So, I've really only got one or two more UFO things that have happened over the years to share here, and keep meaning to post them but get busy at work. This one is short, but interesting.

My friend John and I were out fishing one night, clear sky, away from the city lights, during a part of the year when Orion was visible but not prominent in the sky at the time of night. We were both sitting there, quiet, and looking at the stars. Mind you, the sky was huge, and we had clear view of the entire night sky.

I found a triangle of stars (three) and became fixed on that part of the sky for whatever reason. All of a sudden, from the top star, two lights that looked just like the three stars as far as size, shape, and brightness, took off in different directions, kinda like a V, as one went left, one went right, then faded out. My buddy John says "There they go..." and I was blown away that he happened to see what I had just witnessed. He obviously HAD to be focused either on the triangle, or very close to have seen the same thing. We talked and joked about aliens and UFO's for a few minutes, then went back to fishing.

Has anyone else winessed anything like this before, where a "fixed" star tosses out two or more stars? Oh, I should add, because I've read many posts here, that no, there was no drinking, drugs, or such involved.
I'll post my other encounter in days to come. It's weird and I'm not sure how to word it as of yet.

That sounds typical of a fireball (larger shooting star) that enters the atmosphere and breaks apart especially if they enter going away from you or coming towards you.

How long did the trails last? I spend a great deal of time in the Mojave desert near 29 Palms and Amboy. These are such a blast to witness, sometimes I swear you can hear the fireball hiss when they come through.

Take care,

Originally posted by Stockburn
That sounds typical of a fireball (larger shooting star) that enters the atmosphere and breaks apart especially if they enter going away from you or coming towards you.

How long did the trails last? I spend a great deal of time in the Mojave desert near 29 Palms and Amboy. These are such a blast to witness, sometimes I swear you can hear the fireball hiss when they come through.

Take care,

Hmm, I'm also a night watcher, backpacker, star gazer etc, so I'm aware of trails. These were not "falling stars". It's as if two craft left one of the stars. There were no trails. Anyway, I won't beat a dead horse, I was just curious if anyone had seen such a thing. Hmm, just realized something. I was staring at a triangle of stars, three stars, and out of one of the stars came two other stars. Maybe we were accidentally staring at a ship, and just caught two little dudes leaving. Well, anyway, who knows.

Do you know which stars you were looking at? How was the viewing with naked eye? I am an amateur astronomer some of the time bringing out my telescopes to the desert for a little relaxing. On a perfect night with zero background lights from cities I can see stars down to magnitude 7 with naked eye. Which means there are literally thousands of stars that can be seen with the naked eye. Where I live I can usually only see maybe 40-50 stars as the light pollution is severe in SoCal in the city. Were they tyical background stars or brighter stars?

It is also possible they were satellites. If you stare in one location long enough especially right after sundown you can see the satellites reflecting the last bit of sun. cruising the by in the night skies. Perhaps, the three stars you were looking at by chance two satellites were coming into view and your eyes thought you saw the stars move but where really just satellites coming through your view.?

No, I'm absolutely positive that these two stars left the one star, same basic speed, in different directions, at the exact same departure time. The triangle was not much brighter than the surrounding stars, and it was not a night or location like up in the mountains, where you see millions of stars and the Milky Way. But, it was a triangle, and I ten to look at things like that. It was just to the right of Orion if my memory serves me correctly. I'm sure that helps a lot, lol.

I've seen many things, such as rockets, meteorites, showers, satellites, etc. I've never seen anything like this before or after. I'd have to say, after thinking about it, that it wasn't a ship, that is, unless it sat there for months after we saw this, because I remember looking at the triangle many times afterwards, hoping something else would leave from there. I haven't checked the night sky in awhile to see if I can find the triangle, my bad.

I just came in trying to figure out which 3 stars you were looking at. I am curious, how close were the stars? Say within a fist at arms length in the sky? Orion's belt has 3 stars of course not in a triangle, but rather almost perfectly straight in a row. There is also the triangulum within the orion but you would need a nice 6" dob or 4" refractor to resolve those, definately not a naked eye object.

Then there is the orion nebula which is close by in the arm. And finally the Pleiades which is really 7 stars but on a poor night or within the city I can see how they might look like a 3 stars, of course, there is a nice nebula in there too.

In any case, when you get a chance, go out and see if you can locate them. As Orion is out this time of year so you should be able to nail it.

Draw it up or go download cartes du ciel for free and you can give us an exact map with star names.

Take care and happy hunting.

Originally posted by Stockburn
I just came in trying to figure out which 3 stars you were looking at. I am curious, how close were the stars? Say within a fist at arms length in the sky? Orion's belt has 3 stars of course not in a triangle, but rather almost perfectly straight in a row. There is also the triangulum within the orion but you would need a nice 6" dob or 4" refractor to resolve those, definately not a naked eye object.

Then there is the orion nebula which is close by in the arm. And finally the Pleiades which is really 7 stars but on a poor night or within the city I can see how they might look like a 3 stars, of course, there is a nice nebula in there too.

In any case, when you get a chance, go out and see if you can locate them. As Orion is out this time of year so you should be able to nail it.

Draw it up or go download cartes du ciel for free and you can give us an exact map with star names.

Take care and happy hunting.

Man, I did try to figure out which stars they were just last night. If I remember correctly, Orion was more to the South Eastern sky when this happened, but it was 15 years ago, so I really can't be sure. I'll tell you what though, if over the next few nights I can even remotely figure out where they are and describe the area of the sky I will.

I was really just fishing here to see if anyone else had seen something similar, which it seems they either have not run into this post, or I'm all alone on this one ;-)