Most Boring UFO Ever

originally posted by: MrMorden
I'm not sure it's a balloon. Why?

1) Balloons are essentially masses of buoyant gasses in a flexible container. They are generally NOT symmetrical or spherical. This is because the gas biases upward due to buoyancy and makes the balloon larger at the top than the bottom, making them somewhat teardrop shaped. If the balloon is inflated to very high relative pressure, it can appear more-or-less spherical, but then as it rises it will likely experience an overpressure failure (it pops), then it's *really* not spherical.

I dont know what it is, but it could be the angle that makes it appear to be a sphere, which would also hide the flap (or knot) at the bottom of the balloon.

As far as it's movement, winds get pretty strong and go different directions at different altitudes. While at this time of year the jetstream isn't at its strongest, at between 40,000 and 60,000 feet (by the photographers guesstimate), you're still gonna get some pretty gnarly wind.

a reply to: Blue Shift

Twice a day, all over the planet, every day, there are weather balloons launched, more than a thousand per day.

Sometime, someone is going to see them do something which seems weird to them.

originally posted by: mbkennel
a reply to: Blue Shift

Twice a day, all over the planet, every day, there are weather balloons launched, more than a thousand per day.
Sometime, someone is going to see them do something which seems weird to them.

You know logically, I hope, that just because there are thousands of weather balloons launched that in no way means there can't be some weird spherical thing also sailing along that have nothing to do with those, and that maybe, just maybe somebody is seeing something that is actually and truly doing something weird. Otherwise, you would think -- because of the thousands of balloons -- there would be many more strange sightings reported. As it is, we get surprisingly few.

A corollary to this is that not all UFOs must be flying saucers or triangles. Some of them can be spheres. It all depends if they appear to do something a normal balloon doesn't do. For instance, if the sphere suddenly shot of at ridiculous speed into the wind, or maybe vanishes before their eyes, or how about just glowing brightly from the inside? That would not only seem "weird to them," but would actually be weird. And worth reporting.

This has always been the case with UFOs in general. Not everybody can be wrong. Not everybody misidentifies something mundane. Not everybody can be lying. And it's that tiny percentage of cases that make the entire phenomenon worth investigating.

a reply to: Blue Shift

Good points, and it seems that legit UFO sightings are more common than actual weather-balloons... as I've never seen one, nor do I know anyone who's ever seen a weather-balloon.

In contrast, I've seen at least 3 very legit, alien UFO's, and I think that at least most of my family members have seen at least a couple themselves.

(I've seen a very classic silver flying saucer; I've seen a glowing see-through polygonal craft at night; and I've seen a nighttime UFO of 2 lights in a row which quickly shot over the entire sky. Yet I've never seen a weather-balloon lol. Maybe they're too small and flimsy etc. to really create a dramatic sighting?)