A Dot in the Sky Yes, But Pretty Interesting To Watch

While visiting family in Deerfield Beach, Florida last week I noticed an interesting cloud formation in the sky as I sat outside talking on my cell phone. I snapped a picture of it, and as you will see, it resembles an angel, which I thought was rather pretty.

The clouds quickly dispersed and when I looked up again, I saw a small, round-ish object floating quickly but steadily across the sky. Now I realize this could be a satellite or any number of things, but I managed to get a few pictures of it anyway. It's so high in the sky that I doubted it was an airplane. I watched it make its way across the sky and then just as suddenly it disappeared.

It looked bigger with the naked eye than it does on my iphone. I realize these pics get zero points for clarity, and when you make them bigger they become unfocused. I was trying to zoom into the object while photographing it.

But give me points for seeing something in the sky and taking a picture of it! Too often, we get these stories from folks who, for inexplicable reasons, don't snap a photo at that most opportune of moments.

BTW, it wasn't a bug on the lens. I watched it with the naked eye for a good thirty seconds before I took pictures of it.

Here is the pic magnified by zooming in on it.



Here are two pics of it in the sky... It's so tiny on the iphone..





And here's the cool cloud formation just for the fun of it.

Sorry it was loaded sideways.

Cool cloud pic, when I first read the thread title I saw "a dog in the sky" and thought yes that would be interesting to watch.

A high altitude bird perhaps?

was this "dot" traveling in a straight line? at a steady rate of speed?

a reply to: MRuss

Thanks for those.
Definitely "something" there but on full zoom it just blurs out. Vaguely, and I stress vaguely triangular.
Most sightings seem to be just dots of light these days but, as you say, at least you got a picture.
The critics will arrive shortly.

I watched a bright white light approaching once. I thought it was the space station catching sunlight from below my horizon. It disappeared as I thought it went into shadow but when I strained my eyes im sure I could see a tiny "pixel" of light still in the spot where it vanished. I looked away and then found it again so I don't think it was my eyes but what can we say?
I saw a light. No ones interested unless you were taken on board. Then no one would believe you. Can't win. Good post.

a reply to: autopat51

This "dot" seemed much bigger to me with the naked eye than it does on the iPhone.

Common sense says it was not a bird or a plane (nor superman) because it was very high in the sky and traveling at too great a speed. I first wondered if it was a helicopter, but it was too high in the sky for that.

I was once married to a navy pilot and am pretty familiar with all sorts of aircraft, their sounds and behavior after many years of joining in on his passion. This was odd enough that I took a few shots of it.

It did make a beeline across the sky and then as I watched, it changed direction on a dime and flew "up" if that makes any sense. It just disappeared.

a reply to: MRuss
i was just asking so as to dispense with the "its a bird" its a balloon" its a bug" posts.
sometimes "up" is hard to discern in the sky, but if it turned on a dime...that is odd.

Well, here is the first image blown up and with a bit of enhanced contrast.
I'm no Photoshop wizard, so someone could probably do a better job than this, although the resolution is poor.



Could be any sort of aerial vehicle, really, but doesn't scream bird, at least not from this photo.

What I did was copy OPs original zoomed in photo, crank up DPI then zoom in and use automatic contrast in Photoshop.
Someone has to evaluate if thus is a safe method for enhancing what is actually there, because I'm not sure if this procedure might add details / shape to the original..?

BT

This is the second and third picture, same procedure.

Second:


Third:


Not very informative I'm afraid...


BT

a reply to: MRuss

Thanks for sharing your experience! I like the sky angel, although for me, it's a sky eagle Still, beautiful.

The dots. I don't think it was a satellite, because of the time of day. most visible satellites that I've seen (and there have been a lot) are reflected by the sun, and they are bright, rather than dark. I think you sighting is very interesting.

a reply to: beetee

Hey, kudos for blowing up the images, well done.

a reply to: MRuss

The clouds look like wings, I am not saying anything related to that other than they look very cool.

The object could be a drone of the military type, it seems to be triangular at least in the blown up images.

You get points for cool pics.

a reply to: Jonjonj

Heh, well, as I said I'm no Photoshop wizard. And the resolution is only 72 dpi, which isn't a lot to work with. Also the enhancment is just software, and could introduce detail as well as enhance what is already there I believe. Someone with more skills can probably point out the error of my ways and do a better job ;-)

BT

a reply to: beetee

The point is you made an effort and it has helped the OP's thread. So once again, well done. Your profile is a new one, very often new users aren't encouraged enough. So I reckon' thanks are in order.

a reply to: Jonjonj

Thanks, much appreciated :-)

BT

For comparison purposes I've done the same to a mobile picture of a small private plane I took as a test to see what a panic shot of an small airframe might look like.



As you can see much detail is lost, even the tail is gone, and the wings seems wavy. There is also a halo type effect around the plane, which was obviously not there at the time I took the picture. I guess this is photoshop. So the enhancment process introduces some odd things, and can obviously not bring back detail that was never captured by the optics.

This plane was pretty low in the sky, but some distance away.
It really is a small airplane, but one could be forgiven for thinking it was a slightly angular bird from the picture alone :-)


BT

Nope. I get pretty much the same thing. Makes it look like a packed group of balloons.

And just because it changed direction doesn't mean a lot. I've personally seen balloons zoom to a spot in the sky, stop, and then go back the way they came. It all depends on which way the wind is blowing at different altitudes.