Nothing quite like seeing your first.

Hey everyone. As the thread topic says, there is indeed nothing quite like seeing your very first UFO. Now, if you are anything like me, then you do a fair amount of research and reading into the subject of UFOs. This research and reading, however, usually involves accounts of OTHER people seeing and experiencing things that you DID NOT see or experience ("usually" is the key word. I didn't say "always"). This fact alone makes for very good reads and leaves you pondering many things, many things. This fact, however, did not prepare me for the emotional and physiological sensations that I experienced last night.

I live in an area many refer to as the "East Bay". It is the east part of the of the cities that surround the San Francisco bay. More precisely, I live in a town called Antioch. It is mostly occupied by newer shopping centers as well as tons, and I mean TONS, of new Seeno Home neighborhoods.

It was about 8-9pm, I can't recall the exact time, though. I was asked to go take out the trash and move my car so the garbage man would have room to grab the can. It was a dark, but very clear night. I get to the curb and position the can. As I walk away, though, my eyes fix themselves on a formation of lights in the sky that is southwest of my position and no more than 3/4 of a mile away.

What I see absolutely amazes, frightens, and perplexes me at the very same time. It is a triangular formation of lights with a red, pulsating light on the bottom. The bottom light blinked very slow and steady. The lights alone weren't what startled me, though. It was the combination of the lights and the way in which the formation moved. Here I am, standing near the middle of my street, watching this formation move northwest in an absolutely straight line. It was going slower than any aircraft I have ever seen at that altitude (keep in mind, I am no aircraft expert). At this point, I am pretty startled, I'll admit. I was also, unfortunately, unable to remember to whip out my video phone to try to capture any kind of image. After proceeding on the same flight path, the front light faded out. After that happened, the rest of the lights disappeared behind a group of trees. I tried half-ass to to get the formation in my line of sight again, but I couldn't. To e honest, I didn't really want to try. I'll admit, at the time I was sort of scared.

I will post another post regarding, in more detail, exactly how I felt, seeing as how that is one of the most important parts of this thread, in my opinion. I must be getting out of the house, though, to watch the Sharks game. What I will leave you with, though, is a street name.

Vaquero Way, Antioch, California, 94509.

For anyone who has google earth, input that into the "fly to" box and hit enter. This way you will be able to see the terrain in which this craft was flying over and the lake that the craft could have possibly been coming from.

Please, please, ask questions! I know I didn't cover everything I wanted to, so I beg for you to ask for information you feel is relevant to this discussion. Thank you.


(apologies for typos)

If you haven't already, don't forget to report it to MUFON and/or NUFORC.

Originally posted by W. Knowledge


It was about 8-9pm, I can't recall the exact time, though. I was asked to go take out the trash and move my car so the garbage man would have room to grab the can. It was a dark, but very clear night. I get to the curb and position the can. As I walk away, though, my eyes fix themselves on a formation of lights in the sky that is southwest of my position and no more than 3/4 of a mile away.

How is it you were able to bound the distance to 3/4 of a mile? Did it pass in front of some known background object?

Is it possible it could have been much further away?

[edit on 20-4-2007 by disownedsky]

You're not the only person that lives in the Bay Area, anyways, welcome to ATS. As for what you saw, I dunno. But what I do know about living in the Bay Area:

1: 3 Major Airports with major airline traffic coming and going in every direction
2: Night Sky is washed out by city lights, it's hard enough seeing stars
3: Fog and low level clouds day and night through out the year

I know Antioch too, been out to Antioch and Pittsburg many many times to take Highway 12 to the valley.

Now Antioch is pretty far East Bay so it's further way from a lot of the points I've mentioned.. fog generally burns off over there, it's pretty far from most of the light washing out the night sky, and there's only a few small airfields nearby that I'm aware of.

Thank you for sharing your story.

It is interesting how the lights faded out.

On both 4/19 and 4/20 at approximatly the same time (9-ish) for both days I saw in the sky what I belive to have been a UFO! I was using the computer when I had the urge to look out (little bored), and in the sky amongst the stars was what seemed to be another star that was flashing an assorted rainbow of colors! Instantly the thought of an extraterrestial craft entered my mind, I watched it for quite some time and can surely say it was not anything I could recall ever seeing before. There was no continous on and off flashing of lights as with planes (though there was an unusually high amount of planes around when this "thing" was there and they flew close from my perspective on the ground to the craft but they were clearly much lower in altitude), but more like changes in color that would at some times increase and decrease in intensity (like milliseconds per color change). It was much smaller than the planes of the sky, but what made it noticable was the "radiating" rainbow light that came off what looked like a super small white rainbow star. The object was stationary for the most part but over the course of I think it was around 2 hours it slowly (not at a noticable rate) moved lower and closer to the horizon, also it got dimmer and then eventually it kind of faded out (11-ish). This is my account of 4/19. On 4/20 I decided to check around the similar time again and to my luck it was there (although not exactly in the same spot but close). This time it didnt seem as bright as before (higher up maybe?) and the flashing wasn't as intense as the previous night, but it was still amazing. I tried looking at it with my crappy binoculars (both days) and managed to make out what appeared to be a disc but i'm not 100%. I can most definatly rule out meteors, satellites, stars, etc. and i've got to say the planes that were around were not ALL commercial aircrafts ( I assume because some were pretty fast and LOOKED different, red flashing light only instead of the multiple colors--red white and blue is it?) but I could be wrong about that. I just saw the vatican link earlier and was shocked as to how similar the craft in the picture was, but unlike in that still picture the colors would fluctuate and change.

Your case happened--from what I read very recently as well and it seems quite similar to what I saw except I live in Pennsylvania, not San Francisco.

Sorry if how I described it is too long or boring.

disownedsky: As far as the distance, I did my best to gauge how far away I thought it was. Sometimes, you think of a certain number when thinking of a distance and it just sounds right. Some people are better than others at that. That was ignorant of me, though, to just throw out that distance. What I do want to point out is that it looked far away enough to be flying over the hills surrounding my neighborhood, and if you analyze the flight path I said it took and input that street name into google earth, it is almost as if it were coming from the lake.

promomag: Thanks for pointing out the airport fact. Yes, there are tons of planes crisscrossing the night sky every night. Everything from what I'd imagine to be Gulfstreams (is that right, plane nuts?) to 747's. The thing is, the only things that fly around there are the occasional helicopter. That is seriously the only time I see something flying at that low of an altitude around that area. As far as the city lights, on a clear night, you can see a lot of stuff. I mean, it's not like being in the mountains, but you can still watch a meteor shower from your backyard and see a decent amount of meteors. And it was a clear night, no clouds what soever to speak of (at least that's how I remember it).

Rostam: Your sightings sound interesting. Can you elaborate on just what colors you saw?

Originally posted by Rostam I can most definatly rule out meteors, satellites, stars, etc.

On the contrary, what you describe sounds exactly like a star near the horizon. Let me guess - you were looking in a Westerly direction? What constellation was the object in?

Originally posted by disownedsky

Originally posted by Rostam I can most definatly rule out meteors, satellites, stars, etc.

On the contrary, what you describe sounds exactly like a star near the horizon. Let me guess - you were looking in a Westerly direction? What constellation was the object in?

He lives 44 miles from San Francisco. You won't be able to make out even 3 stars in any constellation with that kind of light pollution via naked eye.

He will probably have to go back out and use some low power bino's.

Originally posted by W. Knowledge

Rostam: Your sightings sound interesting. Can you elaborate on just what colors you saw?

From what I saw seemed to be weird mixed of red, white (like pure light), and blue. I thought I also saw other colors (rainbow) which would include orange, purple, and pink, but that may have just been a trick (of the eye). I am not sure, if it shows up again tonight i'll take heavy observations. It's easy to spot because of the quick flashes of what seems to be reds whites and blues.

Originally posted by disownedsky

Originally posted by Rostam I can most definatly rule out meteors, satellites, stars, etc.

On the contrary, what you describe sounds exactly like a star near the horizon. Let me guess - you were looking in a Westerly direction? What constellation was the object in?

Well this "thing" has appeared every day (or night I should say) since 4/19 and it's possible that it may have been apearing there long before I took notice. The object appears/appeared from my estimation (can't find a compass), in the South West reigon of the sky, it was/is not in any constellation. It would start out higher up in the sky and within the course of around 2 hours it would slow move lower (in the sky) closer to the horizon and to the right slightly from my perspective and fade out slowly over the same period of time (I assume that it's probably higher up in the sky and further away in distance from it's starting point, making it as such). Now, i'm aware that the positions of stars will slowly move over long periods of time, but over the course of those 2 hours the rest of the stars in the sky remained where they originally showed up in the nighttime sky. Unless this "star" had an urgent place to get to, I doubt it could make it's journey across the sky in anything short of a few lifetimes.



BTW I did not observe these objects (or object I guess) in California as TC did, but in Pennsylvania. I live about 45 mins off of Philadelphia.


If it shows up again tonight, I could attempt to capture an image using a digital camera. That might work unless it's too dark, but I don't know (the digital camera will not be mine) The present time is 8:10 EST, so if it's going to be there, it'll be around an hour or so before I can see it.

Well it's 8:23 EST and I just looked out, it seems to be out already, but a lot of clouds are moving in. It looks like it may rain soon, and unfortunatly at this time I am unable to observe the stars (too bright and no more sky gaps now). Sorry, it doesn't look like I will be able to provide pics tonight. Hopefully I can get some tomorrow night if the sky is clear.

Welcome to ATS WK! I hope you dont mind us dissecting your experience a bit.

You make me want to simply implode with envy - including the fear.

About how long/duration was this sighting? Can you give a general idea of what the lighting patterns/colors were like?

BTW, at the top of this page here in the Aliens and UFOs section there is a sticky post re: what to do if you see a UFO. Definately report it officially to your most local MUFON chapter.

44 miles is actually quite far for light pollution. I live in the D.C. suburbs, about 4 miles from the city limit, and I can routinely make out constellations in the direction of the city. In the opposite direction, I can see bright stars all the way down to the horizon without difficulty.

Originally posted by disownedsky
44 miles is actually quite far for light pollution. I live in the D.C. suburbs, about 4 miles from the city limit, and I can routinely make out constellations in the direction of the city. In the opposite direction, I can see bright stars all the way down to the horizon without difficulty.

I live in the suburbs of Los Angeles, and I don't get that luxury. In fact, if I count the stars in the sky on a typical night, I would see about 30. Just terrible.

To the OP, goto ClearDarkSky and determine what your skies read.

I use the above for amateur astronomy and to determine how the skies will look that particular night. Good luck,

Lost Mind: To answer your questions, the duration of the sighting could not have been more than 50 seconds long. As far as the colors go, the lights on the corners of the triangle were amber in color and relatively big. Within the triangular formation of amber lights was one, very slowly pulsating red light. Now the pulsating action of the red light caught my eye especially. The main reason being was that it's actual pulsing was so slow, it resembled the red light you see on top of a skyscraper as oppose to, what I think are, more rapidly pulsating lights on a plane.

To look more in depth, I encourage you to download google earth and input the street name I gave in the begining post and analyze the flight path I said the craft might have taken. You'll come to some interesting conclusions.

Originally posted by Rostam
Well this "thing" has appeared every day (or night I should say) since 4/19 and it's possible that it may have been apearing there long before I took notice. The object appears/appeared from my estimation (can't find a compass), in the South West reigon of the sky, it was/is not in any constellation. It would start out higher up in the sky and within the course of around 2 hours it would slow move lower (in the sky) closer to the horizon and to the right slightly from my perspective and fade out slowly over the same period of time (I assume that it's probably higher up in the sky and further away in distance from it's starting point, making it as such). Now, i'm aware that the positions of stars will slowly move over long periods of time, but over the course of those 2 hours the rest of the stars in the sky remained where they originally showed up in the nighttime sky.

First - every point in the sky is in a constellation. Get a hold of any of the free astronomy software out there (I like XEphem) and you can plot the constellations from your standpoint and how they move over the course of a night.

Second, the Earth rotates around once every 23 hour 56 minutes and change. Therefore, to claim that the stars don't move in the sky over the course of two hours invalidates everything else you are saying. It's simply and demonstrably false.

Interesting story, thanks for sharing. I have seen two UFO's in my lifetime, so I understand your excitement! The first one both my wife and myself saw as we were driving home one weekend out in rural Kansas to visit the parents. It was triangular shaped and had one red light and two white lights. I wouldn't have thought much of it, but it appeared to be flying about 100 ft. above us. We got out of our car and stopped on the highway and the thing was completely silent. It hovered for a good 10 minutes above us and then moved a little southward from us and shot straight up into the air, so fast in fact that there is no way I could have estimated its speed. It was a completely cloud free clear night and we actually watched the thing fly up apparently through the atmosphere and turn into a tiny little dot in the sky and disappear. I'm still not completely convinced it wasn't just some sort of advanced aircraft we may have seen in the cover of night though.

The second one I seen in college and actually drove after the thing for about 20 miles taking over 50 pictures of it the entire way. I would get out of my car, take a picture, get back in the car, etc. over and over again. However, I got back home and found that not one of the pictures I took were any good...just blurry photos where nothing could be made out except for a few stars and the tiny glowing dot I thought may have been a UFO.

So, because I never had any proof of either happening I have shut my mouth until now. This is the last time I will ever tell these encounters again, just for the fact that I have no proof and I am not completely convinced either one of them were "Alien spacecraft". At the time it sure seemed like they were, but these type of things require proof, and I'm afraid blurry pictures won't convince anyone, much less myself.

Anyhow, I relate these stories because while I believe in the existance of "other" life, I'm not 100% convinced that we aren't just seeing Government aircraft. Or, that this "other" life really cares that much about us to visit us.

The mind can play tricks with us at night.

[edit on 26-4-2007 by Jazzerman]

Jazzerman, good post. And I can relate with you about the night playing tricks on us. However, you did at least get that "different" feeling when you saw your first one?

See, every time I go back I can try to convince myself it was just a plane, but then I remind myself exactly how I was feeling that very moment and then a chill goes down my spine. For me, I'm relying on the fact that I felt something so profoundly different when I saw that craft so that I can say I at least saw something "I have never seen before." Like you said, it could very well be gov't aircraft, but either way, it startles the crap out of you.

I hear you there W. Knowledge...I was pretty much speechless during both of my sightings, especially the first one...quite odd to see something like that shoot up into the atmosphere at lightning fast speed and then apparently keep going straight up until it disappears. I do have to admit that while I don't deduce it to be necessarily an "alien" craft I still get the feeling that, like you, that I have never seen anything like it before and would not rule out the possibility of it being from somewhere other than Earth. I truely hope anyhow...

Did the UFO look like this:






here's a sight with some info and other sightings..

www.ufocasebook.com...

[edit on 26-4-2007 by elevatedone]