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Strange light over West Des Moines

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posted on Jun, 30 2011 @ 09:52 PM
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I was unable to get a photograph of this odd light over West Des Moines last night 06/29/11 at approx 10:35 PM CST. If anyone in this forum is from the Des Moines area and saw this please let me know I am not crazy. I was actually on the phone with someone about 60 blocks away who saw the same thing. I live basically on the final approach to Des Moines Intl. All of the planes line up over the block where I live and the planes literally fly right over my house. I was watching a small passenger jet come from the Northwest and approach the airport when I saw another light that was coming directly from the western sky heading straight East. I assumed it was a plane that was going to follow the passenger jet in and land after it. What I thought was the second plane began to look odd. First thing I noticed is it was simply a bright light without any strobes or landing lights. The other thing is it did not make any noise. The other plane had passed and this object started to turn south and still traveling at an extremely slow speed. I continued to watch this object as it turned south and appeared to slow down for approx 1-2 minutes. While I was watching it a friend 60 blocks to the West of my location and approx 10 blocks south was watching the same thing. There was partial cloud cover and this object was under the clouds. The object faded slightly lit back up then it turned an orange red color and then faded to nothing in about 3 seconds. Never saw it again and never heard a sound. I have an amateur telescope and I used to sit outside very often for hours watching the sky and trying to track stars. I have seen lights that strobe in space and figured out they were satellites spinning and reflecting light. I think about these things rationally but this one makes no sense.

I have some ideas of what it could be. Possibly some sort of firework, if one could fly for a couple minutes at a relatively slow speed and remain illuminated the entire time.

The object reminded me of a flare with the brightness but it did not flicker. When it faded out it did so with the same burning out fashion of a flare. How a flare made it that high or was dropped who knows. Des Moines does have a fighter wing of F-16's that are always flying around but I did not hear one to assume it dropped the flare. Do any public aircraft carry flares?

Any ideas are welcome. I have no photos I apologize. I did not go outside anticipating this would happen. If anyone from the Des Moines area is on here and saw it lease let me know. Thanks.
edit on 30-6-2011 by etombo because: Fixing a few typos



posted on Jun, 30 2011 @ 09:55 PM
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You may want to check out this thread... to start your process of elimination or identification
if someone is unable to help you based on your description...
edit on June 30th 2011 by greeneyedleo because: (no reason given)



posted on Jun, 30 2011 @ 09:57 PM
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reply to post by etombo
 


Hey there. It probably was the space station, I saw it tonight too and was amazed so I looked on an ISS tracking site and sure enough thats what it was. It was pretty cool


Hope this helps www.astronomie.info...



posted on Jun, 30 2011 @ 10:03 PM
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Thanks for the link. I did sort of look through that before I made the post and I feel foolish for looking over the ball lightning idea. The description of ball lightning did match what I saw to some extent. There has got to be some people on this forum in the area that may have seen the same thing. Possibly someone can confirm that it was likely ball lightning or some other phenomenon. I though have never seen ball lightning so I do not know what to compare it to.



posted on Jun, 30 2011 @ 10:17 PM
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reply to post by Kali74
 


quote " under the clouds" can you people not read or are you just ....slow



posted on Jun, 30 2011 @ 10:20 PM
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reply to post by etombo
 




ball ligtning usually doesnt stay the same light, not the same size...and it usually travels along the ground....or close to it



posted on Jun, 30 2011 @ 10:25 PM
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reply to post by sol420
 


I checked out some videos on youtube and it appeared some of the ball lightning was a few thousand feet above the ground. It was higher than the aircraft but under the clouds. However, the aircraft are low enough that I cast shadows off the strobes. This thing was probably somewhere around 5000 feet I think. Do you consider that close to the ground?



posted on Jun, 30 2011 @ 10:31 PM
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Originally posted by sol420
reply to post by Kali74
 


quote " under the clouds" can you people not read or are you just ....slow



Maybe you didn't read the part where the OP was edited. I would think that through a thin cloud layer you could still see the ISS same as you can with stars or the moon, and that it would distort the color of the light and because the ISS is so bright it may even be impossible to tell if it's above or below even though it's obviously above. It sounds to me just like what I saw tonight which was 100% the ISS. Try going to the site I linked and match up Des Moines with the time and see if it fits.

Zero reason to be an ass just because I don't think this particular light was aliens. The OP asked for help and that's what I'm trying to do. I happen to be a believer FYI.



posted on Jun, 30 2011 @ 10:33 PM
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reply to post by Kali74
 


I used to track the ISS but this did not move like it. I remember the ISS rising in the western sky and setting and possible rising and setting again. I think the ISS is on some weird Russian orbit or something. I will keep researching however.



posted on Jun, 30 2011 @ 10:43 PM
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You have any active geological fault lines in your area? Any history of earthquakes small or large around the area? The so called "Earth Lights" often appear in these areas and they do seem to be *attracted* to following, at times, metal objects in the sky. What goes against this explanation is your description of the lights. Earth lights often have a very exaggerated and completely, seemingly, random motion not as if they have *purpose*

The interesting thing about ball lightning is that. Until mass UFO sightings most main stream scientists refused to believe it existed. It's a classic case of the parameters moving, not to embrace ball lightning, rather to exclude the possibility of UFOs.



posted on Jun, 30 2011 @ 10:54 PM
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reply to post by FireMoon
 


I think the closest fault line is in Missouri. Sometimes supposedly we can feel earthquakes here, however I have never had the experience myself. I hope what I saw was ball lightning. I have never seen anything like that and I imagine it is not a common thing to see.
edit on 30-6-2011 by etombo because: Redundant



posted on Jun, 30 2011 @ 10:57 PM
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reply to post by etombo
 


Re reading you OP..... you don't actually mention the specific colour of the light. What was it ?



posted on Jun, 30 2011 @ 11:17 PM
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FWIW, there was an ISS pass visible from Des Moines in that rough time frame.

Heavens Above pass details

The general details fit. It rises in the WNW and traverses generally S and E before entering the shadow.
edit on 6/30/2011 by eaglewingz because: (no reason given)



posted on Jul, 1 2011 @ 02:15 PM
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reply to post by FireMoon
 


It was bright white. Brighter than the iss from when I have viewed it in the past. The motion was as smooth and fluid as a satellite. Only problem is the object was below the clouds. The clouds were not thick but did not seem to interrupt the light in the slightest. I need to get to a computer to see this link that was just posted, lame iPhone has no flash. (Internet without flash is like earth without green...)



posted on Jul, 1 2011 @ 04:20 PM
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reply to post by eaglewingz
 


Thanks for that awesome link. The light was not low enough on the horizon to be the ISS. This object was directly above my friend who lives near 60th street in West Des Moines. I am approx 60 blocks east from him. The object was between us, above the city of West Des Moines. That pass is over Nebraska. I will see if I can produce a map to show the approx course of the object, will need to find some web space as well. Also it is important to note that this thing turned. It came from the west heading directly east and turned to a southeastern direction. No flickering. A solid white light, about as bright as landing lights.

I hope it was ball lightning. Will have to research both.



posted on Jul, 5 2011 @ 02:55 PM
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I took the week to speak to people that I know around the city. I found two additional people who saw the object over Des Moines. The two people I spoke to were on the far east side of the city. One was past Altoona and one was heading from the Casino in Altoona. The second person I spoke to who was not in a moving car when he saw it but standing outside stated he watched it for about as long and that it was not the ISS. He is familiar with viewing the ISS and this object was far too bright and it turned in it's path. The ISS would have been lower on the Western Horizon in West Des Moines. I suppose I have to conclude that it was ball lightning. The two people I found both concurred that it was probably ball lightning. I would like to thank people who came to this thread to help me try and decipher what I saw that night. If anything comes from this I hope anyone who may have seen it and tries to research it can find my thread to fine a logical explanation for what was seen. Thanks again!




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