60 times!!!!!

 

[fuelair]

I am going for a wild guess that the same voice that told you that you won the lottery told you to look where the UFO was.................*

















*But, please do not make the mistake of actually claiming that!!!!!!!!!

And, by the by, LSD could be involved (I have heard rumours)!!!!!