Unusual light shines in Arizona

Unusual light shines in Arizona

www.necn.com

Something strange was seen in the sky over the Phoenix, Arizona valley on Saturday night.

A Scottsdale resident reported seeing a light hovering over the city that could not be identified. One local astronomer said the most likely culprit is the Comet Lulin which can be seen from earth right now.

However, that comet is supposed to seen in the eastern sky. Saturday's object was seen in the west.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Wonder what the heck this is in the video? You can see that it moves around a bit, not likely that it is a star or planet. It is mentioned that possibly it is the camera that is moving and not the object. It also mentions a comet that is veiwable in the eastern sky ( I didn't know that there was one right now?)

www.necn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I wouldn't categorize that as "unusual". It looks like Venus or some other planet. It wasn't even moving.

Must be a slow news day.

reply to post by harrytuttle


I didn't categorize it as 'unusual' the writer of the article did, that was just the headline. I have looked on space.com and it looks a lot like the Lulin comet, right color anyway, but in the wrong location, also it is mentioned on space.com that lulin was visible with binoculars on Sat night, this is much larger than that.

Doesn't actually look all that unusual to me. There is no way to tell it is even moving for starters.. The one part of the video you might have been able to tell was only a second or two long before the next segment fades in. Then only the object is in the field of view and nothing to use as a reference point for determining whether or not it has movement. In that short 2-3 second segment, there is no sign of any movement whatsoever.

The planet Venus actually IS in the Western sky right now as well...

It makes sense.

The "aura" we are seeing around Venus in the video is commonly associated with moisture content of the air and/or high altitude ice particles. They are usually called "Halo's".
www.lochlyn.org...

Here in Alaska, even the sun can create a similar phenomenon when the sun's light becomes refracted by high altitude ice crystals. They are commonly called "sun-dogs".

Some examples of sun-dogs..

images.aad.gov.au...

www.polarbearalley.com...

aspire.mlml.calstate.edu...

-ChriS

reply to post by BlasteR

Venus never shines here with a color hue, it is always white light. And this was over Arizona, I doubt that sun dogs would apply here. I have seen lots of sundogs over GA, it happens a lot in the winter here, high clouds and cold air make for some beautiful ones.

Originally posted by space cadet
reply to post by BlasteR

 

Venus never shines here with a color hue, it is always white light. And this was over Arizona, I doubt that sun dogs would apply here. I have seen lots of sundogs over GA, it happens a lot in the winter here, high clouds and cold air make for some beautiful ones.

Well, I see what you are saying. But if the light from venus becomes refracted by high altitude ice particles and/or high moisture content, it could, potentially, change color like this. If you see some of the images I posted of sun dogs you can see what I mean. Refraction of bright white light (such as that from venus) basically splits the light up into all the colors of the spectrum that make up that light. Refraction is what happens when a prism splits up white light into its component color spectrum.

Scientists and astronomers use Refraction to split up the light from distant stars into their component color spectrums (also called spectography). By analyzing the colors that result from this refraction scientists can tell what elements make up that star. Red is caused by hydrogen, for example. So depending on how big the red band is, scientists can pretty accurately calculate how much hydrogen makes up that star.

Refraction is why a rainbow has bands of color always in the same order too (though sometimes reversed just depending on the type of rainbow you are talking about). And a halo around the planet venus in the night sky like this is a good sign that there is either high altitiude ice particles, high moisture content, maybe even both. Gives it more of a possibility that this particular light in the sky really is the planet Venus. Especially given the actual location of Venus currently in the Western sky. I just saw it Friday night and showed my wife.. "Look honey. That's Venus". And there is no doubt it is in the West.

The changing color you notice in the video occurs all the time when you look at stars, only at varying degrees; Even when the night sky is completely clear. That's because that light still has to pass through alot of moisture and upper atmosphere material before it reaches your eyes. This is basically why stars "twinkle" on a clear night and appear to change color. When the light from that star travels through much thicker bands of upper atmosphere ice particles, the twinkling becomes more noticeable and sometimes will even create a "Halo" (You may have seen the moon's halo, for example, on an extremely humid night). I talked about this and gave a link to it in my previous post.

The Sun dog examples of Halo's and refracted color bands was not meant to represent what we are seeing in this video. It was only posted to act as an example of what is usually referred to as a "Halo" which is what surrounds the light from Venus in this video and that light refraction caused by this same process can cause a normally white star to change color like this. Halo's may not be common to Arizona but they aren't exactly a rare optical phenomenon. I'm not saying this isn't the mothership from Alpha Centauri. I'm just saying its a stretch when you consider the other more likely explanation I have described.

-ChriS

[edit on 23-2-2009 by BlasteR]

reply to post by BlasteR


You seem much more informed than myself, I certainly don't know a whole heck of a lot about space, I am simply intrigued by it. I don't think what we see in this video is a ufo, or of alien origin,and I wonder about a sundog at night, I just want to identify what it really is, what phenomenon is taking place. Thanks for the info.

[edit on 23-2-2009 by space cadet]

Confusing video. Did the person that filmed the "object" stop filming or did the "object" simply disappear? Looked to me like it was fading out, then poof, it was gone.

I did see an airplane at the beginning of the video, but the object didn't seem like Venus to me, as it didn't look round.

Yes there was a plane with flashing lights there. Glad to see the blinking lights there on the video. Makes me think we were seeing it about the same time. From my point of view I was looking to the EAST. Not very high on the horizon. Seemed to be in direction of the Scottsdale Airport. Hard to say how far away it was though. Could have been behind or in front of the airport.

not a very big story here yet.

Comet Lulin



en.wikipedia.org...
www.newsoxy.com...

Astronomers in Florida and Texas are bracing to get their first look at the comet as it comes within 38 million miles of Earth. The green color of Comet Lulin is produced by gases when illuminated by the sun. This produces the glowing effect in space as it travels.

[edit on 23-2-2009 by Next_Heap_With]

How long would have the comet stayed in view? Mins? Secs? or hours? Because when i went to get my camera it was gone?

The blue light seems a lot bigger than the plane light seen next to it in the beginning of the video. Also, if it was Venus, why didn't they just say that's what it was. The local astronomer said it was most likely Comet Lulin, but that's the wrong direction. How could an astronomer make that kind of easy mistake??
I can't find the thread, but it was about the Hopi Indian prophecy that a blue star will appear in the sky as one of the final signs??? Intriguing video.

reply to post by Next_Heap_With

No way that is the comet. Phoenix has too much light pollution. Epic fail!

Well I was looking east for sure. However if the person was reporting was in far east scottsdale they would need to look west to see it IMO.

After watching it for a min. I told "it" to wait a sec while I got my camera but "it" didnt listen.. lol

I saw an object three nights in a row with very clear skies. The object was in the west at about 45 degrees from the horizon. It was shockingly bright, unlike anything I had ever seen. So much so that I pulled out my telescope from 5 years in storage to take a closer look. I saw some purple pulses in the light. Not sure if the purple was from the lens or something else I'm not factoring but it was VERY impressive. Light rays were very tall vertically and a little shorter horizontally with rays the filled in the rest of the body. It was unreal and I mean unreal.

I created this image in an attempt to reproduce what I saw but it doesn't do it justice but you will get an idea of the shape.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/bdfbfe553906.jpg[/atsimg]



Edit: I should also add that I saw the light just after sundown (8pm) and the later it got in the evening the lower it appeared in the sky and the dimmer it got.

[edit on 2/23/2009 by kinglizard]

could not be the comet - it is barely visible with naked eye .
line2

Originally posted by space cadet
reply to post by BlasteR

 

Venus never shines here with a color hue, it is always white light. And this was over Arizona, I doubt that sun dogs would apply here. I have seen lots of sundogs over GA, it happens a lot in the winter here, high clouds and cold air make for some beautiful ones.

Venus does indeed shine in color depending upon the atmospheric conditions, in the day I had even mistaken her majestic sparkling beauty as a UAP. It happens, and Arizona skies are among the most divine on the planet. I am going in june, and look forward to many special sky searching moments.

I LOVE the Arizona skies.

Is there a way to measure the light scale brightness from the plane VS the object?

Originally posted by ranhome
Is there a way to measure the light scale brightness from the plane VS the object?

My initial thought when I first saw the object was that because of the unbelievable brightness it had to be so type of aircraft with it's landing lights on. So in an attempt to determine if it was moving I put the tip of a tree branch between me and the object so that the tip of the branch was lined up with the light. Then I made observations for a min to see if the alignment moved....it didn't giving me the impression that it was not an aircraft. Plus it appeared in the same spot for a couple days.

I went out last night in an attempt to see if the light was still there but it was overcast.

I will go out tonight to see it again if the weather gives me clear skies.






EDIT: It looked like you would imagine a huge cut diamond would look in a dark room with three white lasers hitting it from different directions with one if the lasers switching from white to purple.

[edit on 2/23/2009 by kinglizard]