I want to believe.
September 20, 2006 8:49 PM Subscribe
The other day I saw an object in the sky that I can't explain for the life of me. A UFO, if you will, but I've always been skeptical on this topic, but no other possible explanation even comes close. My question is, have you ever seen a UFO? Or thought you saw one and later found out there was a more earthly explanation?
This post was deleted for the following reason: chatfilter
A month or so ago, I was riding my bike home and I saw an extremely bright glowing light, hovering relatively low in the sky. It was weird enough that I stopped to try to figure out what it was. It slowly faded over the course of around 30 seconds. Eventually angles changed enough that I figured it out...
It was an airplane taking off. The following were lined up perfectly:
The plane ... me ... the airport ... the sun. The sun was reflecting off of the plane, and the angle the wings made sent sunlight directly back at my eyes, making an incredibly bright blob of light. It was taking off, and the angle of its ascent made it seem motionless (but it was getting farther away, which was why the light slowly faded).
You saw something and you don't know what it was. Maybe it was aliens. Maybe it was demons pouring out of a hole in the fabric of reality. Maybe it was something that wouldn't completely upset our views of the world around us. Without any details, it's hard to say, but I know what I suspect :)
posted by Humanzee at 9:11 PM on September 20, 2006
It was an airplane taking off. The following were lined up perfectly:
The plane ... me ... the airport ... the sun. The sun was reflecting off of the plane, and the angle the wings made sent sunlight directly back at my eyes, making an incredibly bright blob of light. It was taking off, and the angle of its ascent made it seem motionless (but it was getting farther away, which was why the light slowly faded).
You saw something and you don't know what it was. Maybe it was aliens. Maybe it was demons pouring out of a hole in the fabric of reality. Maybe it was something that wouldn't completely upset our views of the world around us. Without any details, it's hard to say, but I know what I suspect :)
posted by Humanzee at 9:11 PM on September 20, 2006
Could you describe your experience? 99.999% of stuff can be easily explained. But sometimes, much more interesting things can happen.
posted by snsranch at 9:20 PM on September 20, 2006
posted by snsranch at 9:20 PM on September 20, 2006
When I was in 5th grade or therabouts I was riding my bike with some friends and we heard really mysterious organ-like music and saw a bright light from the sky. We all said it was aliens, but I'm quite certain that if we'd investigated we would have found an earthly explanation.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 9:26 PM on September 20, 2006
posted by croutonsupafreak at 9:26 PM on September 20, 2006
On winter break from my freshman year of college, I was walking in the desert with friends, discussing mystical shit, philosophy, religion and all that, and an enormous golden cross appeared. It was 50 feet tall and it blazed. For a fraction of a second I thought I was having a religious experience. Then I realized that it was just a electrical tower caught perfectly in the high-beams of a car on the nearby highway. The car itself was otherwise invisible. If something had happened to prevent me from discovering the mundane reality of what I saw, who knows how it would have affected by life. It was really, momentarily, that incredible.
posted by zanni at 9:46 PM on September 20, 2006
posted by zanni at 9:46 PM on September 20, 2006
but no other possible explanation even comes close
Really? You've picked your brain, thought of everything, and were left only with the conclusion that you saw alien beings from another world?
Sorry, I'm busting your chops, I know. But people for years were seeing "flying black triangles" in the sky and claiming they were alien technology. And then the Air Force rolled this puppy out of the hangar.
It's. A. Flying. Black. Triangle.
posted by frogan at 10:43 PM on September 20, 2006
Really? You've picked your brain, thought of everything, and were left only with the conclusion that you saw alien beings from another world?
Sorry, I'm busting your chops, I know. But people for years were seeing "flying black triangles" in the sky and claiming they were alien technology. And then the Air Force rolled this puppy out of the hangar.
It's. A. Flying. Black. Triangle.
posted by frogan at 10:43 PM on September 20, 2006
Dang. That was supposed to appear directly after wsg's Yes!
posted by Savannah at 10:44 PM on September 20, 2006
posted by Savannah at 10:44 PM on September 20, 2006
My question is, have you ever seen a UFO?
This kind of question is sure to get deleted soon, if you don't come back and post a better question. For example, I saw [description of weird flying thing]. What could it have been?
posted by knave at 10:48 PM on September 20, 2006
This kind of question is sure to get deleted soon, if you don't come back and post a better question. For example, I saw [description of weird flying thing]. What could it have been?
posted by knave at 10:48 PM on September 20, 2006
Yes. I have always been a true skeptic regarding UFOs, believing that they are Unidentified only because a reasonable explanation has not yet been found. Yet one night looking out of my living room window, I saw an oval shaped object hovering about 300 ft above. I realized that there was a possible explanation for this, but on examination, I ruled out a balloon. It was too large for a planet, too bright to be extra-solar. It didn't move in relation to the ground, and I had such an exciting experience that I called my wife. We both stared in wondement at this object for 10 minutes or so.
When we went outside to get a minimally less obscured view, we realized that we had been looking at a street light. The contrast of light and dark had rendered the supporting "arm" of the structure practically invisible until we got close enough to resolve that contrast. We had simply been, as I think the vast number of "witnesses" have been, victims of our own self generated optical illusion.
Since that time, I've become even more skeptical.
posted by Neiltupper at 11:01 PM on September 20, 2006
When we went outside to get a minimally less obscured view, we realized that we had been looking at a street light. The contrast of light and dark had rendered the supporting "arm" of the structure practically invisible until we got close enough to resolve that contrast. We had simply been, as I think the vast number of "witnesses" have been, victims of our own self generated optical illusion.
Since that time, I've become even more skeptical.
posted by Neiltupper at 11:01 PM on September 20, 2006
I've seen flocks of birds, flying in formation and illuminated from an odd angle, that my eyes insisted were a single oddly-textured object (until the flock wheeled or broke apart).
posted by hattifattener at 11:13 PM on September 20, 2006
posted by hattifattener at 11:13 PM on September 20, 2006
Response by poster: It was dusk and I was riding my bike on a pretty rural road, just a few houses and shops scattered around. No cars were around. I look up and see this ball of light, perfectly spherical, solid white color. It's hard to judge the height and size and distance from me, as they're all related, but I'd guess it was at about 500 feet in the air, maybe the same distance from me, and it was around 20 feet in diameter. Of course, that's all speculation.
Here's what it did: Without making a sound, it moved to my left, and I mean fast. The distance it covered must've been at least a mile, and it covered that in about 2 seconds. From it's new location it moved up a bit, then did some zig zagging, then moved again close to where I first saw it. This thing was fast, I can't stress this enough. Then it seemed to slowly move up into some clouds and I lost it.
That's it. I wasn't high, drunk, or anything else. Though I am willing to concede it was a hallucination, but that would be a first.
frogan sez: Really? You've picked your brain, thought of everything, and were left only with the conclusion that you saw alien beings from another world?
Yep, I picked my brain clean and can't think of anything. Well, one thing: it could've been human-built aircraft, but the likes of which, and the abilities of which, are new to me. Why would you make the assumtion that it was alien beings, and that I made that assumtion as well? I don't know what it was, that's the point. Secret military aircraft is my best guess at this point.
posted by zardoz at 11:40 PM on September 20, 2006
Here's what it did: Without making a sound, it moved to my left, and I mean fast. The distance it covered must've been at least a mile, and it covered that in about 2 seconds. From it's new location it moved up a bit, then did some zig zagging, then moved again close to where I first saw it. This thing was fast, I can't stress this enough. Then it seemed to slowly move up into some clouds and I lost it.
That's it. I wasn't high, drunk, or anything else. Though I am willing to concede it was a hallucination, but that would be a first.
frogan sez: Really? You've picked your brain, thought of everything, and were left only with the conclusion that you saw alien beings from another world?
Yep, I picked my brain clean and can't think of anything. Well, one thing: it could've been human-built aircraft, but the likes of which, and the abilities of which, are new to me. Why would you make the assumtion that it was alien beings, and that I made that assumtion as well? I don't know what it was, that's the point. Secret military aircraft is my best guess at this point.
posted by zardoz at 11:40 PM on September 20, 2006
Why would you make the assumtion that it was alien beings, and that I made that assumtion as well?
You used the term "UFO" which while it doesn't literally mean aliens, it clearly infers them. Plus, you said "I want to believe," which is popularly cribbed from the poster behind Mulder's desk in the X-Files TV show, which ... is ... a ... show ... about ... aliens.
Secret military aircraft is my best guess at this point.
OK, let's look at your description and come up with some other guesses.
No cars were around.
How about cars on hills or behind trees, which would make lights appear to move quickly and at odd angles?
It's hard to judge the height and size and distance
So how do arrive at your guesses? Realize that at dusk and at night, your estimates can be way, way off. It's dark. Your eyesight is at its worst of the day. Haze and different angles of the remaining sunlight can play tricks on you.
it was around 20 feet in diameter
Again, how do you arrive at this estimate? Did it appear next to something that you know to be 20 feet in diameter? Or is it 20 feet in diameter because that's what you think its size is if it's 500 feet away from you ... which is a shaky estimate at best. It could be 200 feet in diameter and farther away.
Here's what it did: Without making a sound,
No, you mean you didn't hear a sound. Whatever it was could very well be emitting a sound, but you can't hear it, for any number of reasons (such as, it's farther away than you think it is).
The distance it covered must've been at least a mile
Again, how do you estimate this? By landmarks? By just eyeballing it?
From it's new location it moved up a bit
Or it moved closer to you. Remember, you're looking at a ball of light against a dark or darkening sky. You really have no visual reference for its movement, so your notions of up, down, near and away are somewhat suspect.
Then it seemed to slowly move up into some clouds and I lost it.
Clouds don't generally form at 500 feet, although there are exceptions. But the object is probably much higher than you think it is if it truly gets obscured by clouds.
So here's my guess from your description: You saw a garden-variety plane or perhaps a helicopter, it was farther away than you think it was so you didn't hear it, and it was turning and banking and moving around. It had a light on it (maybe a police helicopter with a swiveling light?), and combined with the turning movements, the light appeared to move faster and more erratically than it really was. The plane/helicopter then flew away in a fixed direction, and perhaps even switched off its light or turned it away from you entirely.
posted by frogan at 12:03 AM on September 21, 2006
You used the term "UFO" which while it doesn't literally mean aliens, it clearly infers them. Plus, you said "I want to believe," which is popularly cribbed from the poster behind Mulder's desk in the X-Files TV show, which ... is ... a ... show ... about ... aliens.
Secret military aircraft is my best guess at this point.
OK, let's look at your description and come up with some other guesses.
No cars were around.
How about cars on hills or behind trees, which would make lights appear to move quickly and at odd angles?
It's hard to judge the height and size and distance
So how do arrive at your guesses? Realize that at dusk and at night, your estimates can be way, way off. It's dark. Your eyesight is at its worst of the day. Haze and different angles of the remaining sunlight can play tricks on you.
it was around 20 feet in diameter
Again, how do you arrive at this estimate? Did it appear next to something that you know to be 20 feet in diameter? Or is it 20 feet in diameter because that's what you think its size is if it's 500 feet away from you ... which is a shaky estimate at best. It could be 200 feet in diameter and farther away.
Here's what it did: Without making a sound,
No, you mean you didn't hear a sound. Whatever it was could very well be emitting a sound, but you can't hear it, for any number of reasons (such as, it's farther away than you think it is).
The distance it covered must've been at least a mile
Again, how do you estimate this? By landmarks? By just eyeballing it?
From it's new location it moved up a bit
Or it moved closer to you. Remember, you're looking at a ball of light against a dark or darkening sky. You really have no visual reference for its movement, so your notions of up, down, near and away are somewhat suspect.
Then it seemed to slowly move up into some clouds and I lost it.
Clouds don't generally form at 500 feet, although there are exceptions. But the object is probably much higher than you think it is if it truly gets obscured by clouds.
So here's my guess from your description: You saw a garden-variety plane or perhaps a helicopter, it was farther away than you think it was so you didn't hear it, and it was turning and banking and moving around. It had a light on it (maybe a police helicopter with a swiveling light?), and combined with the turning movements, the light appeared to move faster and more erratically than it really was. The plane/helicopter then flew away in a fixed direction, and perhaps even switched off its light or turned it away from you entirely.
posted by frogan at 12:03 AM on September 21, 2006
If the "object" started from rest and covered one mile in two seconds, then it achieved roughly 85 g's of acceleration for two seconds ---certainly lethal to any human pilot (and any normal physical structure as well). Your perspective was off.
One category of things that can achieve that sort of performance is reflected light. A vehicle needs only turn a few degrees and any light from headlights/floodlights/whatever reflected off of a distant object will seem to move at incredible speed, and most likely in erratic patterns. Obviously I wasn't there and didn't see what you saw, so I can't say for sure that you saw reflected light. I think the real point to take away from the stories in this thread is that your senses are surprisingly easy to trick. Sometimes with hindsight it's possible to figure out what fooled them, sometimes it isn't.
posted by Humanzee at 12:25 AM on September 21, 2006
One category of things that can achieve that sort of performance is reflected light. A vehicle needs only turn a few degrees and any light from headlights/floodlights/whatever reflected off of a distant object will seem to move at incredible speed, and most likely in erratic patterns. Obviously I wasn't there and didn't see what you saw, so I can't say for sure that you saw reflected light. I think the real point to take away from the stories in this thread is that your senses are surprisingly easy to trick. Sometimes with hindsight it's possible to figure out what fooled them, sometimes it isn't.
posted by Humanzee at 12:25 AM on September 21, 2006
have you ever seen a UFO ... and later found out there was a more earthly explanation?
I've had an experience like you are looking for: I was driving along an empty highway in Montana with a friend. This was early July of 2005. Suddenly we saw a light that looked like it was on the horizon fly up and around; it looked it like had accelerated amazingly quickly, flew somewhat erratically and then disappeared.
My friend and I exchanged glances and said stuff like "holy shit what was that?" We had gotten to the point of joking about swamp gas when some more fireworks went off and we felt like morons.
posted by aubilenon at 12:38 AM on September 21, 2006
I've had an experience like you are looking for: I was driving along an empty highway in Montana with a friend. This was early July of 2005. Suddenly we saw a light that looked like it was on the horizon fly up and around; it looked it like had accelerated amazingly quickly, flew somewhat erratically and then disappeared.
My friend and I exchanged glances and said stuff like "holy shit what was that?" We had gotten to the point of joking about swamp gas when some more fireworks went off and we felt like morons.
posted by aubilenon at 12:38 AM on September 21, 2006
Sounds like ball lightning to me, zardoz.
(I didn't link to wikipedia because the wikipedia article isn't very good.)
posted by ikkyu2 at 1:24 AM on September 21, 2006
(I didn't link to wikipedia because the wikipedia article isn't very good.)
posted by ikkyu2 at 1:24 AM on September 21, 2006
Why are we all discussing this as if "UFO" meant "alien space ship"?
If you saw something in the sky that you can't identify, that's a UFO. That's what UFO means. It doesn't need "another" explanation, it just needs ... an explanation.
The default explanation for "strange thing in sky" isn't "alien space ship", so we don't need to argue that it wasn't one.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 1:31 AM on September 21, 2006
If you saw something in the sky that you can't identify, that's a UFO. That's what UFO means. It doesn't need "another" explanation, it just needs ... an explanation.
The default explanation for "strange thing in sky" isn't "alien space ship", so we don't need to argue that it wasn't one.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 1:31 AM on September 21, 2006
Response by poster: frogan:
So how do arrive at your guesses? Realize that at dusk and at night, your estimates can be way, way off. It's dark. Your eyesight is at its worst of the day. Haze and different angles of the remaining sunlight can play tricks on you.
it was around 20 feet in diameter
Again, how do you arrive at this estimate? Did it appear next to something that you know to be 20 feet in diameter? Or is it 20 feet in diameter because that's what you think its size is if it's 500 feet away from you ... which is a shaky estimate at best. It could be 200 feet in diameter and farther away.
That's why I said "that's all speculation." That means I'm not sure.
No, you mean you didn't hear a sound. Whatever it was could very well be emitting a sound, but you can't hear it, for any number of reasons (such as, it's farther away than you think it is).
True.
The distance it covered must've been at least a mile
Again, how do you estimate this? By landmarks? By just eyeballing it?
Both. It moved to above a hillside that I know to be at least a mile away.
So here's my guess from your description: You saw a garden-variety plane or perhaps a helicopter, it was farther away than you think it was so you didn't hear it, and it was turning and banking and moving around.
If someone had described what I had described, I'd say the same thing. But it wasn't a helicopter or a garden vareity plane. No way. (I'm not saying it was aliens!) Someone mentioned reflected light, which is a good guess, but reflected off what? It would be more of a hologram, because what I saw was a real, 3-D object, and a sphere at that. Bottom line, it moved way too fast to be anything conventional. If it had moved slowly, I'd have written it off as a weather balloon or something, but nothing I know of can move that fast.
Humanzee: If the "object" started from rest and covered one mile in two seconds, then it achieved roughly 85 g's of acceleration for two seconds ---certainly lethal to any human pilot (and any normal physical structure as well). Your perspective was off.
My perspective is the whole problem of identifying the thing. If I had had a perfect perspective, I would have my answer (maybe). And yes, I know that many Gs would kill a person, which is why I stood there with my mouth wide open.
posted by zardoz at 1:32 AM on September 21, 2006
So how do arrive at your guesses? Realize that at dusk and at night, your estimates can be way, way off. It's dark. Your eyesight is at its worst of the day. Haze and different angles of the remaining sunlight can play tricks on you.
it was around 20 feet in diameter
Again, how do you arrive at this estimate? Did it appear next to something that you know to be 20 feet in diameter? Or is it 20 feet in diameter because that's what you think its size is if it's 500 feet away from you ... which is a shaky estimate at best. It could be 200 feet in diameter and farther away.
That's why I said "that's all speculation." That means I'm not sure.
No, you mean you didn't hear a sound. Whatever it was could very well be emitting a sound, but you can't hear it, for any number of reasons (such as, it's farther away than you think it is).
True.
The distance it covered must've been at least a mile
Again, how do you estimate this? By landmarks? By just eyeballing it?
Both. It moved to above a hillside that I know to be at least a mile away.
So here's my guess from your description: You saw a garden-variety plane or perhaps a helicopter, it was farther away than you think it was so you didn't hear it, and it was turning and banking and moving around.
If someone had described what I had described, I'd say the same thing. But it wasn't a helicopter or a garden vareity plane. No way. (I'm not saying it was aliens!) Someone mentioned reflected light, which is a good guess, but reflected off what? It would be more of a hologram, because what I saw was a real, 3-D object, and a sphere at that. Bottom line, it moved way too fast to be anything conventional. If it had moved slowly, I'd have written it off as a weather balloon or something, but nothing I know of can move that fast.
Humanzee: If the "object" started from rest and covered one mile in two seconds, then it achieved roughly 85 g's of acceleration for two seconds ---certainly lethal to any human pilot (and any normal physical structure as well). Your perspective was off.
My perspective is the whole problem of identifying the thing. If I had had a perfect perspective, I would have my answer (maybe). And yes, I know that many Gs would kill a person, which is why I stood there with my mouth wide open.
posted by zardoz at 1:32 AM on September 21, 2006
But for all that, there aren't any facts at all except that you saw a moving light in the sky and don't know what it was.
You've made various suppositions about its size, distance and speed, all of which depend on each other.
If you had some confirmation about its size and distance, then its speed was indeed extraordinary. But you don't. And so the same goes for everything else.
You saw a light in the sky that moved and you can't explain it.
And to leap to some kind of black-ops-technology or alien-visitation conclusion is just not logical.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 2:41 AM on September 21, 2006
You've made various suppositions about its size, distance and speed, all of which depend on each other.
If you had some confirmation about its size and distance, then its speed was indeed extraordinary. But you don't. And so the same goes for everything else.
You saw a light in the sky that moved and you can't explain it.
And to leap to some kind of black-ops-technology or alien-visitation conclusion is just not logical.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 2:41 AM on September 21, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 9:06 PM on September 20, 2006 [3 favorites]