My very own 4th of July UFO sighting

(incidentally - two points to begin with: 1 - I am not an artist, so please forgive the crude drawings; and 2- the "Pics or it didn't happen' defense is b/s and rejected utterly since no digital rendering of an event can be guaranteed to be true and accurate.)

While this is by no means my first sighting of a UFO, I was compelled to submit this here because the other witnesses sort of insisted. Since they are not ATS members, I found it difficult to convince them that there is little hope of this being as well-received as their enthusiasm might lead them to believe. For two of the four witnesses this was a first time UFO sighting and one remains desperately clinging to the view that there must be a mundane explanation, the other is still flabbergasted about actually having seen such a thing. I am one of the two remaining who have had sightings before.

The facts:

4-July, 2001 9:00 PM EST (give or take 1 minute)
Scattered/partly Cloudy
Wind speed 2.2 MPH (virtually none)
Cloud Ceiling 1,000-1,200 feet (per aviation data)
Location of sighting: approximately 40.8N 72.8W
Sighting began at approximately 50 degrees above Western horizon
West to East trajectory
Object disappeared from view at approximately 40 degrees above Eastern horizon
Visibility very good

Narrative: 8:59 PM EST
My daughter runs into my room, declaring she has seen a red spherical object moving quickly into and out of the clouds, and asks me to go look. I and two others join her outside to see what it might be.

We arrive outside, and to my daughter's disappointment, the object is apparently gone.

One of my guests points out a shadowy object just above (and perhaps from within) the sparse cloud layer asking what that is.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f4904112a5b4.gif[/atsimg]

As we watch the object, my immediate speculation is that it might be someone's Mylar balloon because the shape was roughly circular from our perspective.

However, the object was moving with considerable speed and not tumbling, or wobbling, or in any way appearing as if it were moving with the wind. Furthermore, the height, which was obviously equivalent with the clouds, meant the object was much bigger than some birthday balloon or even promotional balloon. The object seemed to skim the cloud ceiling as one point until it approached the zenith over my back yard, there were no clouds overhead.

Within 10 seconds the object was overhead.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a35f6e0da14c.gif[/atsimg]

The silhouette of the object was very slightly oblong, with a dull grayish (battleship gray?) bottom. It moved quickly, evenly, at an apparently consistent speed from West to East, in what seemed a straight line. There was no sound of aircraft engines or jets.

We watched as it smoothly traveled beyond the roof of the house, while neighborhood fireworks began to report and blossom in the air just a few blocks South of us.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a69312660179.gif[/atsimg]

As the object moved East the change in perspective made another observation possible. It was then that we all simultaneously noticed that at the southern-facing side of the object, just above the 'edge' a mirror-like reflection of the exploding fireworks. We observed this reflection happen three times each one matching the colors of the fireworks themselves. The bottom however did not reflect any light that we saw.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/506747b47b9f.gif[/atsimg]

The object never seemed to change speed or direction, and as we ran through the house to the other side it had entered the cloud bank to the East and was lost from view.

I think it is safe to estimate that this object theoretically moved from horizon to horizon in well under a minute, although we seemed to only catch 20 seconds of it visually.

I don't expect much feedback. But if you are inclined to do so, please let me know what you think such an object could be. Until I can conceive of a likely candidate, this remains a classic UFO.

Wasn't expecting that lol

Hilarious

What can I say?
This is a great post, I also think your specifics on the situation are great and your drawings prove that you must be confused of this UFO. Well, I'm no expert but I'd probably have to classify it as a UFO as well..
Hopefully you find the information you need which can help you gather more of a conclusion to this mystery.

pics or it didnt happen
drawings do not count plus it was the 4th of july i think every yank saw a spaceship that day

did you do any follow up on the sighting in the form of flight towers etc. I guess one thing ppl should do when seeing a sighting is to blitz their local airport with a call mentioning that there is a sighting that way and as regulations have it all incoming calls are recorded for safety reasons, therefore if it is true and they say it never happened you will always have your phone record of making the call and duration of call, its an easy way to catch those who say we see nothing.

reply to post by darbur


Hm, you did read the entire OP, did you?

Because in it, Maxmars already wrote:

the "Pics or it didn't happen' defense is b/s and rejected utterly since no digital rendering of an event can be guaranteed to be true and accurate.

But here's a video that may show you, how reliable pics or videos nowadays are:

we came in peace




To Maxmars: Thanks a lot for your report! After countless hoaxed youtube-vids I more and more tend to believe only in the reports of eye witnesses who know what they've seend and who don't care if anyone else believes them.

This might be, because I'm one of them.

Love your paintings lol..


Its better that you paint then how other people start a forum thread


"i saw a UFO, in Bla-bla, at 10:45Am, it flew around here for almost 20 minut, , did anyone else see it (500 questionamrks and ! later)

reply to post by Peloquin


yes i read it and so just because he thinks it is bs i guess everyone will now start believing every story they are told as long as you can draw a circle and say thats what i saw....sure

reply to post by Maxmars
No doubt you've already looked, but I checked out Mufon and NUFORC for similar reports. It's 4th of July and open season on sightings! Nevertheless, there are one or two that might seem broadly similar to you? Here and here?

It doesn't look promising and yet that's nothing new in UFO sightings. Validation is rare.

Your description reminds me of the disputed Italian 'Cecconi sighting,' but the avant-garde illustrations suggest an entirely different shape.

Cecconi's image
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e084bc12214d.jpg[/atsimg]

I'll take you at your word after having a sighting in 2003 (with 3 others + strangers) and being soundly dismissed with laughter!

Thank you everyone for your comments. and once again I apologize for my inability to draw anything more complicated than a stick figure.

I didn't think to call any airports at the time, but since the thing was in and out of the lower cloud layer so much, I did check the aviation data which it appears said the clouds were at 1,000-1,200 feet in altitude (unless i read it wrong, but I think that's probably correct.)

As far as Pics are concerned... forget it. I have taken pictures before, and frankly, in the digital medium, there's nothing that can't be reproduced or faked... Even if I had a film camera, I would have to scan the image to get it in the system and once again, you have the digital manipulation issue.

Reality is analogue, digital is just an expedient substitute.

Originally posted by darbur
reply to post by Peloquin

 

yes i read it and so just because he thinks it is bs i guess everyone will now start believing every story they are told as long as you can draw a circle and say thats what i saw....sure

No one is asking you to believe me. I simply state this is what I saw and the circumstances surrounding the sighting. The first sign of a good skeptic is their willingness to consider the sighting in the first place, perhaps you're not one of those.

"pics or it didn't happen" can apply to a lot of things.... why UFO's in particular?

reply to post by Kandinsky


Thank you for the links. I will submit my reports when I get home tonight.

Originally posted by darbur
pics or it didnt happen
drawings do not count plus it was the 4th of july i think every yank saw a spaceship that day

I'm really getting bored of the pics or it didn't happen crowd
It happened whether he has pictures or not , what you mean is pics or I don't believe you .
There are no pics so get over it and contribute or move on !!

@Maxmars
Thanks for the interesting report

Great thread, very interesting indeed.

Hope you get some answers some day.

Would you believe I saw something very similar one sunday in May this year. (I'm in UK) I followed this..."thing??" lol for a good 20mins-45mins I would say, because I was fascinated with it. I was also gob-smacked at how whilst me and my wife were staring at this thing around others, everyone else didnt even think to look up to see what we were looking at lol

Whatever it was it simply disappeard right in front of our eyes!

reply to post by Maxmars


Interesting sighting!

In the OP, you stated that your daughter said it was a "red spherical object". Maybe I missed it, but when you saw the object did you ever see it any other color then gray? Not questioning what see saw, just wondering if maybe that could have been a reflection from the sunset? (if that was around the time of sighting). But according to your drawings it was moving east, so probably not it.

The look of the object reminds me of an article I read in a magazine 8+ years ago (popular science??). I have tried finding the article online, but no luck. It was about an invisibility tech that was being tested using blimps. Since they are slow moving, they could be "skinned" with a material that showed projections. Cameras where used to capture the scene surrounding the blimp then projected those images onto the outer surface, cloaking it. Making it blend with it's surroundings.

Maybe the bottom part that was dull is meant to use this technology, like a movie theater screen & the top part was reflective meant to just reflect the sky above? Just going with a line of thought.... If that could explain it, maybe the projection was turned off because of the cloud cover?

I'm not saying that explains it or that is what you saw, just trying to throw out some ideas.

I like the drawings. Since you didn't want to even post this, I think it was good of you to take the time to draw them.

OiO

Originally posted by gortex

Originally posted by darbur
pics or it didnt happen
drawings do not count plus it was the 4th of july i think every yank saw a spaceship that day

I'm really getting bored of the pics or it didn't happen crowd

It happened whether he has pictures or not , what you mean is pics or I don't believe you .
There are no pics so get over it and contribute or move on !!

@Maxmars
Thanks for the interesting report

how can you say it happened were you there
or are one of those that believes every story you are told without a shred of proof
there has to be more then just someones story or else that is all it will ever be just another story
anyone can say omg ive just seen a ufo and draw a picture would you believe them

I know how it feels when you get laught at or someone trying to say, "Oh no, you saw nothing of the sort, it was a satellite, lantern or arather."
How is that possible, the thing I saw was huge and what it did was no way explainable by "conventional items".
So taking this dudes word for it, Im all for it. Besides he or she took the time to draw out that account.


Verry kool.

I wish we could see something like that again or something bigger
Maybe some day


I too drew out my sighting

Thanks again for sharing

reply to post by darbur

post by darbur
are one of those that believes every story you are told without a shred of proof

That's why I love this place .... one minute I'm a debunker and disinfo agent , the next I'll believe anything

Most of the best cases in Ufology are based on testimony ,no pictures , just the word of credible witnesses .
I would suggest Maxmars position as a Mod and length of membership gives him credibility on this site , in my eyes at least , so I am more inclined to believe he saw something that he could not identify than someone who has only been here a few weeks or months .