Weird object in my sky last few nights

I live about 70 miles north of San Francisco in a secluded area. Pretty close to the big fire.

For the last 3 nights there has been a orange light that looks like a Star. It moves around like a drone in the distance. The weird thing is that it has been in the sky for about 5 hours not landing . It will move around for a few minutes then sit completely still for like 20 minutes. It seems to react to a flash light. I thought it might be a aerostat for monitoring fires but it moved faster than an airplane a few times. My girlfriend and my sister have also both witnessed it.

Nobody knows what it is, any logical explanations?

a reply to: bananashooter

First off, I'd just like to say that I hope you and your family are gonna be alright n safe throughout all of this. I live slightly down south from you, by Fresno and yesterday was the worst air quality I've ever seen. Anyways, I just read online (and I'll include the link btw) that fire departments recently have been heavily investing their money into the use of drones for fighting fires, for rescue operations, and etc. They have drones anywhere from the standard sized ones to full fledge wings on them. The fire department uses them for a variety of reasons, but here are some that more fit your case. So, they use them too monitor the edge and spread of wildfires and respond to any changing situations. They watch over the crew for hours at a time to reduce the risk of something happening to the crew. They seek out hot spots or smouldering spots, as well as survey and map the scene out. And well there's probably more, but that's just my "logical-explanation" based opinion lol. Surprising, cause any other day I would've said it was probably a UFO.
Again, best of luck and health to you and your fam.

www.thedrive.com...

a reply to: bananashooter

Wow, I just re-read the original post, and I just noticed that I basically lectured you on what you already had suspected.
Sorry for that mate.



So yea, it was most likely a UFO.

Thanks, It’s nerve racking after ny house almost burning down last October, thank god there is people who live to fight fires!

But I just can’t say it’s a drone after seeing some of its maneuvers.

It looks just like the YouTube videos if you search Star ufo

a reply to: bananashooter

....it's Mars.

a reply to: bananashooter


so it moved faster then a plane and was sitting still at times,sounds like a ufo to me.
Ive seen these star ufos myself so i know its a real phenomena. ive seen two of them pretending to be stars only to shoot of at incredible speed and then vanish into thin air.
How fast did it accelerate?
congrats on seeing one ,if thats what it was.

a reply to: bananashooter

Totally understand. I've had numerous experiences of my own, with UFOs, so I know it's a lot "you had to be there" moments lol. I'll check out the vids on YT right now though. Too bad I don't live in SF or I'd say let's taunt it (respectively, somehow) with my high wattage laser.

a reply to: bananashooter

Just a theory but i'd guess it's probably the laser guide star of an adaptive optics telescope near you, reflecting off the smoke & dust in the atmosphere.

They shine a laser (or an array of them) up through the atmosphere to measure the atmospheric distortion and they then adjust the adaptive optics of the telescope to counter the distortion.

Most of the guide star lasers are orange in color, using Sodium lasers.

Perhaps it is from the Adaptive Optics at Lick Observatory?

I mean anything is possible but you would think I would see a beam in the smoke.a reply to: chr0naut

originally posted by: Atsbhct
a reply to: bananashooter

....it's Mars.

Could be. Mars is very bright.

Add the autokinetic effect, and voila!
www.britannica.com...


OP, in what direction and time are you observing this object? I don't know of any drones that have a 5 hour battery.

a reply to: bananashooter

Download Stellarium.

It is amazing how stars and planets can deceive.

stellarium.org...

It definitely wasn’t a Star being tricky, it moved from east to west In seconds, not mars, I saw mars too.a reply to: tommyjo

originally posted by: bananashooter
I mean anything is possible but you would think I would see a beam in the smoke.a reply to: chr0naut

You would only see a beam if the atmosphere was evenly hazy. Normally, if you shine a laser, the dot of where it reflects back from is brighter by at least an order of magnitude than the beam.

They choose a Sodium laser because there is a layer of Sodium ions (specifically mixed with water & Ozone, as NaHCO3) which occurs in the upper atmosphere. The laser light specifically excites these ions and so they reflect the laser most brightly. If there were Sodium ion abundances lower in the atmosphere, then the guide star wouldn't properly pick up all the atmospheric distortion so well.

That's why they call it a guide star, not a guide beam.

The Batman signal wouldn't work if you saw the beam too brightly (as all us nerds know so well).