Saw something strange in the sky tonight

At aprox. 7:00pm tonight in Maryland I was on my porch with the little woman talking and i looked up at the sky to the South from my vantage point and noticed a very bright light in the sky. Now what seemed strange was that it was cloudy and could not see any stars in the sky. Since we are in the DC metropolitan area I would normally think it was a plane but this did not move at least at the time I noticed it. It faded then came back then disappeared. I said to the wife I am going to get the binoculars. When I came back it was extremely bright.As i looked through the binoculars I saw what seemed to be something out of the ordinary...so I had the wife look as well.She also said that was odd. This is what we saw:



I went back inside for a moment she then said it had disappeared then reappeared and had move from our vantage point to be aprox. 2 feet to the south West. As I came out to look again and grab the camera it had faded to black and did not reappear. This left us wondering what the hell it was.

.....looks like an atari first person shooter....maybe something burning up???"faded and came back"...different elements melting at diff temps??? dunno man wierd.

It was brighter than any star I have ever seen. I started thinking it must be a planet but why would I be seeing a planet and no stars. Then the smaller lights on each side of the main larger one with what appeared to be a thin light interconnecting them all in the shape of a cross was odd as well. My crude picture I drew is not very good and the cross had equal length lines on all sides even though my picture does not reflect that sorry.

reply to post by CaptGizmo


they were all at 90 degrees of each other (lines)?? it kind of reminds me of the glint when you look at a star...pulses from the atmospheric intereference...but that doesn't explain why you couldn't see any others...maybe an airplain looking right at you?? don't know why it'd disappear and reappear tho.......what's with those little dots too.... the ones that seem to run up and down the "lines"

Yea it was really strange and a very heart pounding moment for us as this is our first ever sighting.If you could call it that as we still are unsure of what it was. She says that when she was looking at it through the binoculars it changed shape then went back to it's original shape..I personally did not see that though. Damn I wish I was quick enough to get a camera shot of it. It was one of those situations where you are not quite sure if it is something legitimate or not.

reply to post by CaptGizmo


Where are you exactly?

If you are facing due south it would be in your 2 o'clock position. If that's what you saw, that is my star.

Originally posted by ben91069
If you are facing due south it would be in your 2 o'clock position. If that's what you saw, that is my star.

what?

saw the same thing last night and my husband and i used our binoculars also..whatever it was appeared green in color and moved significantly after only about 10 mins.
we live in southwestern baltimore county(arbutus) and were looking westward.
he tried to find it again tonite. but, there was too much cloud cover.

reply to post by heather65



a corroborator (sp?)? calls for a flag fsho.

reply to post by schrodingers dog

I am in Annapolis,MD and it lasted about 15 minutes. I would say it was at about the 1 o'clock position in the sky. then moved about 2 feet in correlation to the ground to the 2o'clock position in an instant.

reply to post by CaptGizmo


Next time you see something unusual give me a shout. I'm in DC and light pollution is pretty bad but if I can throw a couple of extra eyes at it we might get something.

This could be lens abberation in the binoculars, or in the observer's eyes. I suggest you observe a known bright star such as Sirius and see what that looks like. Most binoculars aren't made for astronomical type viewing. Point lights are the most difficult things to see properly because low quality lenses create all sorts of abberations/spikes, etc. If your lenses produce nice points of light fron Sirius, then anything you observe with a shape like the drawing must be real. Anyone looking at unknown lights/UFOs should ALWAYS verify the quality if the image by checking it against a known source.

WG3

[edit on 29-12-2008 by waveguide3]

Earlier this evening (Mon.29th) at about 7:00 p.m. I was out on my driveway walking my dog when I noticed an extremely bright light in the western sky. I live in Hilliard, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. At 7:00 p.m., the sky here was pretty much clear. I noticed the the small-Dipper constellation above my head in the southwestern sky,etc. Then, to the west of the Dipper, and lower in the sky I saw this extremely bright light that I first thought was a plane. However, it wasn't moving--I watched it for about ten minutes with a tree and power lines for a point of reference, and it never budged. What was strange, was not only the brightness, but the size (width) of the "ball" portion of the light minus the light "rays." It was not star/planet-like in anyway-- It reminded me more of a headlight on an approaching train as you wait at a R.R. crossing at night. Now, here is the strange part ! -- I had the dog out again at approximately 10:00 p.m. and noticed the sky had almost completely clouded-over. I went back out again at about midnight to carry out our garbage to the curb. I noticed that the clouds were thinning, and by the time I was finished (15 min.later) the sky was pretty much cloud-free. Once again, I could see the little-Dipper,etc., however, the bright star/"light" was gone ! Nowhere to be seen !!! I even got in my car to drive beyond the western treeline, and still, no "light." I guess I classify this as a UFO (?) Has anyone else experienced a light in the sky like this ?

Waveguide, agree with you.

I think it may be Venus, the king of this time of the year evenings. It is very hipnotical brigther now. So we can expect more sightings If the cloud cover has enough thinness, venus light can go through, but over stars don't. I saw this sometimes.
And the witness describe the time (evening), the position (aprox south) and the movement direction (to the west), as Venus can be. And, the clouds are moving, so the thicness varies, so venus can shine great or dissapear moments later.

And the odd appeareance i think is only in your binoculars, so, if not proffesional, then prone to aberations easy to see on bright dots of light.
YOU can REPEAT the experience in evening next days, and see Venus for youself. One more sign of lens aberations: if you tilt (incline) you head to left or right while seeing Venus (or other bright light dot) through binoculars, you can see how abberation remaining fixed in the field of view relative to binocular (so no vertical anymore). if the object has really those vertical lines, then you should deduce if belongs to venus and not to binocluars aberations. And more signs of aberations: if you "move" Venus away from center of the ocular field, it may easy morphing "strange" .

[edit on 30/12/08 by depthoffield]

[edit on 30/12/08 by depthoffield]

Am I the only one not understanding the posted photo? It looks like a black background with some lines and dots drawn in using Paint Shop Pro.

Originally posted by sos37
Am I the only one not understanding the posted photo? It looks like a black background with some lines and dots drawn in using Paint Shop Pro.

Did you not read the post or did you just go right to the image I created showing what I saw. In my original post I stated I did not get a photo of said object.Please go back and read the post before judging it.

As well as another poster stated their spouse had seen the same object the previous night.

[edit on 12/30/2008 by CaptGizmo]

i live in texas and saw the same thing to the east so prob a planet

Check this out....

Look familiar?

www.coasttocoastam.com...

reply to post by whaaa


The cross of lights is about right but I did not see the shape as it was to far and pretty cloudy that night. Thanks for posting that though.