UFO - What Did I See?

[HewManHeMan]

Right so, to set the tone; I don't believe aliens are visiting or have visited Earth. It's a fun idea, but no.

I'm also very sober and very boring. I almost enjoy finding the mundane in seemingly brilliant events. I'm not religious, I often find the idea of religion slightly offensive, and I don't believe in the super natural or magic. Science, physics and maths blow my mind sufficiently enough to worry about, well you know. Other stuff.

With that in mind, some weeks back, off I trot up to the boarders to view and (hopefully) photograph the recent Perseid Meteor shower. With the added bonus of ISS flying over, and maybe a glimpse of the Milky Way. I saw some amazing meteors, just managed to spot ISS and the faintest glimpse of the Milky Way. I royally bksed up any photo taking through lack of experience, but it was a good lesson and I'm happy just to be learning.

But what's stuck in my mind since, was a little random red dot that went traveling through the sky that night. It was moving at the speed of a regular satellite, but moving in seemingly random directions. I first noticed it coming from the East, traveling West, but changed course towards the North just as it was overhead. Think of it's path as being a raggedy U shape.
It basically looked like Mars, if you could see Mars quite clearly, and Mars had gained rocket boosters and decided to relocate but had forgotten how to drive.

At first I assumed 'Chinese Lantern' but having set some of those off at a birthday party last weekend (apologies to nature, I know they're not the best) it was not a lantern.
There was some air traffic in the area, but given the lack of ambient noise you could hear any aircraft very clearly, and this was moving far too randomly (and silently) to be an aircraft.

And, after that, I'm out of ideas. I can't help but think either someone here with knowledge of such matters will explain what I saw with a one word answer (weather balloon?) or nobody will and you'll all think I'm making it up.

BTW I did try to video it with my iPhone, but it's just a black mess of digital noise. If I can find the time and energy I could maybe run it through a video editor and try to clean it up, but I'm not that hopeful (or arsed)

Edit, getting this in before anyone else does;

Edited by HewManHeMan on Wednesday 16th September 09:52

[HewManHeMan]

Eric Mc said:

A lost bird?

A glowing red one visible at midnight?

I suppose if it was a massive swan reflecting the setting sun, then yeah, but it would have had to have been one big white bird! And also been one aerobatic badass.

Edited by HewManHeMan on Wednesday 16th September 10:00

[HewManHeMan]

Ha. Well I believe there'll be other forms of life spread across the universe but I don't think one example was driving around the sky that night.

But it was certainly a very weird sight! Not something you see every day, and still - to my mind - very much unexplained.

[HewManHeMan]

Crikey.

Eric, I'm sorry but i don't think it was a bird. I realise you're talking to an internet stranger and the Internet is home to the dullest and weirdest and most crackpot-but-fixed mind lunatics available, but I'm not one of them. I appreciate there's no way for you to verify that, however, you'll just have to take my word for it. Or not, it makes no real odds.

And yeah, the romantic in me would love it to be *something* from... Mars? But the chances of anything coming from there are a million to one!

I posted out of curiosity at to what the Science forum might come up with, or if anyone's spotted anything similarly bizarre. An explanation doesn't keep me up at night, and I'm not sitting here in a tinfoil hat just in case*

• because their advanced mind control techniques wouldn't allow it, obviously.

[HewManHeMan]

jmorgan said:

You can boil many down to simple human frailties in observations. A windy turbine losing a blade had some claim UFO for gawds sake. Rather than look for the rational, the search will be on to fit it to ET, indeed hammer the round peg into the square hole as hard as they can.

Yeah but isn't this equally as interesting? I'm no tin-foil hat lunatic, but was miles from home, in a field in the pitch dark watching a meteor shower surrounded by angry (sounding) sheep. So, way out my comfort zone and feeling somewhat claustrophobic as a consequence of the wide open field contrast the total lack of ambient light. Whilst I know there's no wolves or bears out there, doesn't stop your mind from thinking 'what if?'

What I find bizarre is knowing the limitations of the mind in these circumstances, and that your observational skills are impeded by increased stress factors, then stopping to take stock, close your eyes (to adjust for light), re-evaluating the situation (run through the rational explanations) and still seeing... an unexplained red dot moving across the sky in a fashion that excludes it from being aircraft, BIRDS, satellite, meteor etc.

I did dismiss it as a Chinese Lantern but having seen them recently, I've ruled them out (hence the post here). That said, would a weather balloon be carrying a red light and massively affected by turbulent air?

[HewManHeMan]

Munter said:

Drone. Sent out played about a bit, and returned in a U shape to about where it came from.

Could be, but the U shape was massive. It would have landed miles (20+, easy) from its starting point.

Unless it was lost, fixed itself to an assumed stationary hover then was carried by the wind?

Edited by HewManHeMan on Thursday 17th September 10:53

[HewManHeMan]

Eric Mc said:

Listen to the first few minutes of this you tube clip ESPECIALLY to his take on the validity of single eyewitness evidence-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkjkh3OrjeA

Makes me thing of the Jeremy Beadle 'sketch'.... "Would you like a cup of tea???" Haha.

[HewManHeMan]

Eric, I can't help but feel you've taken a remarkably aggressive stance here.

I wasn't wishing 'it' to be anything. The Mars line was a joke. I'm not taking this entirely seriously.

That said, you're working from 'them', aren't you?

[HewManHeMan]

remkingston said:

Might be worth looking into the Terminator effect.

Its the same thing that makes our eyes see the moon and sun being the same distance away from ourselves when they are anything but.

I'm Googling that now! Thanks.

Also going to look at insects that carry internal phosphorescence, but don't tell Eric because he's being grumpy (if it can be explained by that, I'm considering this thread a win)

[HewManHeMan]

Eric Mc said:

Or a moth?

We know who you are, Eric.

[HewManHeMan]

Eric Mc said:

Firefly?

You've been rumbled, Eric.

[HewManHeMan]

jmorgan said:

HewManHeMan said:

jmorgan said:

You can boil many down to simple human frailties in observations. A windy turbine losing a blade had some claim UFO for gawds sake. Rather than look for the rational, the search will be on to fit it to ET, indeed hammer the round peg into the square hole as hard as they can.

Yeah but isn't this equally as interesting? I'm no tin-foil hat lunatic, but was miles from home, in a field in the pitch dark watching a meteor shower surrounded by angry (sounding) sheep. So, way out my comfort zone and feeling somewhat claustrophobic as a consequence of the wide open field contrast the total lack of ambient light. Whilst I know there's no wolves or bears out there, doesn't stop your mind from thinking 'what if?'

What I find bizarre is knowing the limitations of the mind in these circumstances, and that your observational skills are impeded by increased stress factors, then stopping to take stock, close your eyes (to adjust for light), re-evaluating the situation (run through the rational explanations) and still seeing... an unexplained red dot moving across the sky in a fashion that excludes it from being aircraft, BIRDS, satellite, meteor etc.

I did dismiss it as a Chinese Lantern but having seen them recently, I've ruled them out (hence the post here). That said, would a weather balloon be carrying a red light and massively affected by turbulent air?

That was more a reply to the other conversation starting. But in the main it is interesting. Much like that test on QI where a miscreant stole something and they could not get the identity right when the line up was there. Humans are quite varied at what they observe. Believe it or not the planet Venus is cause of near accidents (and probably some accidents).

I would never say there are no aliens visiting Earth, just that the odds are against it as we stand at the moment and looking at the tools we have to work with, i.e. us humans, there is plenty of room for the mundane.

FWIW I have seen lanterns making good progress when the wind was still at my location and that did turbine blade was interesting when you watched it develop, there was a fire works display in the area so it was a many tentacled alien at one point that ripped it apart, even top secret stealth aircraft. The final inquest was failed bolts holding it on, but the owner of the site did nothing to put off the rumours seeing as all the free pub;licit he was getting for his firm.

And watch out for them marauding baa baa's, they are sneaky.

This I find really interesting;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

i.e. Aliens not visiting is stranger than Aliens visiting, given the age and scope of the universe.

[HewManHeMan]

Eric Mc said:

For a chap who claims to be indifferent to the "woo woo" factor - the links you are finding suggest otherwise.

Not buying into tin foil hat nonsense doesn't mean you have to be ignorant of it.

I don't believe The Lizard People are forming the New World Order, but I'm still aware of the it. Why not? It's hilarious. Well, it is when people genuinely believe it.

Just to clarify, if my Alien Red Dot can be explained by an insect I'd be over the moon (not literally, obviously - not without being abducted - which clearly isn't on the cards : ( In the same sense that posting a picture of a deep sea fish on Facebook, claiming it to be proof of ET, would blow peoples minds; what we have here on Earth, right in front of us, is often far more exotic than what people WANT to believe exists in outer space.

And this often baffles me; you can keep a marine fish tank that contains the most other worldly creatures you couldn't even imagine in your front room, alive and healthy, and it's the imaginary creatures on Mars that people are wanting to exist. Ditto religion; there's folk out there clambering over themselves to seek answers from a God when there's 'Science' offering far more relevant answer and, more importantly, questions... Why do people look to their ill-advised imaginations when there's a vast amount of tangible data and research offering far more fulfilling pursuits?!

... ramble ramble ramble.

[HewManHeMan]

jmorgan said:

HewManHeMan said:

This I find really interesting;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

i.e. Aliens not visiting is stranger than Aliens visiting, given the age and scope of the universe.

Well, depends, (it is interesting yes). It may be the norm. Until we meet one, or they try to wipe us out and they get a computer virus in a strange set of happening, that is just a theory. Stars need to chuck out the right stuff for life to happen and that takes time. So maybe we are the first? Maybe travel is just too much and we will never meet.

Edit. I think we will find life but through observation of a planets spectra rather than in person.

Edited by jmorgan on Thursday 17th September 11:42

Mate, I'm posting this from a MacBook. I'm ready for an alien invasion (even went for the 2014 model to ensure it had USB connectivity - imagine getting up there and finding they haven't setup AirDrop?! You'd be furious)

[HewManHeMan]

Eric Mc said:

Being aware that a lunatic asylum exists doesn't make one liable to become an inmate.

They're coming for you, Bar... Eric.

[HewManHeMan]

Eric Mc said:

Does that thing glow in the dark?

More so than a BIRD would, ERRRIC.

[HewManHeMan]

Actually, what ever happened to Gary McKinnon? Claimed to have hacked into US government computers, was appealing against extradition... claimed to have found evidence of alien technology.

I always assumed he was playing the role of nut-job (by claiming he'd found alien tech) to discredit himself so that the US authorities would go easier.

[HewManHeMan]

Eric Mc said:

HewManHeMan said:

Eric Mc said:

Does that thing glow in the dark?

More so than a BIRD would, ERRRIC.

I never said that the bird was glowing. I've seen non-glowing birds on quite dark nights (and I'm referring to the feathered variety).

I know, I'm just being facetious. Sorry.

[HewManHeMan]

Careful, fellas. Eric's from the Men in Black.








(but in all serious, nice to know I'm not the only one! Haha)

[HewManHeMan]

DonnyMac said:

Clearly this isn't the explanation of what you saw but your post reminded me of the weird way Mars orbit is seen from Earth - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbynKfNfHk4

That's ace. Thanks for sharing!