Most of my life (Typical boy) I have dreamed of little green men roaming the skys.
Me and my friend sin high school would make movies, trying to trick our non-friends that we actually got footage of an alien spacecraft (We were pretty good, conviced one of the girls on birth control in my school).
Rocky (my craziest friend on earth) told stories about aliens, UFOs, 'goon goons' (Goon Goons were his name for bigfoot-like creatures that lived near his home in Flintstone, Gerogia) and even dragons... fun times. Taken with a grain of salt.
I still catch myself watching these UFO shows on the History Channel or Discovery. Half the time I am sitting there saying "Show me REAL proof!" because the footage sucks or there is no footage at all. Ill dismiss weak lights as planes, satillites, etc...
But last night, I saw my first UFO.
And it was a UFO in the truest sense of the word. It was flying and it was unidentified. I am not saying I saw, nor am I even saying I THINK I saw an "alien piloted spacecraft"... just a UFO.
Driving down the main road to my house. 8:40pm. I see a bright light in the sky, brighter than any star in the sky, as though it were a star that was MUCH closer than the others). From the right of my windshield I see it up in the sky as I am driving 35 mph. I think "Cool, a shooting star!" I wait for it to disappear, as most shooting stars do after 2 or 3 seconds... and wait, and wait. I literally am watching it still as I have time to think "There is no tail on that shooting star... and it isnt disappearing... and there are no blinking lights, so it cant be a plane."
It stayed in the sky, moving quite fast, until I could no longer see it due to trees.
Rocky told me about the blinking light thing. And my dad confirmed it since he has his piolts license and was in teh air force. PLanes must have blinking lights. Ever since Rocky told me "If it has blinking lights, it isnt a UFO" Ill catch myself looking at planes at night, only to be disappointed that there was a blinking light on it...
Josh suggested it was a jet from an airshow in Montgomery. I still say all aircraft have lights they are required to have. If it is some top secret plane, why is it over wetumpka, and why does it have an extreemly bright white light. Sip also suggests a satallite. Though, they move slower, have dimmer lights, and the ones I have noticed are red. So he suggested a sat. reflecting the sun. Not a bad guess, but I still say itwas moving too fast. It was going about the speed of a shooting star.
Mullins suggested a helicopter, but even a quiet heli can shake windows, especially if it is moving fast and some-what low...
Dunno, but by definition, I have seen my first UFO.
22 comments:
So, you were in your front yard when you saw it? I thought you were driving or something.
Cool that you saw a ufo, man.
I can't explain it since I didn't see it, but I know there are lots of things that happen that are difficult to explain.
Just don't start scupting your mashed potatoes or humming odd tunes and you'll be fine...
no, i was driving...
difficult to explain means it is a UFO.
If you were driving, it could totally have been a helicopter, noise wise.
Te vehicle noise would mask any noise you might have heard.
But, if you couldn't identify it and it was flying, yep, it's a UFO.
Congrats! I think I've seen some of those, too...
helicopter is the best explanation so far... however, they have blinking lights too. And if it was a spot light it was shining, i figure I would have seen the light beam, unless it was pointing directly at me, but it wasnt that type of light.
Did the object appear to be made out of light or emanate light?
If so, it was probably reflective.
Was it far off in the distance? Could you make out a shape or was it like a speck of light traveling at a high speed?
Just trying to get an image of what you saw.
Sounds pretty cool!
Good news and bad news...
Good news is that earth may not be under attack... bad news is that I don't think I saw a UFO...
I called a local radio show and mentioned what I saw... someone piped in and suggested I saw the International Space Station.
Upon further research, I found this:
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/iss_viewing_040507.html
"The International Space Station is the biggest and brightest hunk circling the planet. Its solar arrays span 240 feet. It stands as tall as a nine-story building and weighs 412,000 pounds."
Explains the size... and the brightness, due to the solar panels...
"Traveling around the Earth at 18,000 mph at an average altitude of 240 miles, the station can appear to move as fast as a high-flying jet airliner..."
Explains the speed, and the lack of sound...
oh well, I think the boy inside me wants mystery. If someone disproved Lock Ness Monster, I'd be sad, yet at the same time, I'd be sad if they found the dead body of Lock Ness... I like mystery in life I guess... I dont care to have a "reasonable" explanation for everything. Once we stop imagining things, we then get classifed as "old foggies" and I am not ready for that.
That makes plenty of sense.
"That's no moon; it's a space station!"
You'll never be an old fogie, Jamison. Don't worry about that!
Ha! I never thought of that quote, nice one.
"Luuuke? Luuuuuke!"
Name that movie
"Ferris Beuhler's Day Off"?
"Young Frankenstein"?
"Throw Mama from the Train"?
...
This map is from 2004, but if the ISS stayed on teh same path, you can see it goes right over my house...
click here
I certainly hope you guys can see the space station like I did, so you can know how I felt when I saw it...
go to this website:
http://science.nasa.gov/realtime/jtrack/Spacecraft.html
Use the J TRACK and J PASS programs on that site (you do NOT have to download them, they are browser based) to see where to look or where it will be... we here in the south east are pretty lucky...
I've seen several sattelites fly over very quickly out at my parents' house.
In fact, my Dad is who pointed out my first sattelite sighting.
Anyway, the internet is so cool, isn't it!
Dude! Watching that light flit in the night sky on that video on the link you provided was cool!
You could even see the shape of the ISS!
Very cool!
We are lucky...
I imagine NASA set the orbits of lots of sats over our area for tracking purposes...Cool!
I'll be in my front yard with the compass that Brew gave me looking up at the sky at 10:12 central time (having forced my wife out there with me) to watch the space station pass by.
To find out where in the sky to look, consult the links i posted earlier.
I doubt I'll be able to see it as well from my place. Lots of trees and lights.
Maybe we could come out there some time for space-station watching!
Of course, I bet you could REALLY see it out where my parents live!
Actually, from the websites I have been looking at, the sucker is so bright that you CAN see it, even in larger cities.
Clear night tonight, if you are up, you ought to mossey on out there with your compass in hand to give it a look. I think it will pass right over the last star in "the handle" of the big dipper (Or the small one, not sure)
Whoa! OK, I know exactly where to look then!
Cool!
check that site to be certain... remember, when you look straight up (on the site, you will be looking right where the crosshairs meet) that north is behind you...
im a little disappointed...
after my wife and I watching for 10 minutes, we saw nothing in the path area.
I got back in and realized that site offers paths of upcoming SATELLITES in my area... so they were probably small...
best i could find was this that shows the space station's location... i WILL see it again, to proce to myself what I saw was not a UFO...
Go for it, man!
Watching the night sky is fun anyway.
I cant beleive no one but me and Sip commented on this...
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