Possible "spiral UFO" to fly over SE US tomorrow predawn?

I wonder if this is the correct forum to predict a UFO sighting? Tomorrow morning soon after 4 AM CDT.

Readers who are in a stretch of country from Arkansas to Maryland are advised to check out sighting opportunities for the Falcon=9/Dragon flyover on its first orbit of Earth -- if it launches on time and successfully.

It will follow the ISS by about `13 minutes, and the second stage MAY be venting leftover fuel.

Schedules here:
spaceflight.nasa.gov...

MAYBE it will be a spectacular sight, too -- and might teach us something about UFO perceptions and reports.

When this vehicle's FIRST launch in June 2010 sent its second stage over Australia at sunrise, people for hundreds of miles were astonished by the 'spiral UFO'. Sample videos:

www.youtube.com...
very clear view: www.youtube.com...

“mist around it” www.youtube.com...
[view setting in the dawn eastern sky behind clouds]

Live comments from surfers www.youtube.com...
[“That’s a UFO, I’m telling you!”]

insists it was a UFO: www.youtube.com...
“hovering, suddenly started moving” -- www.youtube.com...

Originally posted by JimOberg
When this vehicle's FIRST launch in June 2010 sent its second stage over Australia at sunrise, people for hundreds of miles were astonished by the 'spiral UFO'.

Also featured in a recent thread...
What's this glowing thing floating over the ocean?
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Why are you using the word UFO if you already know what it is and when it is coming?
This seems like mockery at its finest!

Originally posted by Human_Alien
Why are you using the word UFO if you already know what it is and when it is coming?
This seems like mockery at its finest!

It is mockery, although I'm not sure how fine it is. Jimmy O is simply making the point - which I believe he may have made in previous threads - that this event is likely to precipitate UFO reports, or rather cause people to think they're seeing a "UFO", as they are unlikely to actually report it to anyone. We should be on the look out in the near future for videos of this event popping up on YouTube. They would be a nice addition to the thread.

And Jimmy, by the way, did you actually try to explain away the 1976 sightings in Calusa, California, as a light show at a nearby military base? Another member brought that to my attention, and I find it hard to believe that you would seriously imply that. Maybe I'm just misinformed or underinformed. Can you clear this matter up at all? It's pretty certain this thread is going nowhere interesting, so I think we can digress a bit.

Hrmmmmm.....ISS will be 75 deg AZ, just E of N at 3:40am so just 4 minutes before launch.

Not sure I want to get up that early! hehehehehehe

Originally posted by Orkojoker
And Jimmy, by the way, did you actually try to explain away the 1976 sightings in Calusa, California, as a light show at a nearby military base? Another member brought that to my attention, and I find it hard to believe that you would seriously imply that. Maybe I'm just misinformed or underinformed. Can you clear this matter up at all? It's pretty certain this thread is going nowhere interesting, so I think we can digress a bit.

If that's the Bill Pecha story, my interest is in determining which day of the week the event occurred, either a Thursday night - Friday morning, or a Friday night -- Saturday morning, Since the clock time was given as 2 am or so [I haven't looked it up], it can be ambiguous to remember and reference accurately.

The reason was that even though first accounts said Friday night, 2 AM, [i.e., another full workday ahead], so friday on the calendar, the descriptions of the witness seemed more consistent with the experience of a Friday night AFTER midnight kind of activity, i.e., Saturday on the calendar, the kind of thing people [me too] do when the work week is over and the weekend is ahead.

This is important because at the clock time given, and in the direction given, witnesses would have seen a Delta launch out of Vandenberg, on Saturday. But not on Friday. .And as numerous videos and photos have shown, large boosters, especially Deltas with solid strapons, s create a striking 'jellyfish' with tentacles shape in the sky. The similarity is suggestive -- but does require the event to have occurred on Saturday, which is contrary to the later written reports.

Rocket launches have caused LOTS of UFO reports, particularly in Russia where they were kept secret. It is a frequent misperception and is no insult to anyone's intelligence or sanity.

The UFO reports associated with the June 2010 Australian flyover of the Falcon-9 fuel cloud underscores that point, as does the Norway spiral of December -- despite the fuss and feathers, undeniably a Russian submarine ICBM test launch.

Originally posted by eriktheawful
Hrmmmmm.....ISS will be 75 deg AZ, just E of N at 3:40am so just 4 minutes before launch.

Not sure I want to get up that early!

hehehehehehe

You've got to wait an hour and a half AFTER launch to see Dragon, of course.

Originally posted by JimOberg

Originally posted by eriktheawful
Hrmmmmm.....ISS will be 75 deg AZ, just E of N at 3:40am so just 4 minutes before launch.

Not sure I want to get up that early!

hehehehehehe

You've got to wait an hour and a half AFTER launch to see Dragon, of course.

DOH! That's right.

Let's see, Launch time is 3:44, so I'd have to be up and out of the door by 5:14 am. Little bit better since I normally have to get up at 6 anyways.

I think I'll do it just to get on my wife's nerves: "Honey? why the hell is the alarm going off so early?"

reply to post by JimOberg


Hmmmm... Jellyfish you say? I guess I could see that. The "cables" the witness reported are something fairly unique to this case, as far as I know anyway. I'd have to see a picture or video of this kind of visual effect, but I'll at least give you the point that what you're describing sounds like something that - if it indeed occurred at the time and direction of the sighting - would be quite an odd coincidence.

Can you advise me on some possible search terms to try to find video of the "jellyfish" visual effect you're talking about? I'm going to go look now, but in case I can't find any, you know. I'm very unfamiliar with rocketry and whatnot.

Did you factor in the other two objects the witness saw when considering this explanation?

I'm going to have to refamiliarize myself with the details of the case, but as I recall, the primary witness's perception was that the object was quite close to his location and only about 50 feet or so above his barn. In your opinion, would it be likely for a person to perceive this "light show" from the launch as a large, nearby object, or would it be more likely they would perceive it as a distant object in the sky?

reply to post by JimOberg


Is this the kind of rocket-related phenomenon that you think accounts for the witness's description, Jim:



I found some info on what I think you are referring to:

This image shows what the Delta exhaust plume may look like in binoculars during the end of the first stage main engine burn. Note the elongated or jellyfish-like shape mentioned above. Photo taken during the 1998 November 6 morning twilight launch of a Delta II rocket and five Iridium satellites from Vandenberg AFB.

From Vandenberg no less.

If this is what you're saying is a possibility, I'll have to disagree.

"The more I looked, the more details I was picking up on. These flexible type cables hung down and this light like an upside down ice cream cone came out of the bottom – but only so far down and the beam of light never touched the ground. It was almost as if this thing knew I was there because the minute I stepped out beyond the house it began to move silently away from me, toward the west."

“That’s when I began to see the upper part, the dome. The bottom was spinning rapidly clockwise but a smaller part on the bottom was spinning counterclockwise. And as it began to move away, these six hose-like appendages began moving up and suddenly were gone. At the same time two claw-like hooks just curled up on the bottom. As these appendages retracted, two little covers opened on the top of the hull and out comes a pair of lights that shined a beam of blue light on the ground."

"I was horrified by what I was seeing."

If the photo and video I found are of something other than the "jellyfish"-like rocket phenomenon that you feel might be responsible for this sighting, please disregard this post as a mistake and help steer me in the right direction.

Certainly this can't be your explanation for what the witness says he saw, can it?

Originally posted by Orkojoker
reply to post by JimOberg

 

Is this the kind of rocket-related phenomenon that you think accounts for the witness's description, Jim:

....Certainly this can't be your explanation for what the witness says he saw, can it?

That video shows a multi-engine liquid propelled launch, from the side.

IF Pecha was looking at a launch -- it remains a hypothesis and the dates are still 24 hours out of agreement -- it was one with solid-fuel strapons -- so more distinct lateral streamers than the video -- AND he would have been viewing it practically up the tail, due to the geographical geometry of his position relative to the flight path.

At night with an unknown sized apparition, people have frequently misjudged range to apparitions of this type, when caused by rocket launches. There is no familiar sense of scale and no binocular vision capability beyond about 50-60 feet.

Can we move these discussions to a new thread, or is there some older Colusa/Pecha thread you can hunt down and restart?

Falcon-9 launch was successful and the ascent was seen all the way up the East Coast to Norfolk, at least.

'Soaring Hawk Observatory' here in rural Galveston County has CLEAR SKIES and we are awaiting the completion of Rev-1 so we can watch Dragon and its associated objects coming out of shadow.

If you know anybody else along the ground track, wake them up and tell them to go outside and LOOK, about 13 minutes after the ISS flyover. plus or minus.

Overcast here.

Crud. Aw well, thems the breaks.

We had horizon fog, and saw ISS OK -- it was bright and higher -- but when Dragon was scheduled to appear it would already have been coming out of shadow too low in the NE -- so nothing seen here. I've heard of one other ISS sighting in Ohio but no reports of Dragon or the stage.

reply to post by JimOberg


Sure thing, Jim. But could you possibly post just one photo or vid of what you're referring to? I'm having trouble finding one that might be a good fit for Pecha's description. I'll stop derailing your thread now.

Originally posted by Orkojoker
reply to post by JimOberg

 

Sure thing, Jim. But could you possibly post just one photo or vid of what you're referring to? I'm having trouble finding one that might be a good fit for Pecha's description. I'll stop derailing your thread now.

Fair question, and the thread has fizzled out anyway...

Here are some links to drawings based on eyewitness reports of the kosmos-954 launch from Plesetsk, as seen from Petrozavodsk in 1978. Photographs don't ever show the subtle filamentary structure of the plumes.

Petrozavodsk 1978 ‘UFO’
www.peremeny.ru...

www.topnews.ru...

avisdim.narod.ru...
www.anakinovni.org...


And here's the famous eyewitness case from Pecha in Colusa:

www.mufon.com...