White star-like UFO in South Florida -- Anyone seen it?

Hello mates. I am near a place called Miami Lakes in South Florida for work at the moment and I've been seeing something weird in the sky. Mind you that I am used to seeing things like this because I'm from England and UFO orbs are seen all the time in my neck of the woods.

I don't know if anyone saw it, but last Friday, at about 12:30 AM, high in the western skies, there was this extremely bright/shimmering star-like object positioned in the sky that was moving very slowly diagonally. Then it would dim out and light back up again. It moved a few inches across the sky (from my viewing point) in the span of about five minutes. The average Joe would have mistaken it for a star or even Venus, but it wasn't! It's movement was extremely subtle. Even stranger was that it has since disappeared -- I went out to check on Saturday and Sunday and it was no longer there! Has anyone else in the South Flor5ida area seen it or know what I'm talking about? It was very similar to the UFO that this person has been filming in Miami (just ignore the music lol):





[edit on 30-11-2009 by hermantinkly]

It is possible that it was the shuttle Atlantis or the ISS which both were highly visible to the naked eye last week.

In fact, Id say it ws the ISS:

www.spaceweather.com...

BIG SPACESHIP: It's wider than a football field, has more than 13,000 sq. ft. of living space, and weighs more than 760,000 Earth-pounds. On top of everything else, it looks great through a telescope. Behold the ISS:


Pete Lardizabal took these pictures on Nov. 28th when the space station flew over his backyard in St Johns, Florida. "I used a 130mm (5 inch) refracting telescope and a Canon 30D digital camera," he says.

No telescope is required, however, to enjoy the ISS. Human eyes do fine. The enormous spaceship reflects enough sunlight to outshine Jupiter or Venus, and it is easy to see in the night sky even from brightly-lit cities. Check the Simple Satellite Tracker for flybys of your home town.

[edit on November 30th 2009 by greeneyedleo]

Is the 'object/ISS' stationary or ?
It don't seems to be moving..

Maybe my eyes are playing with me !!!

Slight movement, looked like the trees were fooling me ..
Slow speed, the times Ive seen iss, it has past over pretty fast..

[edit on 30/11/2009 by ChemBreather]

Do you know how long an ISS flyby typically lasts? I mean it could've been the ISS, but it's movement was just so subtle and slow, and it dimmed out several times. I should say that it wasn't as bright as I suggested in my first post, but rather it was shimmering and sparkling like a fiery diamond in the sky reflecting light. It was beautiful. I don't know if all of this is usual behavior for a man-made satellite. Perhaps someone who's seen the ISS from the ground should pitch in and describe how it looked.

I saw two lights low over the city over Vancouver, BC last night. It was orange in color, it had varying brightness, yet unblinking, but still looked like a very large street lamp hanging over the horizon.

The first one would appear in one spot, float diagonally to the left to a lower alitude, then another one would appear in the place where the original light came from, then after a few minutes the original one would disappear, then the second light would move slowly to the place where the first light disappeared then another light would appear in the place where the first and second lights came from- rinse and repeat. It went on for hours.

It was strange how the lights disappeared- they would dim brightness and increase brightness incrementally almost immediately, not like the lights dimming and brightening when they were travelling away or towards my position, but almost as if the lights were being turned off and on.

I took a series of pictures and some video but too much trouble to upload them, they just show 1-2 bright orange lights in the sky, nothing earthshattering.

Google maps shows Miami Lakes to be 1-2 miles away from Opa-locka airport. My guess would be that you saw a plane lining up for final approach.

Often all you can see is just a single light that drifts a little when it's flying directly towards you. I live in a place where they line up like this, so I see them all the time, and they could easily be mistaken for stars.

Originally posted by C.H.U.D.
Google maps shows Miami Lakes to be 1-2 miles away from Opa-locka airport. My guess would be that you saw a plane lining up for final approach.

Often all you can see is just a single light that drifts a little when it's flying directly towards you. I live in a place where they line up like this, so I see them all the time, and they could easily be mistaken for stars.

I know exactly what you mean about how planes flying towards you can be mistaken for UFOs sometimes. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten excited and fetched my camcorder only to find out it was a plane after seeing the flashing red navigation lights.

This was not the case however. Actually, I thought it was a star at first. You would've had to have been looking at this object for several minutes before you would've even noticed it was moving, or else you would've just thought it was an ordinary star. It's movement was so subtle. It was sparkling and it would dim out and then back up again.

I can't help but think this is another hoax attempt. The video seems designed to deceive, and so does the OPs post.

Reasons:

1) The video plays at normal speed in the beginning when the aircraft passes by, however, shortly after that and for the rest of the video it is played at a faster speed. It is being fast forwarded. You can see the tree/bush leaves moving extra fast, and the shake of the camera is also greatly exaggerated.

To me it seems the first part of the video is designed to make you think the video is playing at normal speed. Then without warning the video is switched to fast mode.

2) Also, playing a video at a faster speed changes the sound, so that to me explains why music was added. To hide the fact the video was fast forwarded.

3) The "twinkle" of the light is usually caused by objects outside of the Earth's atmosphere, and is most common with stars, and less common with planets but does happen on occasion. The twinkle is caused by turbulences in the atmosphere causing the moving atmosphere to refract the light.

Sometimes, if the turbulences are powerful enough, it will make the object seem to "dim" or even disappear. I have personally seen this happen with stars before. It will look like the star completely shut off and turned back on.

4) The path, and slight curve of the light source is similar to that of stars and planets appearing to curve around Earth as Earth rotates.

Conclusion:

I believe this is a star or planet (probably Venus). The twinkle of the star or planet is caused by atmospheric refraction. I believe the OP or whoever made the video fast forwarded the video, and made the star or planet appear to move faster than it actually is. I think it was a deliberate deception, and I think the OP saying that it passed in "5 minutes" is a knowingly false statement based on the fact that the video appears to be run in fast forward.

I can't believe I wasted 10 minutes of my time watching a passing planet or star in fast forward.

reply to post by hermantinkly


Well, could it be Siriusthat you were looking at then? Can you go and check a bit later on than you saw it the other night? It should be just a bit higher up than you saw it.

The description of the "movement of the object" fits what you'd expect to see from a celestial body, and it sounds just like any other bright object that can show scintillation. Sirius is a prime candidate for this.

Originally posted by C.H.U.D.
reply to post by hermantinkly

 

Well, could it be Siriusthat you were looking at then? Can you go and check a bit later on than you saw it the other night? It should be just a bit higher up than you saw it.

The description of the "movement of the object" fits what you'd expect to see from a celestial body, and it sounds just like any other bright object that can show scintillation. Sirius is a prime candidate for this.

Well, it was nowhere near in sight at all. This is one of the things that I found the most strange. Also, how would you explain the dimming out/in phenomenon?

ALLis0NE: I really appreciate your contributions to ATS, but everytime I read any of your posts I can't help to think of a famous quote from Bertrand Russell: The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

reply to post by hermantinkly


You could have just proven me wrong with supporting facts, but instead you decided to insult me with a stupid quote.

I don't care what a hoaxer thinks about my posts. I have a 90% accuracy rate on detecting hoaxes.

I can clearly see the video is playing in fast forward at 5:00. That means you are trying to pass a celestial body off as a UFO. Good job at trying to deceive, but you can't fool everybody.

Now why don't you post the original video with the original sound untouched. Then we can go from there.

Originally posted by hermantinkly
Also, how would you explain the dimming out/in phenomenon?

scintillation

I guess you didn't even bother to read my post. That "phenomenon" is caused by atmospheric refraction. It is actually a method used by astronomers to detect if an object is a star or a planet. The "phenomenon" is normally called "twinkle", or "scintillation", and usually happens more on stars than planets, but like I said it is still possible for planets like Venus to twinkle, especially if they are lower in the sky closer to the horizon because their light has to pass through more atmosphere than if it was directly above Earth.

Your object is a star or planet. I can't believe you sat there and filmed it thinking it was anything else, let alone sped up the video to make it look like it is moving faster.

Maybe you should educate yourself on celestial positions before you go and show the world your lack of knowledge.


[edit on 30-11-2009 by ALLis0NE]

Here is, most likely, the same object you filmed. It's a star.





Here is information about why stars twinkle, and sometimes blink out:

curious.astro.cornell.edu...


Here is a good quote:

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees. -William Blake


p.s. I don't have a big bright star as an avatar for no reason.

[edit on 30-11-2009 by ALLis0NE]

reply to post by ALLis0NE


ALLis0NE: for starters, you're so bent on trying to be right that you seem to have forgotten to read the part in my first post where I mentioned that the object I saw was very similar to the UFO that this person had been filming in Miami. In other words, it's not my video. I only used it because the sighting that person had was identical to mines: they saw a bright, sparkling object in Miami skies that was moving very slowly and dimmed in and out of sight every so often. Whether it was fast-forwarded or not is a whole different story in and of itself, and it really is not even important because I was only using it to compare my sighting with. The trees are swaying the way they are because the wind is probably blowing a little hard and this gives the impression that the video is being sped up. The person who uploaded that video actually has a few other videos which are very good and I recommend you watch, and that don't appear to be fast-forwarded. The only thing else that I might suggest, and I say this with utmost respect and care, is to maybe consult with a mental health specialist, because you seem to have a bad habit of jumping to hasty, cocksure conclusions, and this is a common trait that's usually associated with paranoid schizophrenia.

p.s., your theory -- that it was a star or planet -- falls flat on it's bottom due to the simple fact that the object was not there on Saturday or Sunday, like
I have said countless times. The patch of sky where I saw the object was pitch black, there were absolutely no objects in or around it. This is the strangest part. If anything, it was some type of satellite like C.H.U.D. said. But even this I highly doubt because of it's unusual behaviour!!




[edit on 30-11-2009 by hermantinkly]

Originally posted by hermantinkly
ALLis0NE: for starters, you're so bent on trying to be right that you seem to have forgotten to read the part in my first post where I mentioned that the object I saw was very similar to the UFO that this person had been filming in Miami. In other words, it's not my video.

In one of my posts I said "I believe the OP or whoever made the video fast forwarded the video". So I clearly doubted that you filmed the video, however, on ATS it is quite common for people to promote their videos from an alternate name, and pretend they don't own the video. So I didn't fully trust your word.

My apologies if you didn't make the video.

But, that still doesn't mean the video isn't a hoax attempt, or deceptive.

I don't care who made the video, it is not labeled correctly, it is not a UFO it's a star.

Originally posted by hermantinkly
I only used it because the sighting that person had was identical to mines: they saw a bright, sparkling object in Miami skies that was moving very slowly and dimmed in and out of sight every so often.

So you are trying to get answers to something without actual pictures of it, so you used a fake UFO video. Got it.

So do you agree that the videos of stars that I posted look similar to the fake "sighting" you posted in your OP?

Originally posted by hermantinkly
Whether it was fast-forwarded or not is a whole different story in and of itself, and it really is not even important because I was only using it to compare my sighting with.

Ok, so how about the videos of stars that I posted? Can you compare your sighting with those?

Originally posted by hermantinkly
The trees are swaying the way they are because the wind is probably blowing a little hard and this gives the impression that the video is being sped up.

I thought of that, but the trees seem to be moving TO FAST back and fourth. If there was strong wind there would actually be resistance to moving that fast.

None of that even matters. I KNOW it is a star in the video, and I know that stars only move across the sky about 15 degrees every hour. That is because 24 hours divided by 360 degrees is 15 degrees an hour. The video shows a star moving faster than 15 degrees an hour so I know that it is in fast forward.

Originally posted by hermantinkly
The person who uploaded that video actually has a few other videos which are very good and I recommend you watch, and that don't appear to be fast-forwarded.

I did watch them all. They are satellites and the ISS. It is just another person filming everything and thinking its a UFO.

So there you go promoting the video creator, AGAIN. That is one reason why I suspected you might be the owner of the video.

Originally posted by hermantinkly
The only thing else that I might suggest, and I say this with utmost respect and care, is to maybe consult with a mental health specialist, because you seem to have a bad habit of jumping to hasty, cocksure conclusions, and this is a common trait that's usually associated with paranoid schizophrenia.

You are not even close to being educated enough to make that type of comment. You can't even identify a star, let alone any type of physiological abnormalities.

I admit, I HATE hoaxers and liars, and I jump on them any time I get... you just got a taste of it.

Thanks for insulting me again.

Maybe when you are done promoting hoax UFO videos and insulting people who talk down on them I will trust that you aren't the creator of the video, and I will stop jumping to hasty conclusions based on your actions.

Originally posted by hermantinkly
p.s., your theory -- that it was a star or planet -- falls flat on it's bottom due to the simple fact that the object was not there on Saturday or Sunday, like
I have said countless times.

Since you don't even have proof of that, not even 1 picture, I don't really care what you have to say about my theory. You could be lying.

So, there is actually no point for me to comment here anymore. Since you don't have proof of anything you claim, and are using a deceptive video for comparison.





[edit on 30-11-2009 by ALLis0NE]

reply to post by hermantinkly


Certainly odd, but not necessarily inexplicable.

The dimming in and out can easily occur due to high altitude cloud, but you would expect the object to be there later on or the following night/s if it was a celestial object.

Where was Orion in relation to the object, if you happen to remember?

Never mind, I just re-read your first post and saw you said in the western sky, and Sirius would be in the South, so it could not be Sirius.

I agree with ChemBreather that the ISS moves relatively quickly across the sky, so it's also unlikely, but it could easily be something else in orbit...

I think a reflection from a geo-stationary satellite would be the next most likely possibility, but I think it would be difficult to investigate unless you have at least a rough idea where the object was in relation to other celestial objects.