Last night my friend and myself were taking a walk in a nearby forest. It was twilight when we set off and we went for quite a long walk. We reached a particular summit when we decided to turn back because it was so dark. We could just make out the outstanding view of the alpine forest stretching out far below. I looked up at the many stars and could make out Venus, and then another bright moving star which I quickly realised was the space station. I watched it disappear behind the trees up and over to my left. We then set off back to her house quite quickly as it was almost pitch dark.

When we reached her house my friend wanted to get something from one of her out buildings. By then she had her torch as it was pitch dark. I waited just outside the door to the building and looked up at the star filled sky. My friend lives higher up than me and has a wonderful view of the night sky. Anyway I was looking at what I thought was Venus and made a comment to my friend about how amazingly bright the planets can look compared to the stars. I noticed a circular cloud around it. After about half a minute (roughly) of admiring this 'planet', the intense light started to diminish. I decided that must be the cloud I'd seen around it passing in front of it. However that's when things got exciting. This diminished light started to move to the right. It travelled along for about half a minute to a minute. Long enough for me to scream excitedly to my friend to come and look at the once stationary 'planet' that was now moving along in the sky. My friend came rushing out, but by then the 'planet' had diminished to a pin prick of light and it was impossible to point it out to my friend amongst the other stars. I then watched it just disappear into the blackness of the night sky. Meanwhile, the planet venus was located behind her house (had lost my bearings of it since we got back from our walk) and nowhere near the area where that 'planet-like' light had been.

Does anyone have any idea what the hell I saw? I have never seen anything like it before in my life. It was high up in the pitch black sky and was so bright compared to the other stars I was convinced it was the planet venus. I don't know why that circular cloud surrounded it. How it could be stationary in the sky like that, mimicking a bright planet, and then start moving along, losing its brightness, only to then disappear? Has anyone ever seen anything like this or know what it might have been?

Thanks,

Aelf

[edit on 20-9-2009 by Aelfrede]

Hi Phage,

thanks for getting back to me.

Sorry I should have added that I live in Wales, UK. Would I be able to see it from here? Or perhaps a similar project was taking place?

Thanks,

Aelf

Hi again,

I just watched the video you sent Phage. It didn't look like the blasting light thing. But you know at the beginning of the video there is a (obviously stationary) star/planet in the sky? it looked like that except it was twice as bright because it was pitch black. It was stationary like that star for at least half a minute. If it had never moved, I would never have thought anything of it, except how planets can look so bright. I did think it a little strange about the circular cloud that surrounded it, but thought maybe bright stars can have this sometimes, just like the moon can sometimes have a cloud around it. It was only when it started moving that I realised it wasn't a planet and was a UFO.

Aelf

I don't mean to sound skeptical but it is very difficult to judge distances visually without any sort of reference to go on, especially very large (long?) distances. I
agree with Phage because I have seen many planes that seem to be hovering lights as they head towards or away from me and they are strange to witness indeed until they bank and give themselves away. And just because you don't live near an airport doesn't mean you don't live near a flight path of some sort albeit maybe a seldom used corridor. Also, the British Isles are quite small so relatively speaking you are quite close to many airports and air bases. I would say it is a high altitude plane just because it sounds like a classic case of the sort of thing I have seen many times.

If you search around on the net you will come across details of how a man in the second world war learned how to exploit our inability to judge distances properly.(I can't remember his nationality) He actually made miniature armies that fooled his opponents.

Anyhow, we can definitely say you saw a little light. That's about it unless you want to just go making stuff up.

[edit on 21-9-2009 by mrwiffler]

If it had just been a plane, I would have been able to track its light for longer, it wouldn't just travel across a small space of the sky, gradually diminishing in brightness and size to a small pin prick, just to vanish completely into the blackness. Like I said, I have seen satellites before and planes at various alititudes in the night sky before (like most people). The travelling light looked like a satellite. I would have decided on it being a satellite if it hadn't just been a stationary bright planet looking star just moments before.

No, that's not true(I would have been able to track its light for longer) of high altitude aircraft. There is a thing called 'atmospheric attenuation'. The amount of attenuation of your observable light source depends on a few factors, one being the brightness of the source, another being distance from the source. The most likely scenario is that you saw a high altitude plane climbing to a point where the light wasn't bright enough to make it into your eyeballs.

Satelites are sometimes visible because they reflect sunlight. They are very bright.

You might want to check out the brightness of lights used by high altitude
aircraft. I'll bet they sometimes use lights that are not very bright. Especially military aircraft.

PS: I just had a look and the FAA requires high altitude baloons (@roughly 60,000ft=11 miles)to have lights visible for only 5 miles. Using that info as a reference I would say you might want to review your ideas about whether it was a plane or not.

[edit on 21-9-2009 by mrwiffler]

[edit on 21-9-2009 by mrwiffler]

Sounds like the ISS pass I also saw, it fading into a pinprick of light then vanishing is exactly the kind of thing ive seen the ISS do over 30 times as it orbits into the Earths shadow and the sun's rays cast upon the space station get blocked by Earth.

It not moving was a optical illusion as its path is curvatured, so it takes long for it to reach a high degree in the sky during the pass and after.

Sounds like Geo-Plasma cause by the rubbing of rocks deep underground.

I think robl240's answer is better than mine. I was trying to think of how a satellite could create the effects you saw Aelfred since you were so adamant that this was something orbital but it was outside of my experience.

[edit on 21-9-2009 by mrwiffler]

If you read my original post, you will see that I had already seen the space station just before returning from my walk. My friend and I watched it moving in the twilight sky. As far as I know the space station does not come around again so fast (within 30 minutes). Don't forget what I saw was stationary in the sky for at least half a minute (which is why I'd thought it was a planet) I just wish you could all have seen it. Then you'd see what I mean.

Originally posted by mrwiffler
I think robl240's answer is better than mine. I was trying to think of how a satellite could create the effects you saw Aelfred since you were so adamant that this was something orbital but it was outside of my experience.

[edit on 21-9-2009 by mrwiffler]