Jun

22

I'm at a loss

Submitted by vernont on Sun, 06/22/2008 - 06:41.

I have to start by saying that I'm not a UFO "nut" as some might say (no disrespect intended to those who fit that category. I respect everyones beliefs, and hope for the same in return). That's not to say that I dismiss the prosect of other life "out there". Quite the contrary. I firmly believe that we (humans) have neighbors out there somewhere. I can't for one second be convinced that we're a fluke. With that said here's what I saw.

While indulging in a nicotine tube on my back porch I was eyeing the stars as I always do. The time was roughly 12:50AM EST on June 21/08. While I pondered the same but ever fascinating stars, I saw movement. It was just a small white light tinted slightly red that resembled everything else that I'd been looking at for several minutes, only this was moving. My first instinct was to assume it's a jet. I continued to watch for several seconds waiting for that tell-tale flashing light. or other signs that would help me form a reasonable conclusion as to what I was seeing. These signs never came. The light intensified and waned about 4 or 5 times always continuing it's original course (a straight line). I decided that I had better get another set of eyes to confirm that I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. I quickly opened the door to my house and summoned my wife. She immediately confirmed that it was in fact there. With the confirmation that I wasn't losing my mind, I began tracking the light again. It once again grew in intensity and again dimmed much quicker this time. This time it continued to dim and dim until I simply couldn't see it anymore. It was simply gone.

In case you're interested in some more detail, I'll add what I can. Though I had no way to judge elevation, the object seemed to be much to high to be a plane. I know that judging distance without a point of reference (especially in the night sky) is a tough chore for the human eye. I can only say that in my 30 years, this was different from anything I've ever seen and I've spent alot of time looking up. Secondly there wasn't any sound. I pointed this out to my wife (the sceptic) and she confirmed that the sky was absolutely silent ( I watched a jet fly over my house the next night and I heard it LONG before I saw it). Thirdly, the speed was WAY to slow to be an asteriod or something else plunging into our atmosphere. That's not to say that it moved slowly. If I had to offer a comparison, I'd say it moved at a similar speed to a jet ( hence my initial thoughts that it was a jet). I would say that it moved roughly a "hand-span" (my hand held spred against the sky) every 4 to 5 seconds. Lastly but certainly not leastly, I have to again stress the fact that the light from this thing simply waned until it was no longer visible. In my experience, if a jet goes behind cloud cover, it vanishes, it doesn't progressively fade to nothing. There where NO clouds in the sky and this thing progressively got dimmer and dimmer until I simply couldn't see it anymore.

As the title state's, I'm at a loss. I prefer to let evidence tell the story rather than speculate. Unfortunately all i can do with this is speculate. I just hope that somebody else witnessed this because everyone I've told thus far looks at me like  I'm full of dark matter.

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  1. dickersonal on Sat, 10/17/2009 - 20:35

    it pretty much had to be a satellite.  the waxing and waning can even be explained by a satellite, for a satellite isn't a perfect sphere, and there are planes which "glint" sunlight in variable intensities, which when viewed through the filter of the atmosphere apprears to be a waxing and waning (this effect is actually quite breathtaking if you are fortunate enough to see it on the ISS when light glints off the solar arrays).  It faded away as the sun "set" on it.  The only thing that would make me wonder is the time you stated.  While satellites can be observed for an extended time after sunset, i'm guessing this was about 3 hours after sunset assuming the time you quoted in the post is accurate.  This would be stretching it unless it was in the extreme western sky.  I'm thinking that if you looked back and really thought about it, first of all it was probably half an hour to an hour later than you initially recalled, and secondly i'm thinking you will remember the object changing to an almost reddish orange as it faded out.  if you remember this, than it can definately be said it was a satellite.

  2. Mashton141 on Thu, 02/26/2009 - 05:08

    i see these all the time above the southern idaho sky's and yes aha you could refer to me as a UFO nut..i preffer enthusiest :]

    but like he said below, about 98 percent of what you said points my thoughts toward a sattelite, they are around the same size as a star from the human eye and travel in a straight line from our perspective, just keep your eyes open you'll see them almost every night over here..

    good eye though these are kinda hard to spot sometimes. haha

    peace

  3. Occams Rebuke on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 23:08

    Several things you mention there point to a satellite. 

     

    "It was just a small white light tinted slightly red"  -- Even at night a satellite can be high enough to reflect light back to Earth (the way the moon does).

    "always continuing it's original course (a straight line)." -- A sattelite would appear to move in a straight line as opposed to an object that navigates and makes turns.

    "the object seemed to be much to high to be a plane." -- again consistant with a sattellite.

    "she confirmed that the sky was absolutely silent ( I watched a jet fly over my house the next night and I heard it LONG before I saw it). " -- a sattellite is flying outside of our atmosphere and is incappable of making sound.

    "the speed was WAY to slow to be an asteriod or something else plunging into our atmosphere. "  -- because of the high altitude that a sattellite orbits at it would appear to move very slowly.

     

    The only thing that doesn't really fit is the waxing and waning of the light, but I would offer that even this could be explained as a sattellite moves very quickly and as it does the atmosphere passes between your eyes and the satellite.  Even if it appears to be a clear night there will be varying amounts of clouds and vapor that causes "haze" during the day but could very well make this relatively dim light appear to get brighter and dimmer.  Having not seen what it is you saw I can't really surmise if that is an acceptable solution.  Does it seem that this could be a reasonable explanation for what you saw?

  4. Lynne on Sun, 06/29/2008 - 04:30

    I have to say - I NEVER go into these weird sites online (no disrespect either to viewers of these sites), but yesterday afternoon we saw something in the sky that is very similar to what you described! My daughter & I saw a silver oval/round object moving very slow in the sky (daylight) & it slowly disappeared until we could not see it anymore....no sound....no clouds to hide behind....nothing...

    I am a skeptic - but I have no explanation for this.  I also get very 'freaked out' if I over think unexplained things.

    Just thought I would share....