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A Texas hunter's infrared camera captures a view of a deer ... and also lights that appear to hover in the sky. Those lights were later traced to a camera glitch. Watch an Aug. 25 video report from KXAS's Omar Villafranca.
The UFO debate usually focuses on official reports that go back years or decades — but strange things are still being seen in the sky, by folks just like you.
The years-old reports are the subject of dueling commentaries by NBC News space analyst James Oberg and Leslie Kean, author of the book "UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record." Others are weighing in as well, including a colleague of mine at LiveScience, Robert Roy Britt, who calls this a "classic UFO battle." Such battles have been fought inconclusively over stories ranging from the 1947 Roswell incident (which gets only a passing mention in Kean's book) to the 2006 O'Hare incident (which merits an entire chapter).
But what about your stories?
Over the years, Cosmic Log correspondents have sent in oodles of stories, not only about UFOs but about alien encounters as well. And the stories are piling up at the Mutual UFO Network, the National UFO Reporting Center, the National UFO Center and other ufological outfits.
One of the more recent cases to make the news involved a Texas hunter named Lisa Brock-Piekarski, who noticed some spooky lights that appeared to hover in the background of a night-vision image snapped by a game-tracking camera. Could this be a follow-up to the Stephenville UFO sightings of 2008? For a while, some thought so. But MUFON investigators eventually figured out that it was a camera glitch: The shutter stayed open long enough to catch a ghostly image of the infrared strobe's LED lgihts.
That's one more UFO case closed, but there are thousands of other cases out there — and not every one gets attention from investigators. Which means there are always a lot of strange sightings out there that you'll never hear about. So what's the best way to handle your own strange sightings?
First, be aware that common objects can look uncommonly strange under the right conditions. It may sound ridiculous to suggest that Venus or Jupiter can be mistaken for flying spaceships, but there's a perceptual trick known as the "autokinetic effect" that can make stationary objects in the sky appear to move. (Space.com's Joe Rao wrote about this last month.) Another effect, known as pareidolia, can make indistinct objects (like the Face on Mars) look as if they have a distinctive shape.
Atmospheric phenomena ranging from lenticular clouds to sundogs have been perceived as unidentified flying objects, as have aircraft and rocket boosters. Even floating Chinese lanterns and whipped-up wind turbines have triggered alien alarm bells. Meteor fireballs have also sparked UFO reports. As a matter of fact, reports of a meteor-style impact in Colombia are currently stirring up a buzz on the Internet.
Kean points out that at least 95 percent of all unidentified flying objects are eventually identified. That's why it's important to get the details right when you experience a strange sighting. Here are some of the viewing tips we've talked about in the past:
- Take pictures, but don't try to enhance your images after the fact.
- Ask other folks in the area to take note of what they've seen, and compare notes.
- Make an accurate log of times and locations — which is becoming an easier task in this world of mobile phones equipped with GPS and clocks.
- If your sighting is spectacular (or scary), contact local news media or file a report with the UFO centers mentioned above. But chances are that the police won't be able to do much unless a crime has been committed (such as an abduction, alien or otherwise).
Is there a mysterious sighting you've just been waiting to get off your chest? Or is there a UFO mystery you were able to solve? Either type of story is welcome here. Feel free to discuss it in your comments below.
Join the Cosmic Log corps by signing up as my Facebook friend or hooking up on Twitter. And if you really want to be friendly, ask me about "The Case for Pluto."
Leave a Comment:
...a few weeks back me and a buddy saw something at night....just one dimmer light trailing a much brighter light by maybe 1/2 or 1 degree and at apparently high altitude. He pointed them out to me and I knew they weren't stars... initially they were stationary then began to move slower than satellites and also in the vicinity between the constellations Hercules and Lyra almost overhead travelling roughly SW - NE... a real polar satellite happened to pass by for reference....the bright "front" light was brighter than Vega but dimmer than Jupiter then it faded to the same magnitude as the "rear" trailing light..both lights continued to fade to nothing...we saw this for 1-2 minutes...the ISS was not around that evening and they weren't irridium sats because they are only polar orbiters...anyway, I've never quite seen anything like that...maybe they were helicopters, but the altitude makes that unlikely.
Right around that time, the Chinese were conducting a secret in-orbit satellite rendezvous between two satellites. From the reports I've read, it looked exactly like what you described, so this is almost certainly what you saw. Here's more info on it:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/08/chinas-secret-satellite-rendezvous-suggestive-of-a-military-program
Consider this one solved!
For those who are interested in the subject, I highly suggest researching the "Lonnie Zamora Incident" which was witnessed by a god-fearing sheriff deputy , it occurred in New Mexico in 1964. I've followed this subject for some time, and I still find this case to be one of the most credible, with physical evidence, that was exhaustively investigated by the federal government, which still has the case classified as "open". Excerpts below:
Alone in his patrol car, Sergeant Lonnie Zamora was chasing a speeding car due south of Socorro, New Mexico on April 24, 1964, at about 5:45 p.m., when he "heard a roar and saw a flame in the sky to southwest some distance away — possibly a 1/2 mile or a mile." Thinking a local dynamite shack might have exploded, Zamora broke off the chase and went to investigate.
Zamora drove towards the scene, radioing his dispatcher to say he would be out of his car "checking the car in the arroyo." He stopped his car, got out, and attended to the radio mic, which he had dropped, then he started to approach the object. According to Zamora,
“
Hardly turned around from car, when heard roar (was not exactly a blast), very loud roar — at that close was real loud. Not like a jet — knows what jets sound like. Started low frequency quickly, then roar rose in frequency (higher tone) and in loudness — from loud to very loud. At same time as roar saw flame. Flame was under the object. Object was starting to go straight up — slowly up. Object slowly rose striaght up. Flame was light blue and at bottom was sort of orange color From this angle, saw the side of object (not end, as first noted). Difficult to describe flame. Thought, from roar, it might blow up. Flame might have come from underside of object, at middle, possibly a four feet area — very rough guess. Cannot describe flame further except blue and orange. No smoke, except dust in immediate area.[3]
”
Keeping the object in view he ran behind his car, bumping his leg on the rear fender and dropping his glasses, and continued running northwards away from the object, which was still near the ground. He now gives a more detailed description of the object. "Oval in shape ... smooth — no windows or doors ... Noted red lettering of some type (see illustration). Insignia was about 2½' high and about 2' wide I guess. Was in middle of object ... Object still like aluminum-white." He also noted that the object was still on the ground when the roar started.
Zamora then describes how the object took off:
“
After fell by car and glasses fell off, kept running to north, with car between me and object. Glanced back couple of times. Noted object to rise to about level of car, about 20 to 25 feet guess — took I guess about six seconds when object started to rise and I glanced back. I ran I guess about halfway to where I ducked down — about fifty feet from the car is where I ducked down, just over edge of hill. I guess I had run about 25 feet when I glanced back and saw the object level with the car and it appeared about directly over the place where it rose from.
I was still running and I jumped just over the hill — I stopped because I did not hear the roar. I was scared of the roar, and I had planned to continue running down the hill. I turned around toward the object and at same time put my head toward ground, covering my face with my arms. Being that there was no roar, I looked up, and I saw the object going away from me. It did not come any closer to me. It appeared to go in straight line and at same height — possibly 10 to 15 feet from ground, and it cleared the dynamite shack by about three feet. Shack about eight feet high. Object was travelling very fast. It seemed to rise up, and take off immediately across country.
The Air Force issued their formal report on June 8, 1964. Jerome Clark suggested that the report was "riddled with errors," including the claim that there were no other witnesses (several reported their sightings within minutes of Zamora's encounter), and the claim that there were no disturbances to the soil (manifestly false, based on Jordan's photos of the scene taken less than an hour after the encounter). Noting that they made no conclusion as to the object's origin (other than to rule out the extraterrestrial hypothesis), the "Air Force was continuing its investigation, and the case is still open."
However, in a secret report prepared for the CIA, Project Blue Book's director, Major Hector Quintanilla offered further details regarding the Zamora case, "There is no doubt that Lonnie Zamora saw an object which left quite an impression on him. There is also no question about Zamora's reliability. He is a serious police officer, a pillar of his church, and a man well versed in recognizing airborne vehicles in his area. He is puzzled by what he saw and frankly, so are we. This is the best-documented case on record, and still we have been unable, in spite of thorough investigation, to find the vehicle or other stimulus that scared Zamora to the point of panic."
Entire summary at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonnie_Zamora
This paragraph did not transfer, excerpt before object blasted off:
For the next 10–15 seconds he proceeded west, looking for the shack whose precise location he did not recall. It was then that he noticed a shiny object, "to south about 150 to 200 yards", that at first he took to be an "overturned white car ... up on radiator or on trunk", with two people standing close to it, one of whom seemed to notice him with some surprise and gave a start. The shiny object was "like aluminum — it was whitish against the mesa background, but not chrome", and shaped like a letter "O". Having stopped for a couple of seconds, Zamora approached in his car meaning to help.
Zamora only caught a brief sight of the two people in white coveralls beside the "car". He recalls nothing special about them. "I don't recall noting any particular shape or possibly any hats, or headgear. These persons appeared normal in shape — but possibly they were small adults or large kids."
Mike Mahoney (ever get called ma-honey?) but anyway, you seem correct.
"By Aug 13, SJ-12 set to precede SJ-6F by 160 km.
By Aug 15, it took a closer position at 27 km or so.
It is possible that today or tomorrow we'll see final approach."
It was that week end we saw this. Too bad they don't say where they saw them. I noted in the Lyra and Hercules region. Also the altitudes of 500-600 kms. would make sense...BUT, they appeared stationary then started to move together...even the Chinese can't make satellites do that. Satellites orbit at constant velocities of 7 or 8 kms/sec.
...oh and when I say "moving together" I mean in tandem, not one approacing the other.
It was summer time, probably late August, the time frame was 1958,59 or 60….I was not yet ten. It was dark out so it had to be past 9 pm. Our Uncle was sitting outside on a swing and a bunch of us kids were hanging out talking to our Uncle... a very traditional man. He was looking up at the sky. And he remarked...how strange. He pointed out to us a light high in the sky (like 12 or 11 o'clock) near a cluster of stars. We all watched it for quite a while and we all saw it. It looked like a star but it moved. What was interesting was my Uncle's comment. It had to be after the launch of Sputnik. Because our Uncle was aware of how a satellite would move in a path across. I remember him articulating: a satellite would be a light that would move across the sky in a non-veering path. But this light zig zagged and stopped. Then it would move again and stop. Move again in what appeared to be an un-organized pattern….nothing like a satellite.
Anyway...I think about that sighting often. Our Uncle took the time to make sure each one of us was able to find it in the sky and we all watched it for at least 15minutes when it suddenly streaked across the sky and disappeared. I remember when the light suddenly zipped and disappeared there was an audible “wow” from all of us. That is the only time in my life I have seen something unexplained in the sky. I was not alone. My sister and cousins and Uncle were all there
Forty-five plus years ago, my then fiance and I were sitting on the ground with my future brother-in-law and his wife, chatting and watching a gorgeous night's sky. We were right outside of Dallas in a small community. Suddenly, off to my left appeared what looked to be, a large, very bright, copper-colored object that looked like a bright, copper-colored basketball. I pointed to it excitedly and shouted, "look", and when I did that, the object appeared to disappear, magically or suddently, just went dark. Gone!
No one else saw anything, and everyone was giving me a bad time because the local newspaper had been riddled with reports of UFO's; however, I distinctly saw, what I saw. And, my soon to be brother-in-law, who had been sitting next to me said, "Heay, wait a minute. I saw the bright reflection of what she saw in her eyes!"
After that, more reports flooded into the media of eyewitness accounts of UFO's around the Dallas area. Never saw one ever again, but remember upon reading the book "Ishi", he reported, that after the white people had started killing their people, the sky people stopping coming to visit them through the hole in the sky. Interesting!
I forgot to add, my bright, slowly moving object was quite large and appeared to move slowly but steadily through the sky until it blacked out and suddenly disappeared, just when I shouted, "Look!"
My sighting takes me back to November 30th, 2004 in which I was looking out the window from the 3rd floor in a Newark, NJ apartment, while there was no fancy lighting that people normally note, I did however notice a saucer shaped flying craft floating across the horizon, and it made a 90 degree turn and went straight in that 90 degree angle and disappeared into the sky, no more than 10 minutes after, I noted atleast 6 black helicopters west of my window, but at a greater distance than what i experienced the flying craft. I've never seen anything disappear into the horizon, and no other flying devices have that flight pattern that I saw that night. I will never forget, I tell people this, and they laugh at me, not wanting to tell me how "crazy I might be". I know what I saw, I showed it to someone else, and we sat there dumbstruck, I almost committed myself that night, because I never believed other's claims. you wouldn't believe it until you see it.
In 1973, I believe November, a group of my friends and I were taking an evening walk north of Mt. Vernon, Iowa where they were attending Cornell College. It was very dark (we took these walks sometimes just to see the stars which were quite vivid as the town was small with very few lights).
We split into two groups, one went down some railroad tracks about a quarter to half a mile. My group consisted of myself and 2 others. As I stood talking to one of my group, he facing north and I facing south, he interrupted his sentence and said aghast "Oh my God!" The other guy was standing at the other end of a bridge over the tracks and he said "Jesus Christ! Did you see that??" About then we heard the guys in the other group yelling to us and I could barely make them out running toward us down the tracks (east/west).
As soon as they mentioned they had seen a UFO, I immediately told them all to stop talking to each other and we would just go back to the dorm room where they could all draw their own versions of what they had seen, and write a description.
It was totally consistent and was basically as follows:
A "boomerang"-shaped UFO was sighted going east to west. It was a glowing light bluish-gray with three sets of two
green lights -- each set located at one of the three vertices of the "boomerang"'s inscribed triangle. It subtended about 10 degrees of arc and moved across about 35 degrees of arc in about 1 second before turning upward almost instantaneously and then disappearing as it traveled vertically at a rate which was too fast to estimate.
Today it may be more credible since just about everyone has a cell phone with cameras at the ready and can forward them in a flash to others. I don't mean to discredit this from ever happening but 1973 and only drawings or sketches to go by. You guys could have written a book later made into a movie. But as usual, no evidence just the word of some guys walking around at night and looking at the sky.
The event was of short enough duration that even with cell phones it is unlikely it could have been photographically captured. Books and movies don't make an eye-witness event more credible. "The word of some guys" is sometimes called "the Gospels", although we can't be assured those guys ever even existed, let alone that their words have been passed down unaltered by Constantine, among others. At least they had a motive for making it up.
I had 10 years in the U.S. Air force training pilots. I am the type of person that needs to have personal conformation before I believe it. 17 years ago, my son called me outside to see a UFO at tree top height heading north up my driveway, at a pace of a person walking. It had a very deep humming sound that you could feel in your bones. It also had some sort of device that gave it the ability to blend with the night sky. This craft was as big as a football field, exterior lights, windows, 5 main lights at bottom of craft that seemed to be part of the propulsion system. It went approximately 1/4 mile north and then proceeded to accelerate upwards and within a few seconds it seemed like any other star in the sky. You tell me, a blimp? harrier?? Anyone in this craft would of been dead from the G forces. It is to bad that there are so many people out there tying to make money on this instead of really trying to get answers. I can honestly attest that there is something observing us.
I'm not buying it. No high-ranking career Air Force training pilot would write "would of been dead," "It's to bad," and "conformation." You even failed to properly capitalize Air Force. Sorry, lack of proper grammar makes your claim unbelievable.
FYI, these should have been written "would HAVE been dead, "It's TOO bad," and, "confirmation."
Gee Mikey, look at the grammar police. So you don't believe the guy, but how you chose to pick apart his story doesn't give you a whole lot of credibility either.
Methinks the Mikey doth protest too much (apologies to Shakespeare), and I can't help but wonder why.
...a top intelligence official told me, through secret high-frequency encrypted messages that only my talking dog can hear, that Mike Mahoney is an alien from another planet disguised as a human living here on earth. They are keeping an eye on Mikey.
...and since he is here without any government's permission, he is classified as an illegal alien....
I work with high ranking military officers and can think of quite a few with awful grammar and pronunciation.
My husband is USAF (working on officer) and he has horrible spelling and grammar.
I've worked years with various engineers (mechanical and structural)...who've all been highly intelligent people that can barely (if at all) write a complete sentence with no errors.
I hear you Todd. Pick up Leslie Kean's book: UFOs Generals, Pilots, And Government Officials Go On The Record There are many of us out there just like you. We aren't UFO nuts, just people who have had a very unique experience who would like some honest answers from our government without the lies and stone walling any more. Those of us who have "seen" know. Those who haven't will continue in the tradition of denial fostered by their own government. The time is at hand to study this phenomena and learn the whole truth.
In 1989, we had an encounter at 10ft away. There is no question as to what it was or who they were. The craft approached us after we crested a small hill. The craft was hovering on a high power line about 15 ft in the air, 500ft away. I was applying the brakes as my friend said, "There's a truck coming." She later remembers it was not a truck but a big white light. As we stopped, the next memory we have is hunched over in our seats, facing each other and blinking at each other. Our memories are a little off because they were putting us to sleep at the time. The object put us to sleep. Can the govt do that? As we were waking up the object was hovering, 10ft up over our auto, moving slowly from front to back. The lights on the bottom were red, rectangular 8"x2ft, not bright, following the contour of the object. We believe they were the propulsion system.The object cruzed over and out of our sight. My friend screamed, "LETS GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE THEY COME BACK!" Thats when it hit me it was real....we just had a really close encounter. I told her to calm down. I than exited the auto and looked around..Why you might ask? Because I knew this was a once in a life time event....didnt see anything! We left the area in a hurry! ETs live in a dimension humans will never understand. FYI..We were driving slowly in an area where the tree braches/leaves cover the view of the road from the air. We think we surprised them. They must have been super busy when we crested the hill. Do we believe that we are alone in the cosmos....not any more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On September 27, 2010, at The National Press Club in Washington D.C. eight ex-USAF personnel, including Mr. Salas, will discuss their nukes-related UFO experiences. By way of introduction, Mr. Hastings will briefly summarize his 37 years of research on the UFO-Nukes Connection. The witnesses will have notarized and signed affidavits to support their testimony. The assembled members of the media will then have an opportunity to ask questions for an extended period. Hastings has built a reputation as an astute UFO researcher, lecturer and as of late book author: UFOs & Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites; he has interviewed over 120 former and or retired US Air Force personnel regarding their eyewitness accounts and involvement is such cases. He is a popular speaker in the college lecture circuit having appeared at over 500 colleges across the continental United States, and has appeared on numerous radio and television shows, most recently as a guest on The Larry King Show with former missleer, witness and researcher Bob Salas.
-Robert Salas In March 1967, all ten of the 'Minuteman I' missiles under Robert's control were disabled while an oval shaped UFO hovered at close range over the front gate of his launch control center in Montana. He was sworn to secrecy about this incident until 1994 when the U.S. Air Force declassified a similar incident at the request of his investigator, Jim Klotz under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
-Patrick McDonough will one of the witnesses at the National Press Club on September 27th, 2010. Patrick was a Chief of Party for the Field Survey Team of the 1381st Geodetic Survey Squadron, and was at Malmstrom AFB when his encounter a sighting of a UFO at very close range, along with two other witnesses occurred in 1...966. For complete details contact rasalas@roadrunner.com or hastings444@kitcarson.net
-Jerry Nelson had multiple sightings over his Atlas missile site in the early 60's. He is yet another witness going public for the first time.
-Bruce Fenstermacher is also an ex-USAF missile launch officer who will also testify during our press conference about UFO sightings over his facility. This will be the first national public exposure about his incident. We are all grateful for his courage in stepping forward.
-Col. Charles Halt will be one of the seven witnesses speaking at the National Press Club in Washington DC, September 27th. Many people don't realize that nuclear weapons were stored at Bentwaters and the UFOs shined a light on where they were stored.
plus more witnesses
For complete details or television interview contact rasalas@roadrunner.com or hastings444@kitcarson.net
Also appearing will be: Robert C. Jamison—Former USAF Minuteman ICBM targeting officer (Combat Targeting Team Commander), 341st Missile Maintenance Squadron, Malmstrom AFB, Montana: Jamison states that he assisted in the re-start of an entire "flight" of ten Minuteman ICBMs which had simultaneously and inexplicably shut do...wn immediately after a UFO was sighted in their vicinity by Air Force Security Police. .
Unfortunately, Col Halt's affidavit is so at odds with the events recorded on his real-time tape recording, as well as containing unsubstantiated personal opinions, that it would be worthless as evidence. I have pointed out the contradictions here, with links to the original data:
http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/Halt_affidavit.htm
Please see these articles posted on the Reality Uncovered blog for the truth about Robert Salas' and Robert Hastings' claims...
The Malmstrom AFB Missile/UFO Incident, March 1967
http://www.realityuncovered.net/blog/2010/08/the-malmstrom-afb-missileufo-incident-march-1967/
The Malmstrom AFB Missile/UFO Incident – Part II
http://www.realityuncovered.net/blog/2010/09/the-malmstrom-afb-missileufo-incident-part-ii/
Malmstrom AFB Missile/UFO Incident – Part III
http://www.realityuncovered.net/blog/2010/09/malmstrom-afb-missileufo-incident-part-iii/
Both of the launch commanders on duty at the time have gone on the record stating they don't believe a UFO was involved in the shutdown of all ten missiles at Echo Flight contrary to Hastings' claim and confirm that there was no shutdown at Oscar Flight contrary to Salas' claim.
It was in early 1980s, late summer as I recall. We were about 800 miles east of the Hawiian Islands on a NE'ly course to San Francisco. As a merchant seaman for over 30 years then, I thought I had seen nearly all there was to see in the skys....but I had a lot to learn still!
I was 2nd officer on this old C-4 tub called the "SS Hawaii Bear" and we were on our way up from "Down Under" (Australia). As 2nd officer, I was the navigation officer, and I stood the 4 to 8 watch on the bridge. At about 0345 (3:45am) I went up on the bridge to relieve the 3rd mate, and when I did I was suprised to find the surroundings so bright. I thought to myself, ( I must have messed up and took too many times changes in a row because it's getting light far too early). The 3rd mate greeted me, and I said " Gee, Tom, I must screwed up...it's starting to get light very early." "No you didnt Ralph", he replyed, "this got bright like this in just about 10 seconds...I dont know what's going on''. Then suddenly the bow lookout called the bridge on the phone and said, "What's the hell is that on the port beam?" With that, we stepped out on the portside (left) of the bridge and up in the sky at about 35 degrees of ellivation was the brightest "object" i had ever seen in the sky. It was much brighter than any star or planet I had ever seen, and it was hovering in the sky as if to be observing us. A cloud drifted aroung it defracting light and illumiating the morning sky so bright that i could read the small lettering on 3rd mate's nameplate pinned to his chest...Tommy Tompson, it read.
We both stood there in shock with our mouth's wide open unable to even speak a single word., and in less that one second, this "object" screemed acrossed the sky and was out of sight, returning us to total darkness. The object was, I estimate about 5 miles distant and perhaps 1000 to 2000 feet above the water. I estimate the distance and hight above water due to the type of cloud (stratocumulus) that surrounded it. We saw no flashing lights and heard no sounds, but the "object" raced acrossed the sky so fast it left one bright, straight, thin line acrossed the sky before it disappeared forever. It was the most amazing thing I had ever witnessed for now 44 years as a merchant mariner. I learned at breakfast, that there were hundreds of UFO sightings in Hawaii during the night. Thank you, for taking the time to read my comment, but please dont ask me what it was.
In 1968 a young man who helped me move from Florida to Atlanta confided to me that he and a buddy were hunting in the woods at night when they encountered a large metalic craft on the ground and glowing through heavy fog. Like any good redneck would do under the circumstances, he fired on the craft and they both ran back to their truck. The young man assured me they had neither been drinking nor smoking funny tobacco.
About 15 years ago, a close relative of mine, on her first date with her future husband, was driving in a rural area near Columbus, OH, when they saw a very large delta shaped vehicle with bright lights hanging in the sky. They pulled off the road and watched in awe as the craft slowly moved silently above the tree tops and out of sight. It had no visible propulsion system.
If I ever personally sighted a UFO, it was while living in New Ellenton, SC, about 1953. We lived a few miles from the Savannah River Project (SRP) where Dad and my brother-in-law both worked on its construction. The sun had set but no stars were visible. It was a warm evening and I was outside along with my father and brother-in-law among others. I looked up and spotted a bright glowing sphere high in the sky along with a smaller orbiting sphere also glowing. I pointed it out to the others (several were outside enjoying the fresh air). We watched for about 30 minutes before I got bored and went inside. I decided it was a planet with an orbiting moon. But as I grew older, it occurred to me that I had never before nor since seen a planet with an orbiting moon visible with my naked eyes.
None of these 3 incidents would have made it into Kean's book since they were uncorroborated.
This incident(s) took place in 1967 and are just now being brought to light. That's the problem with our government and military. Unlike a Nuclear Plant disaster no one ever bothered to ask "Was the general public ever in any real danger?". How in the world can they enter our airspace and not be detected then or now? Hovering over our nuclear missile silos. What need do they have for them? I'm very relieved to know that they didn't blame the Russians for this because it would have been embarrassing to our military to admit that their technology was far superior to ours. Sorry, but I'm not buying this.
Around 1992, a very large V-shaped LOUD and slow-moving craft went directly over our house at dusk, heading south down the Susquehanna river. My wife and two sons also came out and saw it, as did a neighbor at his house a 1/2 mile away. It was at least 1-3 football fields in length, flying very low and very slow, no more than 30 miles/hr. I'd estimate at no more than 2,000 ft high. It did not change direction or speed - just went into the horizon. It had a roar as loud as many jet engines but with no flame. It seemed to be a single object - hard to tell for certain as the lights made a V, and it was almost too dark to make out the outline. If it was a formation, it was unwavering, but I was sure I'd seen a single triangle outline when it was directly overhead, and not quite dark yet. The next day at work in Lewisburg, Pa, several co-workers remarked they'd seen it go south downriver as well. There was a mention of it in "The Daily Item" a few days later, but the Air Force denied any flights in the area. Years later, I read articles about the Aurora aircraft, and it seemed to fit the bill, except for the slow speed. Never read any explanation for that spotting, which several dozen people in different areas called in about.
Either it had vertical take off and landing capabilities or they were testing the stall speed. For the record, VTOL aircraft are notoriously loud.
I grew up in rural northern Illinois. In 1990 I was a senior in high school, and was coming home from a friends house at about 11pm. As I came over the hill before my parents house A bright green sphere came down from the sky and hovered over the road in front of me. It was so bright, just a big ball of green light- then within seconds it took off away from me, went over the trees and shot up into the sky! It was so amazing that i will never forget it -I don't know what could move that way, so I call it my UFO sighting.
Rob-what month was that ??? I am from Illinois and in 1990-August I was driving to Florida and at the time (do not recall the exact time (1:30-2:00 am?) I was on I-65 in Indiana and I saw a green circular light fly across I-65. I freaked out !! I was in the Air Force for 4 years and worked on the flight line, so I have seen every aircraft imaginable-so this light/sphere shape did not compute. The color of the craft was a dark green but radiating light that was so bright -but no other colors or lights. The craft made a hum/buzz noise that was strange as well. Like I said I was in the Air Force and I LAUGHED at people that believed in UFO's-so now I notice I am the one people laugh at when I tell this story now. I am not going to preach or even try to convince people about what I seen that night- but I do believe now-however I wish I didn't. Sad reality.
I remember when I was young and moved to Florida and thought I saw a UFO... I ran back in the house & gathered some witnesses. Turns out it was a firefly way up high; being from the Pacific Northwest they just don't exist in Oregon.
In the mid '80s, I was gathering with at least 30 other individuals for evening flag lowering at summer camp. I looked up. Heading silently towards the western sunset, was a black saucer shaped object, with rectangular fuscia colored lights rotating in pattern around the circumference of the craft. It had the appearance of many of the rotating restaurants of the day that were so popular. But we were in a rural area, 15 miles from the nearest one, and this thing was floating away less that 400' in the air. To this day, the last thing any of us remember is heading towards our cabins. None of us remember anything else about the night.
Where did you see this object? It sounds a lot like an object I saw as a young child in southwestern Connecticut. The year was probably between 1979 and 1982, during the summer. Location was southwest Connecticut. Probably around 8:30pm - just after sunset. It was a dark, saucer-shaped object with rotating reddish/pinkish/purplish lights which rotated around the object in such a way that made it look like the entire saucer was rotating (or perhaps it was rotating). I looked out the window after stepping out of the bathtub, saw the object, and pointed it out to my mother who also saw it. It was traveling in a westerly direction, toward Westchester County, New York. A few minutes later, I heard a bunch of other people outside talking about the object and how strange it was.
Whoah dude. This just blows my mind, esp considering your objects direction of travel. I think you saw it. I was at a camp called Sunshine camp in Rush, southern Monroe County, NY. You must have seen your craft within 3 years of mine, and my sighting was just after the sun set. I remember there was still significant yellow light on the horizon.
JBird,
Memory lapses by individuals and groups of people are quite common during sightings.
Yep. Back then we would have been getting ready for bed, and drinkin our pre-bed "bug juice" kool aid as kids did. But none of us remembered anything after leaving the flag pole.
Thinking Allowed ...
I've not been privy to any sightings, encounters or apparitions regarding UFOs... but I do find it interesting that the preponderance of these events have taken place in the last half of the twentieth century when mankind had the ability to saturate the sky with our electromagnetic signature. It is at least a possibility that some sentient, curious race of beings intercepted one of our transmissions and possessed the technology to send robotic or manned missions to our planet to investigate the source. When the day comes when humans actually make contact, or are visited ... our place in the Universe shall be forever altered.
Peace, Prometheus
Many historical paintings, carvings, Biblical references and even cave wall paintings of datable nature have shows saucers, landing craft, people that look like they are in space suits etc. Certain Mayan paintings show what appears to be pilots in craft and Indian Sanscrit records actually detail such craft extensively even detailing what to a modern person sounds an awful lot like a nuclear exchange, the damage wrought and precautions taken afterwards along with accurate details of the radiation sickness. Many of these are thousands to tens of thousands of years old. So they have been here for a very long time, and yes, observed.
I think they're observing and just waiting until we're ready.
Unfortunately, we may destroy ourselves before we're ready.
To date I have seen 3 that I am sure of, however the one that stands out most in my mind is the one I saw while in the Navy in the middle of the Indian Ocean on Diego Garcia in '84. I was waiting for the Challenger Shuttle to pass, as it was scheduled to do, and at about the time it should be showing up there was a Large, very bright orbital height object traveling MUCH faster than orbital speed (I have watched satellites since I was a kid) from North to South. It suddenly made what looked like a 90 degree turn from my viewpoint heading West, without changing speed, and a large bright beam of intense greenish (Laser? Plasma beam?) light burst from the North from over the horizon right through where the craft would have been less than a split second later had it continued on it's first course. The object sped up and disappeared VERY fast. The Challenger came by shortly after, heading East to West.
I said nothing to anyone about it for a very long time, having no proof. Then, over a decade later a friend pulled me into the room to see this UFO caught on film from the Space Shuttle...the Challenger, and showed the UFO, the turn and beam of light that I had seen, in slow motion, years before. So now I actually feel vindicated that there was OTHER proof, NASA type, of what I had seen that night so long ago!
I have seen news footage of purported alien craft, shooting out of the atmosphere towards shuttles, as well as purplish atmospheric geysers and beams.
B. Honest - from your point of view Challenger would have flown from west to east (not east to west, as you mention). For any observer on Earth the Shuttle, as well as the ISS, always appears to move from some westerly point to some easterly heading, so moving NE, E, or SE as it crosses your point of view.
(And at the risk of being overly pedantic, the Shuttle, as well as other low-orbit Earth satellites, just after sunset may "disappear" as they cross into Earth's shadow. Prior to dawn satellites may suddenly "appear" as they leave the Earth's shadow and are in full sunlight.)
I hope I'm not nit-picking an otherwise riveting account; just trying to help with the easy details.
Thanks! ~Michael
Sorry Michael, You are Absolutely Correct, it was West to East, and the Object disappeared to the East.....I suppose I could use the excuse that I was South of the Equator...LOL. No, Thank You for pointing that out, you are absolutely right, but everything else stands as I stated it. It was enough to leave me really shaking my head because NOTHING that I know of could have made a 90 degree turn like that and not shredded itself or turned it's occupants into a thin film on one wall doing that at what had to be more than 17-20K miles/hour or more. The reason it disappeared was not due to the terminator, it was because it went straight over me and I lost it in the distance along with it's extremely fast acceleration. Thank You again for pointing out the directional discrepancy!!
No problems; just shows that I'm paying attention!
Hmmm - idea. An object that appears to be a plain old everyday Earth satellite, but IS moving from east to west, would be a very curious object worthy of further investigation.
Good Point Michael, that WOULD be a bit odd considering everything that WE put up we do so Using planetary rotation to give the speed boost. If someone Did do something like that it would show that either they came into orbit from elsewhere (ignoring traffic lanes and the One Way signs) or else had enough energy to burn at launch that they did not need the extra from rotational....Good thought!!
Summer of 1985, I saw two over the Atlantic ocean off of St. Augustine Florida. I was sitting on the beach watching a meteorite shower with fifteen other people. Along the horizon were two lights moving slowly equal distance apart from each other. We watched for about 30 minutes and poof - one went straight up i the sky and disapeared the other straight down into the ocean. Only one person in our group was a skeptic. Then two older folks came walking up the beach and yelled up to our group. Did you see that?!!!!
In 1965 I am a US Army First Lieutenant with my first tour in Vietnam behind me and the second one coming up in a month or so. I am at Fort Sill, Oklahoma but I am here on leave from Fort Benning, Georgia where I just completed training to fly CH-47 Chinooks. I am at Fort Sill because my home and family are living just outside the post in an area adjacent to what was called the East Range.
I have quite a bit of flight experience in both fixed and rotary wing aircraft with Air Medals to prove it. This evening I am sitting in my back yard watching the stars and enjoying a pleasant breezy evening. I am waiting for the kids to finish their bath before I go in for mine. Now I am seeing something over on the East Range that doesn't look like it should be there. The East Range contains artillery positions plus the targets upon which guns fired from those sites. What I am seeing doesn't seem to jibe with anything I have ever seen. It is apparently an aircraft but is operating in very strange ways in an area where aircraft should never be. Its movements and changes of direction seem impossible under the laws of physics.
I have been aware of recent reports of flying saucers over a radio station in Oklahoma City but I was instrumental in debunking that report when I flew over the station during the night in a small Cessna. The disc jockey kept reporting lights pinpointing the station from UFOs in a loud and frightful voice. As I flew over the DJ continued with his spiel but I was the only flying thing in the immediate area and the guy was just trying to jive up listeners to his station.
Having the Oklahoma City thing in the back of my mind may have had something to do with what is happening to me now. I go inside and get my binoculars. I take a closer look at whatever is going on out on the East Range. Watching through the glasses I become even more alarmed that whatever is out there is nothing I am aware of. The longer I look, especially through the glasses, the more I realize the UFO is even more mysterious than I previously thought. It is going up and down, around and around, and flashing all kinds of lights. I am beginning to have feelings of wonder and dread. Fear is welling up inside as I became convinced the object is not of this earth.
I continue to watch, now for nearly 30 minutes, and then I notice that the UFO has become more stable but it is also approaching me from the east. It is flying directly toward me. The thought goes through my mind that an intelligence on board that alien apparatus is reading my mind, knows where I am, and is determined to come right to my yard. Through the binoculars I watch as the UFO comes closer and closer. I am beginning to feel an aura, like heat, or light you can feel, that is surrounding me there on the ground. Now it is right on top of me. My heart is beating rapidly and I can't get my breath. I have long pooh poohed UFO reports and now one is about to whisk me away.
I take the binoculars from my eyes as the UFO is directly above me and very close to the ground. I am so frightened I want to charge for the house but I am too scared to move. And now I see it. It is a CH-47 which has been hauling artillery pieces to the Range. It is passing over my house because my house is located under the normal downwind leg for aircraft landing at Sill.
I tell this story whenever I get into a discussion about UFOs. I will not deny there are UFOs. I do not deny people think they have experienced UFOs. My experience was as real as anyone up until the point where I recognized the Chinook. This experience also taught me that even the most highly trained and experienced among us can be fooled by visual effects. Sometimes when the familiar is presented to us in an unfamiliar environment we can see things that are not there.
With all due respect, I cannot accept a story of a helicopter, any helicopter, being mistaken for anything other than a helicopter. I was in the service and the sound of helicopters is so distinct, their appearance so unique, in my humble opinion it's impossible to mistake them for ever being anything other than a helicopter, even and especially at night. The way the rotors beat the air and affect light -- unmistakable.
If there is intelligent life somewhere out there in space they certainly would not had tried to contact us!!!
If there is intelligent life somewhere out there in space they certainly would not had tried to contact us!!!
Can't say what it was, but several years ago my wife and I were coming back from Colorado. It was the middle of the night, as we left New Mexico and crossed back into Texas, we were the only ones on the road for miles at a time. Then I moticed there were headlights in the rearview mirror, way back, but still could see them back there. They were real bright, thought it must have been high-beams or possibly driving lights. Then after seeing them for some time, they were gone. I figured the car had turned off the highway, when I noticed they were back again. Must have been a hill we went over.... then the next thing I knew, the lights were separated. Like they were two vehicles... figured it must be a couple motorcycles. Then only one light was back there for the longest, when suddenly the other one would be back again. It was kind of crazy. Those lights seemed to dance around in the rearview without any rhyme or reason. When we pulled intot he next small town... the lights were gone again.....
There was a person I know who had the exact same experience in New Mexico. His car was followed by what he thought was a motorcycle that was tailgating him. He would speed up and the object did the same. When he slowed down, it slowed down. He finally pulled off the highway and got out of his car. What he saw was a ball of light, bright as a headlight, just floating behind his vehicle. He took off at high speed and the light again began to follow him. He said that as he went up hills the light remained level and simply went through hills and came out the road behind him to continue following. Eventually he said it simply vanished. This guy was a professional trained observer driving a state vehicle so he was no nut case.
I have had two encounters with UFO'S. In March, 2003 my companion and I were returning from a day at the beach in Galveston, Texas. It was a partially cloudy evening, and we took the 146 highway to return home. As we drove conversing with one another suddenly three balls of the purist brilliant white started dancing in the sky to our left. I was screaming with excitement because I was not the only person to witness these balls of dancing light; however my companion even though he admitted to me that he saw them too advised me to never tell anyone because they would think I was insane. Suddenly the balls of white with the only word that I can find to fit what happened next was woosh and they were gone. I might add whether this is of any importance that we were about two miles from a huge electric company. Has anyone else had this sort of experience near an electric company not far from their sighting?
I was working at a chemical plant just north of Seabrook Texas in 2006 and all the employees were outside our shop getting ready to take a company photo, just after lunch on a clear day during a summer month when I spotted a solid silver beer can shaped object in the sky over Seabrook. We all saw this thing as it stayed perfectly still. There were no windows, it was solid and appeared to be about the size of a semi truck. I ran to get binoculars out of the control room but when I got back all who were watching said it just got smaller and smaller and then disappeared. Anyone else see it from the Seabrook area? Too weird.
Seen a few things myself in the past. No need to say more.
When in a country of 320,000,000 people, a hand full of our most ignorant citizens can somehow cause a strategic impact on a war effort by burning text (a rather sacred one), what do you think the President would have to do if he had knowledge of an advanced civilization from a different planet hoovering over you and putting up with us.. I say @!$%# it and let it all fly cause we really got nothing to loose at this point. He should quit flying his "experimental" aircraft around in the mean time cause they cheer me up.
I saw a black triangle, clearly, over suburban st louis in 1982 with my grandpa. I was 12. It hovered silently over a house at a height of 500 ft and was huge, as in football field size. It had round corners like a billiard rack, with pink lights. No way was it military. We are not alone.
FecalPeanuts (funny name) I too had a similar experience on November 19, 2007. I was driving down a dark country rural road heading into town, I was alone, and there were no other cars on the road, the moon was not out that night, only the night stars were visible. Suddenly above me in the sky appeared a huge triangular shaped object, with bright white lights in the shape of a triangle. It's lights came on for a moment, and then they went off, and then they came on again for another moment, and went out once more. As soon as the lights went out the UFO was completely invisable, like it melted into the darkness. We do have an air force base near where we live, so my thinking was maybe they were on maneuvers and teaching a new pilot to fly the stealth airplane, if not that then I cannot explain what I saw that melted into the darkness with such ease.
In August of 1995 I was a t Oshkosh at the EAA event. I was asked to fly my HU-16 Albatross down to a town in Indiana to take a couple of pilots to pick up another aircraft for a flight back to Oshkosh. We delivered the pilots and then took off about 5 minutes behind them. It was about 12:00 AM and there was a cloud cover above us. As we were coming up over Gary, IN at about 2000 ft MSL, I noticed a reddish orange object to the West toward Chicago. I brought it to the attention of my wife, who was the co-pilot, my flight mechanic and his son. I at first thought it could be a converging aircraft as it did not change position in my side window. As we continued to watch, it stayed stationary over the Chicago area. As we crossed the Lake Michigan shoreline the object remained quite visible in the same relative position. We observed the object for approximately 10 or more minutes. I would say that it appeared to be spherical in shape. And judging from the distance from us that it appeared would have been probably at least 50 to 100 feet in diameter. We continued to watch an suddenly it started to diminish in size as if it was moving away from us at a high rate of speed. It moved upward towards the overcast and disappeared from view. It left what appeared to be a contrail into the overcast. We discussed this unusual sighting the rest of the way back to Oshkosh. The next day I was able to speak to the pilots in the other plane. One was a retired Flying Tiger captain. I asked him if he had noticed anything unusual on the flight back from Indiana. He responded by saying that they had seen it, as well being surprised that we had seen it. He said they weren't going to mention it to anyone,as people would think they were crazy!! This object had been observed by my crew as well as the other crew who was approximately 15 to 20 miles ahead of us. This would rule out any possibility that it was a reflection from the sun off another ground based object or aircraft.
"I looked out the window and saw this white light. It was zigzagging around. I went up to the pilot and said, "Have you ever seen anything like that?" He was shocked and he said, "Nope." And I said to him: "Let's follow it!"
We followed it for several minutes. It was a bright white light. We followed it to Bakersfield, and all of a sudden to our utter amazement it went straight up into the heavens. When I got off the plane I told Nancy all about it."
Former US President Ronald Reagan
Describing his 1974 UFO encounter to veteran newsman Norman C. Miller, Washington bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal.
I've seen 3 in California 1977,2000,2001 and they were all different and impressively not from our planet. They are flying different models too.
Hey!..thats my hubcap!..I wondered where it was....wait till I get the first mockup of the enterprise as a ballon off the ground...then watch the ufo call centers go berzerk...So far the best tale is the elder lady who called to tell em she caught one and tied the tentacles (ropes) to her carport and fence...the weather ballon dragged her carport through utility wires, traffic lights etc....word to the wise, if you catch a ufo, let it go if you are not properly trained in linguacode and at least familiar with aeorodynmics....hehe
Rural Machesney Park Illinois near Williams Park on a warm August 1973 night.
"By, I am going to pick up Linda," I said to mom as I closed the side door to our house paying special attention to turn off the side porch light so the bugs wouldn't buzz me as I walked by. Except for the door shutting behind me it was a quit night, the crickets weren't chirping and for some strange reason the mosquitoes didn't seem as active. My car was on a dirt service road about 50 feet away from our house that was parked about 30 feet from my neighbors dimly lit barn. Reaching my car I fumbled for my keys "Where is that damn key," I mumbled anxiously because I was late picking Linda up. "Oh this is it." A light danced across my driver side windshield startled me as I partially opened my car door, my inside dome light started flickering on and off. The light from the reflection off the window seemed to be moving from behind me by Pecks barn. Mr. Peck is usually asleep this time of night, so what could it be, nothing is in back of the barn except a large unpopulated wooded area?
I turned around and looked up above the barn still holding onto the door, a faintly lit flying saucer shaped object approximately 20 feet in diameter was hovering just above the rooftop, there were no sound -- strangely I wasn't afraid. I slowly closed my car door behind me enough to turn off the flickering dome light while still looking up at the object. This thing was so close to me that if I was standing on top of the barn I could touch it. About 10 seconds passed as I looked up at it trying not to make any kind of noise as it move to the left. Another saucer shaped object of equal size moved over in its original spot, now there were two of them side by side hovering above the barn. Mesmerized, I just stood there temporarily paralyzed by what I saw.
After what seemed like a few seconds I thought to myself, "Oh if I could only get a picture of this," so I slowly walked back to the house to get a camera. Facing the spacecraft that was still affixed above the barn with my back against the door to the house I turned the knob. I opened the door just standing there looking up at it for several seconds, "well hell buddy shut the dam door," my father yells out at me, "all the mosquitoes will get into the house, were you born in a barn." My younger brother, Mike, was sitting next to the door. I whispered to them, "get a camera I see a UFO." Watching the spacecraft starting to move I grabbed Mike's shirt and pulled him up out of the chair. As Mike followed me out of the doorway the spacecraft moved suddenly skywards off to the left of where they were and stopped again about a 100 yards from where they were before. "What is that," Mike asked. "I don't know"
The spacecraft made a move skywards again and within a couple of seconds they faded away as a moving star in the night sky. Mom showed up at the door, all she could see was a black sky full of stars. What seemed like just a few minutes turned out to be an hour and a half, so I called and canceled my date with Linda.
Mike and I silently walked in the dark around our house looking towards the night sky as we turned around the front corner of the house towards my car, "Ruff, ruff, ruff," a noise violently yelped charging at us in the grass. "Ah-ah-ah-ah," Mike yelled and jumped as it approached, not knowing what initially made the noise. "Toughie, shut up," I said. Our dog soon switched from barking to wagging his tail. Toughie was a picknese, he must have gotten out of the house as I opened the door. Laughing I said, "are you Ok Mike, do you need to change your underwear. You know it's kind of weird, dam dog would bark at everything but he mustn't of heard the UFO." "We should report this," Mike said. "Oh yea who would believe a couple of teenagers," I replied back.
Nice story, but I can't help feeling like it was a well-written piece of fiction. A neat short story like that should appear in some magazine. Please submit it.
The thought that our local universe might be filled with many different ET worlds fills me with endless delight!!!