NationStates Jolt Archive

Well, I have...summer of 1998.

I come from a small town in northeast Ohio, USA. Lots of open land; no light pollution (have since moved on to the 'big' city). I've always had a thing for looking up to the sky and wondering 'what's out there'.

On the night of the observation, I was chillin' with a friend, just staring at the stars, when I saw this object come up over the horizon. It was the same size as any star; maybe a bit brighter. It went over the horizon, to about 45 degrees elevation on the celestial dome, in approximately 5 seconds. I thought "that's a bit odd; a sattellite shouldn't move that fast".

I pointed it out to my friend, who promptly chastised me for looking for 'little green men". That's when the thing moved hard right, about 90 degrees, in all of 4 seconds. My friend still hadn't seen it, but I was calling "DUDE!! LOOK!!" I pointed to the area of the sky where it was still hovering, and he looked up. A few comments of "You really need to lay off the hard stuff" followed. However, he was looking up when it backtracked to its prior position faster than it had moved in the first place.

Needless to say, he stopped messing with me. We both just sat there and watched the thing as it hovered, and drifted left, right, up & down, faster than anything has a 'laws of physics as we understand them' right to do. It was truly a surreal experience.

Now, I'm not saying that the 'object' was piloted by little green men from Betelgeuse. But it damn sure didn't move like anything I've ever seen. It sure as hell wasn't a weather balloon, venus, or swamp gas. A DARPA project; maybe. But still a UFO.

I've spent untold hundreds of hours staring at the sky; this is the only time that I've ever thought "Holy Crap, that's a UFO". The entire observation lasted maybe 90 seconds before the thing zipped back under the horizon.

Which brings me to my question...Has anyone else seen anything like this? Something that just doesn't fit into the realm of the known? If so, please do tell.

(Oh, and keep the anal probe jokes to a minimum...that is, unless you've been anally probed...by little green men :D

If I can figure out the poll function, I'll post a poll (first thread; I'm a little slow on the uptake at stuff like this).

I live in Mentor (well, currently I'm in Columbus) so I'd be interested in knowing where you live for reference.

A guy with the same name as me has had an encounter (found out from an ego search) but that's about it.

I've seen five such objects (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searchlight) every night for years. Especially when it's cloudly or overcast.

I once saw a triangle object fly over my house once. It was absolutely quiet. The only lights I could see from it was two orange squares, and it was just weird.

i am dreaming of bacon and eggs right now. there's a 24hr shop 15 mins up the road. in 45 mins i could have bacon and eggs and there might be something interesting on NSG by then. this is sorely tempting despite the chilly temperature outside.

At the time, Portage County. Rootstown, specifically (Ravenna or Akron if you've never heard of Rootstown).

Hello Todsborow my friend from the NFL thread.I belive it would be ignorant to belive that there isnt other intelligent life out there.I beliveits possible that they have visited our planet.

It is sad that UFO freaks give a bad look to me when I say I belive in UFO's

I've seen five such objects (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searchlight) every night for years. Especially when it's cloudly or overcast.

This wasn't a searchlight; I've seen those before.

Like I said, I've spent hundreds of hours staring at the sky. This is the only time I've ever seen something I can't explain.

It was basically a 'star' like object that moved so rapidly that it caught my attention. Not a diffused light, such as a searchlight.

**Edit** It was a clear summer night; no clouds.

i am dreaming of bacon and eggs right now. there's a 24hr shop 15 mins up the road. in 45 mins i could have bacon and eggs and there might be something interesting on NSG by then. this is sorely tempting despite the chilly temperature outside.

Well, I'm allergic to eggs...however, if I ask nice enough, they'll subsitute bacon...mmmm, bacon (drools).

If Elliott had given ET bacon instead of Reese's Pieces;) , the pudgy little fucker never would've 'phoned home'. ;)

Now that I think of it something strange did happen to me once.I was on my couch playing video games around 8 or 9 o clock.I was 9 at the time so I remember being really tired.My parents were away on a dinner date.I remember getting a really bad headache really spontaneously.This headache lastedaround maybe 1 minute 2 minutes or thatswhatit feltl like.I was just sitting there on the couch the whole time just staring off.The headache became a dull throb ad I looked up at the clock and 45 minutes had passed.I don't what it was and I'm not saying I was abducted but that does quaify as weird fo me.

"Holy Crap, that's a UFO"
No that's a dot. There is no evidence to suggest that it was anything at all. There's just a mysterious dot in the sky. For all you know it could be an experimental aircraft or some strange atmospheric disturbance.

I once saw a triangle object fly over my house once. It was absolutely quiet. The only lights I could see from it was two orange squares, and it was just weird.

I have to admit, my experience wasn't that 'obvious'. I've seen the pics of the Phoenix incident (also Mexico City)...for me, that would remove all doubt. Mine was a bit more 'open to interpretation'. Still a UFO, though, as far as I'm concerned...nothing in the public domain of knowledge moves like the 'star' I saw...

No that's a dot. There is no evidence to suggest that it was anything at all. There's just a mysterious dot in the sky. For all you know it could be an experimental aircraft or some strange atmospheric disturbance.

UFO simply means unidentiefied flying object.If you look up into the sky and see something that you cannot tell what it is,its a UFO.

No that's a dot. There is no evidence to suggest that it was anything at all. There's just a mysterious dot in the sky. For all you know it could be an experimental aircraft or some strange atmospheric disturbance.

Hence the DARPA comment. UFO =/= Little Green Men.

Would be a helluvan Atmospheric Disturbance.

Well, I'm allergic to eggs...however, if I ask nice enough, they'll subsitute bacon...mmmm, bacon (drools).

If Elliott had given ET bacon instead of Reese's Pieces;) , the pudgy little fucker never would've 'phoned home'. ;)

reese's peices would be some sort of 'chocolate'/peanut concoction, right? if that be case i agree wholeheartedly. much as both chocolate and peanut butter are intergalactically awesome, nothing beats the transdimensional incroyable-ness of bacon ;D.

edit: p.s. i can't belive i'm the only one who chose bacon and eggs out of all those options?! cum on people, culinary excellence awaits your click!

edit2: my dad used to be an air-traffic controller before he got knocked on his head and he swears that he saw once (along with others) a blip on the radar screnes that went impossibly fast and at riduclously sharp angles before disappearing. my dad does have a propensity for telling tall tales though, so i'll take that with a handful of sea salt.

I have to admit, my experience wasn't that 'obvious'. I've seen the pics of the Phoenix incident (also Mexico City)...for me, that would remove all doubt. Mine was a bit more 'open to interpretation'. Still a UFO, though, as far as I'm concerned...nothing in the public domain of knowledge moves like the 'star' I saw...

I thought about calling up Charlotte TRACON (Air Traffic Control) to see if they were picking it up, but I didn't want to seem like a nut case, and plus they know me, so they might turn me over to the FAA.

BTW, TRACON stands for Terminal Radar Approach Control, it's basically the level of ATC that guides airplanes in and out of areas surrounding airports.

I'm pretty sure that what you saw was a weather balloon that drifted into a cloud of swamp gas and was struck by lightning.:p

I thought about calling up Charlotte TRACON (Air Traffic Control) to see if they were picking it up, but I didn't want to seem like a nut case, and plus they know me, so they might turn me over to the FAA.

BTW, TRACON stands for Terminal Radar Approach Control, it's basically the level of ATC that guides airplanes in and out of areas surrounding airports.


LOL, yeah, if people on a place like NS think you're crazy, I can only imagine what Air Traffic Control would think...

this looks like an intresting photo of a ufo.http://www.uform.org/pictures/billdavies.jpg

I'm pretty sure that what you saw was a weather balloon that drifted into a cloud of swamp gas and was struck by lightning.:p

You forgot the 'magically aligned with Venus' part...:D

You forgot the 'magically aligned with Venus' part...:D

That reminds me of the movie Men in Black for some reason.I think of the guys said it.

I've seen some pretty odd things down through the years. I've seen the Aurora Borealis... I've seen ball lightning - I've seen powerful lasers illuminating the undersides of clouds. Telecommunications satellites - passing overhead, the pre-dawn light hitting the bodies of flocks of high-flying migratory birds... attack helicopters on night training maneouvres shining UV beams on me - the usual shooting stars, of course - but there was one occasion, come to think of it now -

I was out on Lake Ontario on the foredeck of a three-masted schooner. It was a bar boat, more than anything - a floating nightclub. We were doing a number of stops along the way to Welland. It was a cold night, and the moon was shining bright out over the water.

I looked out and took in the stars, and noticed what at first I took to be the lights of another boat out in the water. It looked very close to the horizon, so it was hard to judge distance, but - these lights (or, point of light more like) proceeded to do things that boats don't usually do. First, it began moving fast. I mean, incredibly fast. It swung around us completing maybe a 135º arc around our position, remaining all the while seemingly at or near the horizon - and did so in approximately a dozen seconds or less. It did not make an appreciable sound at any time.

That much alone slackened my jaw. What happened next was very much unexpected. The light seemed to alternately recede and draw nearer for a short time, then rose out of the water to some low altitude and hung there for two maybe three seconds before flying upwards at such an accelerated speed, it looked like a shooting star travelling straight upward away from the surface.

What the Hell was that about?

edit: p.s. i can't belive i'm the only one who chose bacon and eggs out of all those options?! cum on people, culinary excellence awaits your click!

Well, if I had chosen the 'multiple poll response' option, it would have been my second choice...is that any consolation ?? (granted, bacon & eggs for me = double bacon)

how about...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_field_entoptic_phenomenon

or

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater

(edit: or even a laser pointer, which are used even in stargazing for finding and pointing out objects in the sky.)
(edit again: or perhaps even http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purkinje_images)

reese's peices would be some sort of 'chocolate'/peanut concoction, right? if that be case i agree wholeheartedly. much as both chocolate and peanut butter are intergalactically awesome, nothing beats the transdimensional incroyable-ness of bacon ;D.

edit: p.s. i can't belive i'm the only one who chose bacon and eggs out of all those options?! cum on people, culinary excellence awaits your click!

edit2: my dad used to be an air-traffic controller before he got knocked on his head and he swears that he saw once (along with others) a blip on the radar screnes that went impossibly fast and at riduclously sharp angles before disappearing. my dad does have a propensity for telling tall tales though, so i'll take that with a handful of sea salt.


shit, i just realised that it's so early(late) in the morning i could go to the pub much easier than the 24hr shop and get myself a beer instead of bacon and eggs. think' i'll have cheese-on-toast instead. damn alcoholism.

[QUOTE=Dobbsworld;11899767]I've seen some pretty odd things down through the years. I've seen the Aurora Borealis... I've seen ball lightning - I've seen powerful lasers illuminating the undersides of clouds. Telecommunications satellites - passing overhead, the pre-dawn light hitting the bodies of flocks of high-flying migratory birds... attack helicopters on night training maneouvres shining UV beams on me - the usual shooting stars, of course - but there was one occasion, come to think of it now -

I was out on Lake Ontario on the foredeck of a three-masted schooner. It was a bar boat, more than anything - a floating nightclub. We were doing a number of stops along the way to Welland. It was a cold night, and the moon was shining bright out over the water.

I looked out and took in the stars, and noticed what at first I took to be the lights of another boat out in the water. It looked very close to the horizon, so it was hard to judge distance, but - these lights (or, point of light more like) proceeded to do things that boats don't usually do. First, it began moving fast. I mean, incredibly fast. It swung around us completing maybe a 135º arc around our position, remaining all the while seemingly at or near the horizon - and did so in approximately a dozen seconds or less. It did not make an appreciable sound at any time.

That much alone slackened my jaw. What happened next was very much unexpected. The light seemed to alternately recede and draw nearer for a short time, then rose out of the water to some low altitude and hung there for two maybe three seconds before flying upwards at such an accelerated speed, it looked like a shooting star travelling straight upward away from the surface.

What the Hell was that about?[QUOTE]

Well...I don't know what that was about. That's why I'm asking everyone else !!

Although that does sound a lot like my experience (I've spent time in the desert with attack helicopters (not Iraq, the Mojave), and I've seen plenty of 'things' in the sky...but nothing i've ever seen moved like what I saw that night.

And you're spot on with the 'point of light' comment...that's exactly what it was (it looked just like a star...except it wasn't...)

how about...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_field_entoptic_phenomenon

or

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater

Nope. I get those all the time. This was a 'star' (since described more accurately as a point of light) that moved like no star/sattellite/spotlight/what-the-f-ever should move.

Those are all eye phenomena...this was 'out there'...

And look, I'm not crazy...I've wanted to see what I saw my whole life, I admit...but 90 seconds out of hundreds of hours, well, If I 'imagined' it, methinks that I would've seen it more than once, and more recently than 8 years ago....

how about...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_field_entoptic_phenomenon

or

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater

(edit: or even a laser pointer, which are used even in stargazing for finding and pointing out objects in the sky.)
(edit again: or perhaps even http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purkinje_images)

No, No, No.

It was a clear night; and the light was too focused to be a laser pointer. Any type of laser or spotlight would be diffused to the point that it wasn't a 'point of light'.

Personally, I lean a bit more towards the DARPA secret aircraft, although I do believe in 'Little Green Men' (just don't think I've seen them). I just hope it was our (U.S.'s) secret aircraft.

My dad's best freind was questioned by australian air force officers about somthing he saw near our local airport??? made me think any way.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y138/Dragonkirby/Non-Kirby/Photos/DSC00628.jpg

Clearly a UFO.