I Saw Something I Cannot Explain (Solved)

Originally posted by Dulcimer
No other objects in the sky moved. This was the only object that moved.

The fact that no other moving objects were visible makes me think that it very well could have been the ISS.

According to Heavens Above, the ISS was heading WSW to E at that same time period. At a magnitude of -1.1, it should have been quite visible to you. Perhaps the apparent course changes were from atmospheric turbulence or illusory motion.

Here's a star chart of the ISS' path over Yorkton on the 14th :



It started at 10deg altitude in the WSW at 20:48:02 and would have disappeared at 13deg altitude in the E at 20:53:09.

I understand and empathize with "the shaken-up" factor. It is completely unnerving the first time. I have two sightings personally. You will never forget it and trying to make others understand is an uphill deal.

You write very clearly and I have a sense of where you said the sighting happened and have had an interest in SASK for some time. You are right about the picture - your minds eye and report are very good. Consider reporting it to the UFO folks in your province. They may have had similar sightings... but SASK is big, real big with few eyes per square mile - crop circles in your neck of the woods too.

The flight path you laid out is indeed bizzarro... was there a coloured quality to the point of light or twinkle? From what you describe and especially the "knukleball" flight path I'm thinking a plasma ball or maybe ball lightning dancing across the sky. You'll decide the "what" of it I'm sure.

CFB Cold Lake is up there and there was the Neillburg sighting. I have full confidence that you saw something geniuine. It will bug you until you figure it out.

Oh yeah, hit Chris Rutkowski's database for last year... there were 98 sightings listed for SASK and some are described as something similar perhaps? Lemme know if you need links.

I have an orange sphere problem/opportunity myself (1968 and '81)... sometimes I fret about it - still lookin'.

Vic

[edit on 15-4-2007 by V Kaminski]

I think there's a lot of this going on this year

On the night of Tuesday, April 10th I was flying in a private plane from palm beach to teterboro,NJ. It took a while (50,000 ft) but as soon as we got above the clouds 3 of the 4 passengers (me, my sister and my gf) noticed a really bright star to the west of the plane as we traveled north over the atlantic up the atlantic coast. We figured this must be Venus, though I right away wondered why it was SO bright and big. I thought maybe Venus is real close to earth right now and being 50000 ft up might have something to do with it. Right away we noticed some sort of plane flying what looked to be ABOVE the star. Of course we figured that was an illusion, but we immediately wondered what kind of plane is flying so much higher than our 50000 ft. My Dad said that anything above 60000 ft has to be military.

Nothing else eventful happened - what we felt must be Venus was our star companion out of the left windows of the plane for the remainder of the trip. I was trying to see the color and it was a murky yellowish color. I thought it was supposed to look a little more blue for venus , but I rethought and figured the yellowish haze was from the intense venutian atmosphere. I was still suprised that it was sooo much bigger than all the other stars including mars.

Sometimes during the trip "venus" looked like it dropped a lot in altitude to be at our level. Once again it seemed to coincide when the plane was turning so I figured it was again just an optical illusion caused by the tilt of the plane.

Finally it was time to land. As we started our final descent "venus" suddenly seemed to be descending with us. I told my gf , but she couldnt position herself to see it and was too tired to do so. My sister was the only one with a view like me , but she was really tired (pregnant) and not in the mood. She just laughed and told me that its just the reflection from the plane window making it seem like it was descending. But then I noticed other stars in the background and "venus" was wizzing by them. I could tell our speed as we descended , because I could see the speed that this supposed star was descending.

As we landed the "star" leveled off - still as bright and big as at 50000 ft and the same yellowish color. None of this made sense. It seemed lower in the sky now , but I couldnt tell how much. I kept my eye on it the whole time as we taxied. My sister and her husband were laughing at me watching this object. I kept thinking it had to be an optical illusion, im a former physics major, I tried to think of reasons for what I saw but couldnt. I watched it until we got behind some buildings. I lost it and never saw it again. Nothing like that in the sky.

I tried to explain to everyone that the star is gone, but no one thought much of it. On the car ride into manhattan I was starting to realize I think I just saw a ufo that basically followed our plane from florida to nj. When I got home I went on the roof of our building and searched the sky for a star like that. NOTHING.

The further I get away from this event and the more that I can't come up with an answer the more I feel that we were tracked by a ufo. But who knows - maybe it was an illusion that happens all the time. I know I never saw anything like this in all my years of flying.

Originally posted by eaglewingz


It started at 10deg altitude in the WSW at 20:48:02 and would have disappeared at 13deg altitude in the E at 20:53:09.

Thanks for this post. This could really be it. I knew there had to be a logical explanation, and I like this one.

I did not think it could be the ISS at first, but that time frame is too perfect to ignore.

Now I cannot explain the movements. If I can link the movements this will be solved.


Thanks again.

Could cloud cover possibly have created an illusion as it went along its path?

On the night of Tuesday, April 10th I was flying in a private plane from palm beach to teterboro,NJ. It took a while (50,000 ft) but as soon as we got above the clouds 3 of the 4 passengers (me, my sister and my gf) noticed a really bright star to the west of the plane as we traveled north over the atlantic up the atlantic coast. We figured this must be Venus, though I right away wondered why it was SO bright and big. I thought maybe Venus is real close to earth right now and being 50000 ft up might have something to do with it. Right away we noticed some sort of plane flying what looked to be ABOVE the star. Of course we figured that was an illusion, but we immediately wondered what kind of plane is flying so much higher than our 50000 ft. My Dad said that anything above 60000 ft has to be military.

Nothing else eventful happened - what we felt must be Venus was our star companion out of the left windows of the plane for the remainder of the trip. I was trying to see the color and it was a murky yellowish color. I thought it was supposed to look a little more blue for venus , but I rethought and figured the yellowish haze was from the intense venutian atmosphere. I was still suprised that it was sooo much bigger than all the other stars including mars.

Sometimes during the trip "venus" looked like it dropped a lot in altitude to be at our level. Once again it seemed to coincide when the plane was turning so I figured it was again just an optical illusion caused by the tilt of the plane.

Finally it was time to land. As we started our final descent "venus" suddenly seemed to be descending with us. I told my gf , but she couldnt position herself to see it and was too tired to do so. My sister was the only one with a view like me , but she was really tired (pregnant) and not in the mood. She just laughed and told me that its just the reflection from the plane window making it seem like it was descending. But then I noticed other stars in the background and "venus" was wizzing by them. I could tell our speed as we descended , because I could see the speed that this supposed star was descending.

As we landed the "star" leveled off - still as bright and big as at 50000 ft and the same yellowish color. None of this made sense. It seemed lower in the sky now , but I couldnt tell how much. I kept my eye on it the whole time as we taxied. My sister and her husband were laughing at me watching this object. I kept thinking it had to be an optical illusion, im a former physics major, I tried to think of reasons for what I saw but couldnt. I watched it until we got behind some buildings. I lost it and never saw it again. Nothing like that in the sky.

I tried to explain to everyone that the star is gone, but no one thought much of it. On the car ride into manhattan I was starting to realize I think I just saw a ufo that basically followed our plane from florida to nj. When I got home I went on the roof of our building and searched the sky for a star like that. NOTHING.

The further I get away from this event and the more that I can't come up with an answer the more I feel that we were tracked by a ufo. But who knows - maybe it was an illusion that happens all the time. I know I never saw anything like this in all my years of flying.

Cloud could account for some "lensing" and so could a thermal inversion layer... perhaps check when the ISS overflys your area again and see it and compare?

Vic

Dulcimer, congrats on your sighting. I can empathize with you on the surreal mesmerizing..... sensation is almost how I would describe it. Beyond feeling. At risk of sounding like a broken record here on ATS, keep your eyes on the skies! I believe these sightings are going to become more frequent. So cool!

Originally posted by Drexon
Sorry to be asking this, Dulce, but you know the drill.

Is it at all possible that it was one of those UFO lanterns? They're pretty light and suseptable to wind you know. Remember the initial Yahweh videos with the reporter going absolutely nuts at what the apparent UFO (balloon) was doing? That's what kinda came to mind.

So you know, just tell me it was too fast for that and I'll believe you.

Maybe it was a human/alien hybrid craft, something like the aurora.

Originally posted by lilygotsilly
I think there's a lot of this going on this year

On the night of Tuesday, April 10th I was flying in a private plane from palm beach to teterboro,NJ. It took a while (50,000 ft) but as soon as we got above the clouds 3 of the 4 passengers (me, my sister and my gf) noticed a really bright star to the west of the plane as we traveled north over the atlantic up the atlantic coast.

A private plane at 50,000 feet? Wow.. must be some plane! I don't think
commercial airliners cruise at that altitude do they? Interesting story though.

Originally posted by Dulcimer
My location is rural. North of a city called Yorkton, Saskatchewan in Canada.

I cannot see how it would be the ISS or such an object. The speed at which this thing first moved, followed by the fact that it slowed down, changed direction and moved in unnatural movements.

Plus it vanished in the end while in visible sky.

I do not think it was an object that burned up. There was no sign of that. It was just like it turned off its light.

There was no sound that I could hear.

Just to be clear a satellite can disappear when it's still well up in the sky - it passes out of the sun and into the Earth's shadow and dims to nothing in the matter of a few seconds as it passes through the shadow's penumbra.

Originally posted by lilygotsilly
I think there's a lot of this going on this year

On the night of Tuesday, April 10th I was flying in a private plane from palm beach to teterboro,NJ. It took a while (50,000 ft) but as soon as we got above the clouds 3 of the 4 passengers (me, my sister and my gf) noticed a really bright star to the west of the plane as we traveled north over the atlantic up the atlantic coast. We figured this must be Venus, though I right away wondered why it was SO bright and big. I thought maybe Venus is real close to earth right now and being 50000 ft up might have something to do with it. Right away we noticed some sort of plane flying what looked to be ABOVE the star. Of course we figured that was an illusion, but we immediately wondered what kind of plane is flying so much higher than our 50000 ft. My Dad said that anything above 60000 ft has to be military.

Nothing you describe is inconsistent with the planet Venus. For example, it should get lower int he sky as time goes on. It always sets before midnight. If you can track down the approximate date and time, it would be easy to verify.

Rockets? Rockets can sure look very weird in launching with the various stage ejections and such.

Supposedly military launchers sometimes want to do weird things to put satellites in orbits which are not immediately detectable by adversaries.


I once saw something which looked a hell of a lot like a really weird UFO, and then found out it was a rocket launch from Vandenberg AFB.

Nothing you describe is inconsistent with the planet Venus. For example, it should get lower int he sky as time goes on. It always sets before midnight. If you can track down the approximate date and time, it would be easy to verify.


April 10th, 7 pm - 10 pm (approximately)

Well I have solved the "mystery" AKA I am an idiot.

As one user mention with an excellent diagram and time frame, what I saw was the International Space Station.

Tonight I checked reports for the sighting time in my area and verified that it was the ISS.

Here is a photo I took tonight:



The only thing I cannot explain is the erratic movements the sighting made the first time. My only conclusion would be illusion of movement by cloud cover.

That or I went crazy from the "excitement".

Sadly, I have to revert back to my status of "have not seen anything I cannot explain"

Thanks for your time.