Saw me my 1st decent UFO

redziller

Student
redziller
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Mar 7, 2004
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Walking to work along a road bound by fairly high buildings so that a low flying craft would cross in front from behind one building to the one opposite.

Saw the craft zip accross - white and a classic UFO shape (as in SHADO) http://amazingscience.altervista.org/ufomodelproduct.htm, with some detail along the main body. Very fast. And for a moment I could delight in the vision. After all UFOs would be cool.

A little reflection and yes, yaaawwwn, it had been a helicopter, medical I guess, whose distinctive sound had been drowned out by the morning traffic. The light had caught and highlighted the main body only - I believe the local medical choppers are white body with red tail. I read once, forget where, that the brain expects symmetry and has a prejudice for it, so I expect the non-symmetrical body and motor housing was interpretted as an indicator of speed too - like a car in a cartoons accelerating.

If I'd been a believer I'd have loved it!
 
The only thing I've ever seen that would qualify was back in 1965 when I was in the army. We'd been sent to Norway for a NATO exercise and were outside at night after setting up our camp.
The Northern lights were going on, first-time sight for most of us. Someone noticed a large, bright object slowly crossing the night sky directly overhead. Bright as a very bright star, it kept a dead-straight course as it went over.
Pretty impressive.... We found out about a week later it was Echo 2.
 
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I've seen quite a few UFOs, many of them in Minnesota, and all of them susbsequenty explained. Subsequent explanations sometimes did little to remove the weirdness of it all ... the things were NOT extraterrestrial, but they were still strange.

I've seen some UFOs in Canada too. So far, all were subsequently explained, usually as conventional aircraft seen from unconventional angles, or as construction cranes poking over the tree-line, or as saucer-ish light fixtures mounted high over a highway (and supported by gray poles that are hard to see against a gray sky). In addition, there are hot air balloons and gliders nearby, and some radio towers are equipped with exceptionally bright beacons, all of which can catch you off guard. On occasion, one can even see World War II-era aircraft flying by, from a nearby museum.

I've had to do quite a few double- and triple-takes, but all of these things turned out to be non-extraterrestrial.
 
I got duped by the Irridium Satellites - brighter than the moon, then you can't see it, then bright, then invisible, rinse and repeat for like an hour.
 
I saw a UFO as a kid (4th grade). My brothers saw it too. Looking back it was probably a rocket launched from an airbase but it wasn't in the news and we could never confirm it.
 
I once saw what appeared to be a saucer, flying low at almost horizon-distance, that looked like it was being hit by lightning.

Surely, it was just a plane... getting hit by lightning, or maybe I just imagined I saw lightning striking it.

Of course, had I been interested in believing alien-driven craft, I might have imagined the lightning was being emitted by the thing. But I'm an amateur astronomer and would have had to deceive myself into such thinking.
 
redziller said:
If I'd been a believer I'd have loved it!
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The funny thing is that several times I've seen believers of ET visitation take stories like this as proof that they are correct! Instead of seeing this as an example of how we can percieve things in the wrong way, they say "Aha! Look, when it's NOT an alien we can correctly determine that!" which misses the point entirely.
 
SOdhner said:
The funny thing is that several times I've seen believers of ET visitation take stories like this as proof that they are correct! Instead of seeing this as an example of how we can percieve things in the wrong way, they say "Aha! Look, when it's NOT an alien we can correctly determine that!" which misses the point entirely.
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Crikey - that's quite an angle but then believers will assume most any position and grab any straw.
 
I strikes me as odd that the people in this thread (in particular) and the JREF (in general) seem singularly unable to identify Known Flying Objects (KFOs) when they see them.

It also strikes me as peculiar that, unlike the majority of people, they seem to assign “UFO” as the first option. Most people would run through the mundane alternatives first – Is it a bird, a plane, a helicopter, balloon, satellite, meteorite, etc and so on – ruling out all plausible mundane explanations before ever concluding “UFO” – and even then most people would be reluctant to come to that conclusion. Not so the people in this thread and the JREF it seems.

It would be interesting to conduct a psychological study to determine why this might be so. I have my suspicions that factors such as a fear of a conspiracy of UFO enthusiasts to destroy science and logic - and also a fear that their perception of reality (and perhaps even reality itself as they know it) might be overturned if UFOs were real - would play a large role in their thinking.
 
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Rramjet said:
I strikes me as odd that the people in this thread (in particular) and the JREF (in general) seem singularly unable to identify Known Flying Objects (KFOs) when they see them.

It also strikes me as peculiar that, unlike the majority of people, they seem to assign “UFO” as the first option. Most people would run through the mundane alternatives first – Is it a bird, a plane, a helicopter, balloon, satellite, meteorite, etc and so on – ruling out all plausible mundane explanations before ever concluding “UFO” – and even then most people would be reluctant to come to that conclusion. Not so the people in this thread and the JREF it seems.

It would be interesting to conduct a psychological study to determine why this might be so. I have my suspicions that factors such as a fear of a conspiracy of UFO enthusiasts to destroy science and logic - and also a fear that their perception of reality (and perhaps even reality itself as they know it) might be overturned if UFOs were real - would play a large role in their thinking.
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For my part, if I see a flying object I can't identity the next step is natural. And I thought UFOs were cool as a kid and like SF. Also I recently bought a mate's music he composed regarding the business at Rendlesham http://janus.soundfuturesdirect.com/rendlesham.html so UFOs would be on my mind

But I've never entertained fears that the scientific method could be undermined, even by a whole bunch of UFO enthusiasts. A UFO landing on the patch of green opposite me right now would be cool but say nothing about science and logic. I consider it as likely as a pay rise.
 
Rramjet said:
I strikes me as odd that the people in this thread (in particular) and the JREF (in general) seem singularly unable to identify Known Flying Objects (KFOs) when they see them.

It also strikes me as peculiar that, unlike the majority of people, they seem to assign “UFO” as the first option. Most people would run through the mundane alternatives first – Is it a bird, a plane, a helicopter, balloon, satellite, meteorite, etc and so on – ruling out all plausible mundane explanations before ever concluding “UFO” – and even then most people would be reluctant to come to that conclusion. Not so the people in this thread and the JREF it seems.

It would be interesting to conduct a psychological study to determine why this might be so. I have my suspicions that factors such as a fear of a conspiracy of UFO enthusiasts to destroy science and logic - and also a fear that their perception of reality (and perhaps even reality itself as they know it) might be overturned if UFOs were real - would play a large role in their thinking.
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UFO isn't Unknown Flying Object, it's Unidentified Flying Object. Anything you see in the sky is a UFO until you identify it. But thanks for drawing an opinion of the JREF on 6 responses in a thread I guess.
 
This isn't a UFO story, but it is an example of something similar. When I was a kid, I was riding in a car with my mom and her sister. There was a decent amount of fast moving traffic in both directions and many 18-wheelers. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a trailer with no tractor pulling it. When I turned to look at it, I couldn't find it, only full tractor-trailers. My aunt said she saw it too. I have a feeling that one of the tractors was an unexpected color, so I didn't see it.
 
Rramjet said:
I strikes me as odd that the people in this thread (in particular) and the JREF (in general) seem singularly unable to identify Known Flying Objects (KFOs) when they see them.
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Perhaps you've missed the part where many of them were, in fact, identified. You must have meant to say that UFO creduloids are the ones who can't identify known flying objects and jump immediately to "alien spaceship".

It also strikes me as peculiar that, unlike the majority of people, they seem to assign “UFO” as the first option. Most people would run through the mundane alternatives first – Is it a bird, a plane, a helicopter, balloon, satellite, meteorite, etc and so on – ruling out all plausible mundane explanations before ever concluding “UFO” – and even then most people would be reluctant to come to that conclusion. Not so the people in this thread and the JREF it seems.
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Why would it strike you as odd that people who see what appears to be an Object that appears to be Flying in the sky that is Unidentified would term it "Unidentified Flying Object"? What an odd position to hold.

It would be interesting to conduct a psychological study to determine why this might be so. I have my suspicions that factors such as a fear of a conspiracy of UFO enthusiasts to destroy science and logic - and also a fear that their perception of reality (and perhaps even reality itself as they know it) might be overturned if UFOs were real - would play a large role in their thinking.
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A better study would be on the mindset of the hardcore believer UFO creduloids to see how they've arrived at their religion-like beliefs that UFOs are alien spacecraft. Is it lack of education? A belief in conspiracy and other wacko theories and that they are in the elite enlightened set? Were they brought up to also believe in homeopathy and leprechauns and other silly things without evidence? Is that what passes for "thinking" to them? Fascinating, and yet sad, subject.
 
Lamuella said:
But thanks for drawing an opinion of the JREF on 6 responses in a thread I guess.
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Oh he has a lot more than that to work with...there's a monstrous thread out there which consists largely of ad hominem attacks along the lines of "You allow for the existence of ET, why should we listen to anything else you say?".

It's sport, of a sort.

For myself, I treasure the Bigfoot thread where a succession of posters 'identified' a filmed blob that wasn't a bigfoot as, variously, an eagle, a bear and assorted other mundane explanations. It turned out to be, indisputably, a cameraman. As long as you leap to a mundane conclusion, that counts as skeptical and scientific, apparantly.
 
In my opinion, it is one of the greatest intellectual failures that many find it so hard to ever say "I don't know".

You can see this in so many fields... UFO's, ghosts, the economy, etc. Everyone has an opinion, which they are sure is the correct one, despite not having all the facts.

You see something... you read something... you experience something... and all of a sudden you leap to a conclusion, either mundane or exotic depending on your bias. It's one thing to hypothesize, it's another to think you are correct until all the facts are in and the conclusion is certain.


It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment.
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Sherlock Holmes. :)
 
Saw two uvem last week.
Very bright single light on each.
Moving very slowly to the east.
Took quite a while to pass, some distance away.
One of the lights went out, then came back on.
When they got close enough to discern detail, there were navigational lights on the sides, and fore and aft, in a parallelagram configuration and the bright light on the nose.
No motor/jet noise.
And flying much slower than anything usually does.
There've been a couple MV-22 Ospreys flying around, could have been those, but the Osprey makes a tremendous noise. More than a 747 in the landing configuration.
Din't hear nuthin'!
 
redziller said:
Walking to work along a road bound by fairly high buildings so that a low flying craft would cross in front from behind one building to the one opposite.

Saw the craft zip accross - white and a classic UFO shape (as in SHADO) http://amazingscience.altervista.org/ufomodelproduct.htm, with some detail along the main body. Very fast. And for a moment I could delight in the vision. After all UFOs would be cool.

A little reflection and yes, yaaawwwn, it had been a helicopter, medical I guess, whose distinctive sound had been drowned out by the morning traffic. The light had caught and highlighted the main body only - I believe the local medical choppers are white body with red tail. I read once, forget where, that the brain expects symmetry and has a prejudice for it, so I expect the non-symmetrical body and motor housing was interpretted as an indicator of speed too - like a car in a cartoons accelerating.

If I'd been a believer I'd have loved it!
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You mean you don't love helicopters? :(
 
RobDegraves said:
In my opinion, it is one of the greatest intellectual failures that many find it so hard to ever say "I don't know".

You can see this in so many fields... UFO's, ghosts, the economy, etc. Everyone has an opinion, which they are sure is the correct one, despite not having all the facts.

You see something... you read something... you experience something... and all of a sudden you leap to a conclusion, either mundane or exotic depending on your bias. It's one thing to hypothesize, it's another to think you are correct until all the facts are in and the conclusion is certain.


Sherlock Holmes. :)
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That's for sure, especially WRT economics which seems to be the art of demonstrating how what has already happened is what you expected. I say ban the word "believe" and replace it with "really wish there were " eg

"I believe in UFOs" = "I really wish there were UFOs"

I see no atom of difference between the two.
 
Last year, my s.o. and I saw something stunning, and if I wasn't a skeptic, it would have proved to us that the aliens are here.
Instead, I found my brain racing to formulate a logical explanation, which I found, thereby, killing the fun. Here's what we saw:

Sitting on the beach, near Panama beach, Fl, at sunset, we saw three very bright lights, apparently moving very fast. in a split second, they all disappeared. We were stunned. Drop jawed stunned. Looked at each other..."Did you see that!?"
Yes! Wow!
It took me about 5 minutes to explain the 'event' to my skeptical satisfaction:

There is a nearby Air-force base; Edwards, I think. Three pilots were training with supersonic jet fighter planes; flying in tight formation, towards the setting sun.
(We were sitting on the beach to enjoy the sunset)
The bright lights, in tight formation, were the combustion flames, aimed right at us.
The abrupt disappearance happened when, in unison, they all pulled straight upwards, wherein we lost sight of the ass-end of the jets.

Another one:

We went to a big solstice party a week ago. There were lots of freaky hippy types, with their usual toys. This year, new toys, involving laser pointers and such.
Anyway, I never did see how it was done, but a globe (helium balloon?) was released with an internal light source. It drifted upwards, creating a baffling, unexplainable light, which lasted for several minutes, and abruptly disappeared. (balloon popped? Light burned out? Not sure, i didn't observe the launch.)

It was very cool, and I found myself reflecting:

If I was more wooish, and this had occurred independent of this party environment, I would have become a major believer.
Hell, I might have even been abducted.
 
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