Why a Large Group of People (Astronomers) Rarely Report UFO sightings.

a reply to: _BoneZ_

I don't ever recall reading that in the bible. Would you mind sharing the verse(s) that depict what you describe?

I don't know the verses, but I get where that comes from because of my early church upbringing. In the Old Testament, after they built the tower of babel to heaven to slay god, the people there were given different languages so they had to separate into smaller groups and go their separate ways because they could no longer understand each other. This is part of where separation by race and culture comes from today.

I don't follow that fairytale, just answering your question or nearabouts anyway.

a reply to: CraftBuilder

You generally don't become a professional astronomer and just look through telescopes.

The thread title (since changed) didn't include "people who are becoming astronomers", it just said "astronomers rarely report".

My point is you don't have to be one to realize you are looking at something not from here. When you see a UFO thingy, you will know. I can say that till I'm blue, only other witnesses go, uh huh. This is my second reply to you, your point is what again?

originally posted by: CraftBuilder

originally posted by: intrptr
Astronomers aren't 'looking for UFOs'.

I'm an amateur astronomer and I look for anything new or interesting in the sky, including possible alien craft. I have built instrumentation for professional observatories so maybe in a way that makes me a professional astronomer. I also work in the aerospace industry, hence the name. So astronomers do look for ufos and are excited to find them. They just don't call them aliens when the more likely explanation is something terrestrial.

Scientific methodology has to be developed in a person. It is not something we are born with and not something most people end up with during the regular course of their lives. I've learned that is very easy to make an assumption about what I've seen and then been easily proven wrong by someone with experience and considerably more knowledge in a subject.

Thanks for your resume, I have one too. Been sharing it for years here, gets kind of old hearing others say the problem is others aren't as scientific or experienced as me so what they say hasn't any merit.

If thats what you are saying…

then how would you know one way or the other, you weren't there? Everyone there that night was of one mind about what we saw, because their was no mistaking what it was, obviously.

Someone all scientific and experienced wouldn't understand a remark like that though, because obviously, they weren't there.

My presumption is that even if they were they would still deny it. Sometimes the science crowd make the worst witnesses, they are all too wrapped up in their convention and yardsticks.

a reply to: intrptr

Thanks for sharing your experience also.

I was with 2 other fellow employees of a survey/engineering firm, here in the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland --- We were heading east back to Baltimore, in a full windowed Ford Van for the weekend --- on a dual highway over looking a mountain valley --- after climbing the mountains of West Virginia, in order to stake out a railroad track to a coal strip mine.

No memory of any lost time...but I believe I had a telepathic experience ---- between my two sightings during that night of November, 1976 --- whereas I could sense the presence of a highly intelligent entity onboard the starship.

My only regret was that I did not travel back to the area and search for the foo fighter's landing spot. I made up for it by travelling to the Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania, UFO landing site in 1977; for an investigation.

a reply to: _BoneZ_

Where only 5% of respondents (62 out of 1356) saw something they could not explain. That's a very low percentage.

So it should be dismissed like your pre-edit OP implied? At least you've had the opportunity to skim a survey you were unaware of.

Otherwise, I agree with your re-stating the obvious that most reports are explainable. Sturrock's stats that slightly over half of astronomers thought the subject was (1977 etc) worth scientific study is interesting to some of us.

originally posted by: _BoneZ_ we almost always understand

'almost' is the same as 'not'

a reply to: Erno86

Thanks for more detail.

My only regret was that I did not travel back to the area and search for the foo fighter's landing spot.

The thing I saw never landed, just passed in front of us and continued on to where it "disappeared".

I did come back three nights running in the hopes of seeing it again, the last night my best friend and I had a falling out after arguing about it. We parted ways and I don't know where he or the others are today.

Best friends relationships ended that night, not because we could't agree with what we saw, far from it. Because he wanted to stop going up there to see if it would come back night after night and I didn't. Because he wanted me to stop telling about it to everyone, everywhere we went. It was a time when these sorts of things relegated one to the "Twilight Zone" of sanity (insert theme). You didn't go about reporting you saw "UFO's" unless you wanted to be laughed out the room.

Once in a lifetime event, fortunate to have been there. I know now today they all feel the same way, wherever they are.

originally posted by: _BoneZ_
Where only 5% of respondents (62 out of 1356) saw something they could not explain. That's a very low percentage.

Actually, this "only 5%" of astronomers (which you dismiss as a "very low percentage") is within the range of estimates usually given for the percentage of the general population that has seen a UFO. And the entire point of your thread is to show that astronomers -- educated and informed people who frequently observe the sky -- just don't see UFOs. But they do. The Sturrock data, plus the more informal data from Hynek and Vallee, pretty convincingly contradicts your central claim.

(Edit: it sounds like you've modified / backed off of your central claim... which is the correct thing to have done.)

originally posted by: TeaAndStrumpets
And the entire point of your thread is to show that astronomers -- educated and informed people who frequently observe the sky -- just don't see UFOs. But they do.

The whole point of this thread is to show that astronomers know what they're looking at when they see a planet, plane, balloon, etc., and report UFO's far less frequently than the average citizen.

Nobody is claiming that astronomers don't see UFO's. Just that it's far less frequent than the videos of birds, planes, balloons, drones that get posted on YouTube by the average citizen claiming "UFO fleet" or other type of UFO.

a reply to: _BoneZ_

qft
/

a reply to: _BoneZ_

For some one who is cynical, or for a more politically correct POV, skeptical about the existence of certain possible UFO's, you do seem to have a high interest in them for someone who like to debunk alot, let alone other attempts from other would be cases being posted?

Seen something?

a reply to: _BoneZ_

Quite a big difference between 6 seconds and 4 minutes... I've seen the ISS on occasion, it's not hard to track it and find it. As I say, I'm talking seconds not minutes... If you hadn't seen something like it I would understand you wouldn't believe it existed

a reply to: _BoneZ_

Check out this article:

Dr. J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer who investigated UFOs for the Air Force, is the first person known to have conducted a survey of astronomers regarding UFO sightings. In 1952, he conducted a small survey of 45 colleagues, and among them 5 (11%) admitted that they had a UFO sighting.

A more exhaustive study was done by Hynek with the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) in 1980 which included 1800 members of various amateur astronomer associations. 24% responded that they had “observed an object which resisted [their] most exhaustive efforts at identification.”

Astronomers see UFOs too

a reply to: _BoneZ_

I once saw a flying triangle that was doing manuevers above my house near an air force base. It was extremely obvious it wasn't a celestial object, especially when it flew right overhead and I could see the underbelly! Now we know these aircraft as part of the Aurura project, but that wasn't the case back in 1994.

Besides celestial objects, there could be alternative aircraft out there - stuff like secret spy planes, drones, etc. - that could be mistaken as a UFO and aren't normally seen. I guess the balloons are kind of like that.

I am a firm believer in ET's...there are too many reported sightings, from tens of thousands of people, through thousands of years of human history, to write 100% of them off to natural phenomena, or in later years, man-made objects.... the very few that do stand up to scrutiny, (being completely unknown objects but verifiably observed), are not occupied, but are "space drones" for several reasons.....unknown conditions traveling to earth, primitive hostile earth species, occupants not necessary to study us.

originally posted by: darkbake
a reply to: _BoneZ_

I once saw a flying triangle that was doing manuevers above my house near an air force base. It was extremely obvious it wasn't a celestial object, especially when it flew right overhead and I could see the underbelly! Now we know these aircraft as part of the Aurura project, but that wasn't the case back in 1994.

Besides celestial objects, there could be alternative aircraft out there - stuff like secret spy planes, drones, etc. - that could be mistaken as a UFO and aren't normally seen. I guess the balloons are kind of like that.

did you report it, and/or do you have more detail, witnesses, or collaborative information?

a reply to: _BoneZ_

Note: This is not an attempt to debunk ufo's, I have personally seen them and know they are real. However, there are many fake sightings out there and you bring up a good point. Those balloons you posted reminded me of led balloons. I can see how this could be mistakened as a UFO though.

The ones ive seen, do not move like this. More like zig zag and high speed Shooting upwards and disapearing after zig zagging, and doing movements impossible for a plane or balloon.

Watch how the led balloons move.

a reply to: jimmyx

I did not report it, but I have other witnesses - my sister and best friend at the time were with me. I tried to take a photograph of the aircraft, but it was too dark and the picture didn't turn out.

originally posted by: _BoneZ_
Nobody is claiming that astronomers don't see UFO's.

I know plenty of Astronomers that are interested in the subject and the discussion has been argued that there are quite a few "UFO's" that are sighted (by Astronomers), but will never make the light of day because they will not report them officially as they believe it could have a labeling affect on them and their career. Not quite unlike why many credible witness's hesitate stepping forward (officially) for the fear of being labeled crazy or.. (insert other negative connotation here).

And let's not forget the one that will stand above many in his (and his group's) pursuit for answer's on the subject...

The CUFOS Organization

Who started the Center for UFO Studies?

"The Center for UFO Studies was started by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, who was a professor of astronomy at Ohio State University, and later, chairman of the astronomy department at Northwestern University. During the 1950s and 1960s, he served as the astronomical consultant to the United States Air Force's Project Blue Book. Essentially, his responsibility was to determine whether there was an astronomical explanation for a UFO sighting. Professor Hynek would study a UFO report and decide if its description of the UFO suggested a known astronomical object. That is, did the witness see the planet Venus or a meteor instead of a genuine UFO?

At first, Dr. Hynek was skeptical of the whole UFO business, but after examining hundreds of UFO reports by credible witnesses, he became convinced UFOs were worthy of serious study. "

Hynek found that his fellow astronomers seemed to be very close minded on this issue. In his book, The UFO Experience, he recounts the story of a commotion that was made at a reception with “several hundred” astronomers when it was reported that there was a UFO being seen outside making strange maneuvers. He says people laughed and made some jokes as usual, but that not one astronomer went outside to investigate.

Astronomers are looking through telescopes. They would not spot anything through their telescopes anyway. Do they spend more time looking at the night sky? Perhaps sure, a bit. But in a very static location. That doesn't prove a thing. Saying "most" leaves the door wide open you know. Most is not all. If even one case is legitimate, then there is your proof. Also, I'd think pilots would have a much more likely chance to spot UFOs than an astronomer.

More importantly, I believe that the legitimate cases are rare. Perhaps a few a year. More devices to record stuff is the only reason we see videos of every dot in the sky. That, with the ability to Photoshop anything with greater ease than ever before, means that there is a lot of fluff out there.

I am all about focusing on the important, legitimate cases.. because even though they are few, I think they are the real-deal, and need to be focused on, even if older cases.