I think i just saw a UFO

A minute ago i just went outside for a smoke.... im always looking at the stars even though theres so few of them where i live... i always hope to see a shooting star or something...

I see a bright light about the size of your average planet cruising across the sky in a straight line, but the light is slightly pulsing... and moving at about the same speed as any plane would move...

Said pulsing light travels about half a foot across the sky from my perspective of course... and then fades and disappears!!

Planes don't do that... i stared at the sky for at least 5 mins looking to see where it went... or IF it would appear again following the same path

Nothing...

WtF did i just see?

a reply to: Akragon

Sounds like you saw the ISS. It fades as it moves into the Earth's shadow

(Bright light (like Venus) moving steadily across the night sky, roughly from west to east, no sound, suddenly fades.)

a reply to: AndyMayhew

no no... I've seen the ISS fly overhead...

Its a speck in the sky... this was bright as a planet... but bigger

and it wasn't moving even close to as fast as something in orbit

and it was moving north to south

Yep, UFO! I've seen a.couple Similar to what you described

well yep, currently not identified, so an Unidentified Flying Object.

go you!

but to me, it sounds like a satellite of some kind that has moved into shadow so stopped reflecting the suns light.
given that it was constant speed, and constant direction.

Wait , what ?
You "think" you just saw a UFO.
If you didn't know what it was , there is no need to think .
And if you did know what it was , it was not a UFO.
There is no middle ground .

originally posted by: CrastneyJPR
well yep, currently not identified, so an Unidentified Flying Object.

go you!

but to me, it sounds like a satellite of some kind that has moved into shadow so stopped reflecting the suns light.
given that it was constant speed, and constant direction.

no this was low... like a plane but bright and pulsing...

it was NOT in orbit... theres just no way it was that bright and orbiting the bloody planet

Plus it wasn't moving that fast... at first i thought it was a helicopter... but there wasn't any noise!

originally posted by: Gothmog
Wait , what ?
You "think" you just saw a UFO.
If you didn't know what it was , there is no need to think .
And if you did know what it was , it was not a UFO.
There is no middle ground .

i didn't know what it was...

but i can't explain how it just disappeared...

Pulsing clear as day then fading from any sight... makes no sense to me

a reply to: Akragon

Sounds like you saw an aircraft. Probably climbed through a light cloud deck and you couldn't see it anymore. With all the fires this year there's usually a thin layer of clouds right before you get up into the jet stream at about 25,000 feet ASL. If you look up you don't see "clouds", just looks like normal sky, but from altitude if you look down you can see it obscuring the ground.

ETA - There's also a thermocline right there too and the differential air temperatures can cause you to lose sight of something from the ground.

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: AndyMayhew

no no... I've seen the ISS fly overhead...

Its a speck in the sky... this was bright as a planet... but bigger

and it wasn't moving even close to as fast as something in orbit

and it was moving north to south

The ISS is brighter than any planet from our perspective. It's certainly not a spec in the sky.

a reply to: Akragon

Im gonna say it.

Chinese lantern?

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: AndyMayhew

no no... I've seen the ISS fly overhead...

Its a speck in the sky... this was bright as a planet... but bigger

and it wasn't moving even close to as fast as something in orbit

and it was moving north to south

The ISS is the brightest object in the night sky (apart from the Moon) - brighter than Venus. And it moves quite slow - usually takes about a couple of minutes at least to fly over if you're watching it from first appearance till it fades. Apart from direction of travel (and are you absolutely certain it was north to south?) what you describe is exactly what the ISS looks like.

a reply to: Akragon

Do you ..... live near a swamp?

If so, it might have had gas.

originally posted by: Akragon
A minute ago i just went outside for a smoke.... im always looking at the stars even though theres so few of them where i live... i always hope to see a shooting star or something...

I see a bright light about the size of your average planet cruising across the sky in a straight line, but the light is slightly pulsing... and moving at about the same speed as any plane would move...

Said pulsing light travels about half a foot across the sky from my perspective of course... and then fades and disappears!!

Planes don't do that... i stared at the sky for at least 5 mins looking to see where it went... or IF it would appear again following the same path

Nothing...

WtF did i just see?

There was a meteor shower last night....

Weather balloons cause all heck with the eyes, at the distance where you can discern, an object in the sky's shape, but still too far, to discern it's details.

Disappearance into cloud cover can appear like disappearance into nothing, from a ground observer.

Just because you can't see a cloud there, doesn't mean the refractivity index of that area of the sky won't act like one from a distance. There are levels of atmospheric vapor concentration, that appear as open blue sky (from a ground observer), but have the refractivity necessary to obscure objects that pass behind it. (from the ground observer's perspective)

satellite or iridium flare. I see them from time to time.

Some satellites rotate as they cross the sky and appear to flash. Sounds like one. Was it just after sunset?

originally posted by: Akragon
WtF did i just see?

Ok Akragon please brace yourself.......................

Having read your report and looked at it logically I can answer your question.

You have had a night time CE with a white type UFO Orb and experienced this craft go into full on light output phase down. By smoking your cigarette the UFO Orb would have seen this action and while many UFO Orbs of varied colour types are actually initially attracted to the light of a lit cigarette this varied light output from the tip would be something of interest on the flight yet a concern too hence the phase out.

I would love to hear if you can remember your state of mind at the time, like were you feeling a sense of uplift / positivity with nature just before your CE.

Hope life is better for your CE, plus welcome to the club

a reply to: Akragon

Possibly a meteor, the Perseid meteor shower is happening right now.

a reply to: Akragon

I have to agree, you probably saw a tumbling satellite.

Go to the link below, enter the location you were and the date and time.
Then turn the view towards the same direction you were looking.
This will narrow things down.

Stellarium - Online