Amsterdam sighting May 12th 2009 11PM

Well I never thought I would make such a thread but I have just seen something over the amsterdam sky whilst standing outside (around 11PM CET). It was moving North East, a bright light, brighter than a venus, no sound and no flashing lights. It moved fairly fast but it did seem to take its time. It is a clear enough night with a few wisps of cloud. It was quite low on the horizon but it did not appear too far away, but again, no sound. I see airplanes and helicopters all the time but this was different. It seemed like a conglomerate of three separate lights bundled together and when it moved into the clouds it appeared to have a directional beam of light coming out of it (like a helicopter searching for something). I was with someone and they saw it too thinking it very unusual and strange. It moved into the clouds but as the light was so bright you could still see it, faintly, and it appeared quite a bit bigger due to the diffusion of the light through the clouds. It appeared to be IN the cloud rather than behind it. It did not come back and it disappeared out of sight. Has anyone else seen it?

reply to post by Lebowski achiever


if it was definatley through the cloud - no idea, above but appeared to be in the clouds probably a satellite unless your used to seeing satellites and can rule it out....

possible Iridium Flare from a satellite

www.satobs.org...

how long was it in sight and what direction did it head? how high did you think it was ( higher than most typicl aircraft would fly?) any special movements??
edited to remove nonsense lol

[edit on 12-5-2009 by Dwest]

reply to post by booda

I have seen iridium flare but as it gave light through the clouds (and was in it) the light emited from it rather than a reflection. I rule out satellite out as well as it was not high up, rather large and not too far away.

reply to post by Dwest


It was moving in North East direction and it was not very far away and not high up.

No way, i saw that too. That exact thing, as bright if not brighter than venus moving slowly in a northerly-eastish direction & i too was with a mate ( a skeptic ) who agreed he hadnt seen anything like it before. It wasnt a flare and it was very high and very bright.
Glad someone else spotted it!
By the way im in the uk so it backs up my being high up observation & i saw it at 9-55pm which would be 10-55pm in holland.

Also what i saw as high up you would have seen as lower maybe.
All i know is its very likely to be the same object with timing, description & direction etc.


[edit on 12/5/09 by cropmuncher]

[edit on 12/5/09 by cropmuncher]

reply to post by cropmuncher


That's pretty amazing. Where abouts in the UK are you? To me it did not appear to be very far away. How did it appear to you?

Due to its brightness it did look close but it was high up.
What makes me think it was the same object is that you said it was like venus - which it was.
Also i saw it from the other side to you, it was travelling n/e direction but i observed it looking east/southeast ish - i am nr birmingham in the midlands which would put the Dam in the right place. Whats amazed me is that for you to have seen it around the same time is that it must have been massive.
Funnily enough as soon as i got home i logged on to ATS to see if someone had spotted it when i saw your thread.

reply to post by cropmuncher


could it have been the space shuttle? Is that possible? Where is it?

Edited to add: Strike that. The space shuttle is stationary and far away from here and not very reflective. This was definitely moving and also was definitely IN the clouds rather than behind it.

I was facing east.



[edit on 12/5/09 by Lebowski achiever]

[edit on 12/5/09 by Lebowski achiever]

I dont know how far away it is at the moment although i would say its up by the hubble at about 350 miles away.
That was a big light for 350miles away and i doubt it would be, although i wouldnt like to say for sure.
Nice one for the thread though as i hate it when i spot something that i think loads of people will only to find my mate & i are the only ones.
Last week i was sky watching late at night and was looking up on a clear night for stuff when after 20 mins & 4 moving objects later, the biggest and brightest star in the sky ( which i had been using as a stationary object to look for movement suddenly started moving and was gone within a minuite.
That looked like this one tonight!

If you were facing east as well then it was big & high up.
I am convinced we saw the same object.

Originally posted by cropmuncher
I dont know how far away it is at the moment although i would say its up by the hubble at about 350 miles away.
That was a big light for 350miles away and i doubt it would be, although i wouldnt like to say for sure.
Nice one for the thread though as i hate it when i spot something that i think loads of people will only to find my mate & i are the only ones.
Last week i was sky watching late at night and was looking up on a clear night for stuff when after 20 mins & 4 moving objects later, the biggest and brightest star in the sky ( which i had been using as a stationary object to look for movement suddenly started moving and was gone within a minuite.
That looked like this one tonight!

I have been seeing quite a bit of stuff as well in the past 6 months and I cannot go outside without looking up, even in the daylight. However, I am always reluctant to tell anyone what I see as they would never believe me but I am slowly freaking out a bit. What is going on?

Any chance it was the ISS? I watched it pass over the UK around 21.45 BST, which is a hour behind CEST I believe. It appeared a fairly yellowish color, max elevation 20 degrees, brightness was 0.8, so not as bright as Venus in fact. It lasted about 4 minutes before I lost sight of it in the SE.

If it was the ISS, there was a second much brighter pass around 23.20 BST (00.20 CEST). (I just got in from watching it.) The max altitude was around 50 degrees, brightness -2.2 so very comparable with Venus. The ISS moves swiftly and silently of course. It's about 250 miles up.

All these data are given on the Heavens Above website. Just enter your location at signup.

I'm also trying to spot NASA's lost toolbag, which is orbiting about 15 minutes later than the ISS at present. No luck with that though. Magnitude only is 5 or so.

WG3

reply to post by waveguide3


That was definitely not it. Timings are too early and too late. It was definitely not yellow, more bluish, and very very bright.

Hi, did it look anything like this?

I caught this last night whilst skywatching. I'm in the UK. Although I couldn't find a track for this on heavens above.

It's brighter than the usual satellites I see.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d2a35cc384d8.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a35b2b3ac125.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9ff16e7ae244.jpg[/atsimg]

Sorry it's slightly out of focus as it was taken in a rush... approx 5 second exposure.. (I have 4 of it in transit). Taken at 00.46 GMT.

Edit to add time.

[edit on 12/5/2009 by UKWO1Phot]

reply to post by waveguide3

Thats good info wg3.
This light was a lot brighter than venus was say about 2 months ago & was also a very white light.
I have been spotting all sorts in the sky over the last few weeks including a few satallites? that zig zag/slow down then speed up & that change direction. Quite clearly not all satallites but without video evidence its hard to get people to believe. I have a HD video camera but they dont show up on the screen as its too dark.
In reply to the op, i am not sure what is going on but i have been looking up for years and have never seen it so busy as i have in the last few weeks.
Could it really be that we will see disclosure soon, maybe with this shuttle mission?

I knew when i saw this thing tonight that it would be spotted by someone else as it was too big & bright to go unoticed.

reply to post by UKWO1Phot

It was larger than that and a lot brighter. It was also parallel to the horizon and quite low down.

just curious when you say it was low down, i saw it as about 30-40 degrees from horizon, does that fit? although im still positive we saw the same object - too much of a coicidence.

reply to post by UKWO1Phot

good image, what equiptment do you use to get those?

reply to post by cropmuncher

Yes most definitely. That fits.