My UFO

[LostAngeles]

It happened a couple of nights ago, that outside the Vermont/Santa Monica station, I saw a strange object in the sky. At first sight, I thought to myself, "Holy ****, is that a flying saucer?"

It was shaped almost like a distorted and elongated teardrop. The outer edges was a light metallic color, than a strip of darkness in the same shape as object itself, another spot of the metallic color and then darkness, as if it had an upper portion and a bottom portion in classic flying saucer form. At the top and the bottom were two blinking lights.

After about a full second, I realized what I was seeing. Anyone want to take a shot?

[DangerousBeliefs]

Blimp?

Airplane?

Water tower?

[Brown]

First time I saw a B-2 bomber, I did not know what it was. From my perspective, it had an "elongated teardrop" shape.

[Kopji]

Crashed Saucer! (http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/la/pubart/Metroart/RedLine/millar1.html)

[Dustin Kesselberg]

Originally posted by Kopji
Crashed Saucer! (http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/la/pubart/Metroart/RedLine/millar1.html)


Lmao!

[LostAngeles]

Originally posted by Kopji
Crashed Saucer! (http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/la/pubart/Metroart/RedLine/millar1.html)

Holy crap, so that's what it's supposed to be.

Ok, so someone got it on the first try. It was a blimp.

The way the lights were reflecting off of it caused it to appear like it was the classic flying saucer. Enough that for a moment, I had the reaction I described, then followed by, "Wait a minute, no. What the hell is it?"

[The Mighty Thor]

I had a similar experience a few years ago that actually made me pull off the road to look more carefully.

It was a hot-air balloon (a publicity stunt by Richard Branson) passing by, glowing strangely in the dark sky.

Of course, Branson actually IS an alien lifeform:)

[JimTheBrit]

Here's my UFO story ...

It was a dark winter's night a year ago. I'd finished work and was waiting in the drizzle for my bus ride home. As the bus eventually rounded the corner, I emerged from beneath the foliage that had been sheltering me and began striding towards the lamp post that served as the unofficial bus stop. Barely having taken a step, I saw a flash above me - a shooting star, I observed, raced across the sky and out of sight within the blink of an eye. Taken aback at the sight and elated that I'd had the fortune to bear witness, I was grinning widely as the bus slowed - only to see the phenomena repeated on exactly the same path but in the opposite direction! It didn't have me puzzled for too long but the experience is one that I won't forget for a while.

What had I seen?

[scotth]

Originally posted by JimTheBrit
Here's my UFO story ...

It was a dark winter's night a year ago. I'd finished work and was waiting in the drizzle for my bus ride home. As the bus eventually rounded the corner, I emerged from beneath the foliage that had been sheltering me and began striding towards the lamp post that served as the unofficial bus stop. Barely having taken a step, I saw a flash above me - a shooting star, I observed, raced across the sky and out of sight within the blink of an eye. Taken aback at the sight and elated that I'd had the fortune to bear witness, I was grinning widely as the bus slowed - only to see the phenomena repeated on exactly the same path but in the opposite direction! It didn't have me puzzled for too long but the experience is one that I won't forget for a while.

What had I seen?

It was light reflecting off the bottom of some utility lines strung between some poles.

[JimTheBrit]

Damn close. A single strand of spider's silk, anchored between the top of the lamp post and the bushes. If I hadn't glanced up for a second time, I'd still be telling people about that time I saw a shooting star.

[TheBoyPaj]

Originally posted by LostAngeles
It happened a couple of nights ago, that outside the Vermont/Santa Monica station, I saw a strange object in the sky. At first sight, I thought to myself, "Holy ****, is that a flying saucer?"

It was shaped almost like a distorted and elongated teardrop. The outer edges was a light metallic color, than a strip of darkness in the same shape as object itself, another spot of the metallic color and then darkness, as if it had an upper portion and a bottom portion in classic flying saucer form. At the top and the bottom were two blinking lights.

After about a full second, I realized what I was seeing. Anyone want to take a shot?

A faulty street light?

[LostAngeles]

Originally posted by TheBoyPaj
A faulty street light?

Nein. Most street lights I've seen are sodium lights and thusly, orange. Also it was too high up. I suppose I should have found a way to clarify that. It would have been about... 50 degrees, give or take, from eye level and I'm 5' 3.5".

The answer's above in this thread.

JimTheBrit, I like that story a lot.

[Checkmite]

While working in San Antonio one night in 2000, I glanced up at the sky toward the north and was surprised to see two identical white lights. They appeared stationary, but they were not stars (they had an apparent magnitude greater than that of Sirius, which was up in the east). They did not appear to move for the longest time. I watched for a few minutes before I went inside, and came out again some time later. The lights were in seemingly the same XY location (despite the fact that the rest of the sky had progressed) however they seemed to be closer together. Again I watched for a bit of time, then went inside. Once more later that evening, I came out and observed the lights in the same state they were in the first time I saw them.

I eventually figured it out - can you?

[tommyz]

OK, folks. Here's my theory as to why this entire UFO phenomena is a HOAX...

(1). Why did a UFO have to crash adjacent to a military aircraft
base (of ALL possible places) in Roswell, NM, in 1947? Do
any of these UFO believers ever consider the possibility
that this entire incident may VERY WELL be just a
government cover-up to obfuscate top secret military
aircraft technology (which we may have been testing and
crashed, as a result) from the Soviets?

One has to remember that this was the time during which the cold war had begun with Russia, along with the heated space race competition in the following years of the 1950's and 60's. Any information (even the most vague information) about what exactly it is that we are building, how we are building it, testing it, improving it, etc would be deemed detrimental to our national security, lest this information should leak into enemy hands, and ultimately used AGAINST us. Why else would our government use such tergiversation tactics of changing their stories from "a saucer shaped disc" crashing to a failed wheather balloon?

You see, even the hint of Americans building "saucer shaped" aircraft may have been feared by US goverment authorities to have been "too much information." Look at all the military and aircraft technology that had developed since that time...such as high speed fighter jets that break the sound barrier, or stealth fighter jets (which, by the way, kinda/sorta resembles something more of the likes of a saucer shaped object, does it not?)

(2). Why are later sightings (of UFO's AFTER the Roswell
incident) almost ALWAYS reported from some remote
and desolate area (such as in the middle of the woods,
mountains, wilderness, etc.)? Do you think that extra
terrestrials beings would fly tens of thousands of light
years away just to go on a camping trip!? Why not fly
over and/or land in more densely populated areas?
How come we never hear of UFO's flying over Washington
D.C. or crashing in Central Park in New York City? Why
does it always have to be off a county road in the middle
of nowhere in Wyoming?

For someone to claim they had encountered a UFO experience in the middle of nowhere, with no one else around, would only lead me to believe quite the contrary. It only stands to reason that when an individual is that starved for attention, he or she will go to great lengths to insure that no one could possibly debunk their ficticious stories of alien and/or UFO encounters with counter testimonies or physical evidence. In other words, the less people that are around to counter testify, the better their chances of pulling off a made-up story.

(3). Why would any species with the rational capacity to build
and develop such technologically advanced space crafts
that are not only capable of traversing light year distances
(at speeds presumably even faster than light itself) but
that are also able to do so and come out in one piece ----
----want absolutely anything to do with a species that
LESSER of itself?

Ever notice how many of the biggest, die hard believers in UFO and extra-terrestrial encounters are the most childishly vacuous and naive individuals? It never fails to completely befuddle me every time I hear of their stories; I feel sorry for the poor aliens to have wasted the precious time!

Could you imagine traveling 100,000 light years out of your way (hoping to find intelligent life) just to find a naive, country bumpkin? For that kind of a trip, I wouldn't give up that easy; I'd keep looking until I found someone like Stephen Hawking --or even better yet, Mr. James Randi himself! That way, I could use the million dollar prize as gas money for the trip back home...yah think?!?!?!?

[LostAngeles]

Oh, Unidentified Flying Objects exist. They're just not flying saucers, or at least, the ones in this thread aren't.

The blimp I saw was a UFO for about a half a minute, tops. Then I identified it and it was an Identified Flying Object.

What I enjoyed was the fact that I my initial flash interpretation was "Flying Saucer?!?!" until I stopped to actually interpret it. This is really the crux of the UFO "phenomena." It's all in how the viewer interprets it. Sometimes the person realizes it's a spider thread or a blimp, sometimes they jump off the deep end and stay there.

[tommyz]

OK, you got me there. So UFO's do exist...

In all seriousness, have you ever came across a french fry in your order of fries that doesn't quite resemble a french fry? Or came across a french fry that was slightly greenish in color? Was that french fry actually made from a potato or some other mysterious substance?

You see, unidentified fried objects (UFO's) DO exist! :D

[c4ts]

A balloon designed for a high altitude? They look like teardops or ice cream cones at lower altitudes because they are designed to expand as the pressure drops. (At full expansion, they look even more like flying saucers.)The metallic outline you saw could be from mylar or a similar material. As for the lights, I don't know. I haven't seen lights on a weather balloon, but I'm sure you could put them on if you wanted airplanes to see it on the way up or down. Could have carried special cargo, like people instead of weather equipment, so there was a bigger need to avoid flying into it.

[Hutch]

La reminded me of my UFO adventure back in the 70's

I'm about 14, sitting in the liivng room in a typical Northern Ohio suburbia, watching TV. But I keep hearing this noise, like a cross between a buzz and a whirr, I look around but it's not coming from the TV or anything in the house. So I look out the front door...it's louder now and coming from above, so I look up...

A vast, dark shape looms above, much larger and slower than any aircraft and with just a few random lights. My Brain is just about ready to tell Mouth to start screaming when the giant UFO begins to spell out it's message...

GO...GO...GOODYEAR

Yep, the Goodyear blimp, probably about 1500 ft. above me. UFO no longer a U. Enjoyed the show.

And Yet...that 1-2 second exquisite thrill/chill when there was something that I didn't understand but which might be something very out of the ordinary has stayed with me to this day (I am considerably older than 14 now). Maybe that is the problem with some of the UFOians...they never got over the moment.

[Checkmite]

OK, nobody gets it.

When I figured it out, the sheer coolness of it all was so great, I wished I had a camera with me just so I could take pictures to show you guys.

What happened was, airliners being vectored into San Antonio International Airport were assigned a pattern that lined part of their descent up perfectly, or nearly perfectly, with my observation point. In other words, before turning for final, the aircraft were flying directly at me - which meant no change in position relative to the sky behind them. The only aspect that changed at all, in fact, was the distance between the lights - which appeared very close together at first, and then further apart as the aircraft drew closer. Since I never watched the lights long enough to notice the aircraft turning onto final, I didn't figure it out...until daybreak, when I saw the silouettes of the planes against the morning sky.

[c4ts]

A camera would have helped a lot. That's really cool, though.

[Patricio Elicer]

Just today I saw a flying cone, yes, a metallic cone-shaped object up there in the sky in plain daylight. I was baffled by the sighting for quite a few seconds. I had never seen such an aircraft before, and it was,...well, ... unmistakably a cone.

But after 8 or 10 seconds it showed its true nature: it was a small plane. It turned out that at the precise moment I spotted it, it was making a slow and wide turn, and therefore it was a bit tilted. That circumstance plus the sun lighting at the moment made it look like a perfect cone. It was just a matter of perspective and lighting.

But what if, I wondered, it had disappeared behind a cloud before it revealed itself as a plane?. Well, I personally wouldn't have gone to the local newspaper or TV station or UFO organization to tell my fantastic sighting, but I guess many others would have. And so, another case would've enlarged the list of unexplained UFO sightings.


Edited for grammar

[LostAngeles]

Originally posted by Joshua Korosi
OK, nobody gets it.

When I figured it out, the sheer coolness of it all was so great, I wished I had a camera with me just so I could take pictures to show you guys.

What happened was, airliners being vectored into San Antonio International Airport were assigned a pattern that lined part of their descent up perfectly, or nearly perfectly, with my observation point. In other words, before turning for final, the aircraft were flying directly at me - which meant no change in position relative to the sky behind them. The only aspect that changed at all, in fact, was the distance between the lights - which appeared very close together at first, and then further apart as the aircraft drew closer. Since I never watched the lights long enough to notice the aircraft turning onto final, I didn't figure it out...until daybreak, when I saw the silouettes of the planes against the morning sky.

Ah, I went straight for man-made spacecraft/satellites, but it didn't really work out so I didn't post it.

[Hutch]

Originally posted by Joshua Korosi
OK, nobody gets it.

When I figured it out, the sheer coolness of it all was so great, I wished I had a camera with me just so I could take pictures to show you guys.

What happened was, airliners being vectored into San Antonio International Airport were assigned a pattern that lined part of their descent up perfectly, or nearly perfectly, with my observation point. In other words, before turning for final, the aircraft were flying directly at me - which meant no change in position relative to the sky behind them. The only aspect that changed at all, in fact, was the distance between the lights - which appeared very close together at first, and then further apart as the aircraft drew closer. Since I never watched the lights long enough to notice the aircraft turning onto final, I didn't figure it out...until daybreak, when I saw the silouettes of the planes against the morning sky.


Ah, got it now. Used to see the same effect while plane-watching at Lambert-St Louis, but since we knew they were planes there was no mystery to solve. But you are spot on to the effect. Really something when you have 4-5 lined up on approach...

[punchdrunk]

I once saw an UFO in the sky that I've never been able to identify. It had what looked to be a very high altitude, and its path was unlike anything I've seen; it would zig zag within its path, turning very sharp corners, something I don't think any aircraft would be able to do. At its perceived altitude, it would have also been traveling much faster than a jet.

My guess is it was a weather balloon that was small and was at a lower altitude than it seemed. It would explain the sharp zigzagging and the seemingly improbable speed at which it was traveling through these corners.

[B.S]

rhoadp, was this sighting at night? Just a bright point of light in the sky? Satellites are moving very fast in the night sky, and commonly appear to be strongly zigzagging, but its just an optical illusion.

[c4ts]

Or ball lightning. If you saw it during a thunderstorm.

[Patricio Elicer]

Originally posted by tommyz
OK, folks. Here's my theory as to why this entire UFO phenomena is a HOAX... Good post Tommy, sorry I came late to read it.

I entirely agree with your ideas that UFOs are real nonsense, but I don't think it's all about a hoax. The skies of Earth are filled with human activity, so it comes to no surprise that people see things that can't identify every now and then. The logical mistake is to jump to the conclusion that "unidentified" means "ship from an alien civilization".

IMO, one of the biggest nonsense built around the UFO cult are the crop circles. So the extraterretrials are coming to Earth just to make figures in crop fields, huh?, and they've been doing that for 30 years, huh?. Those aliens must be real dumbs, which BTW contradicts the fact that they must be very intelligent so as to develop interstellar trips.

Or the aliens are dumb enough to make such big investments to come to Earth just to make drawings in crop fields, or the humans are dumb enough to believe in those things.

[tommyz]

Originally posted by Patricio Elicer
So the extraterretrials are coming to Earth just to make figures in crop fields, huh?, and they've been doing that for 30 years, huh?. Those aliens must be real dumbs, which BTW contradicts the fact that they must be very intelligent so as to develop interstellar trips.


Thanks Patricio, your's is also a great post. Along the same lines, could you imagine traveling hundreds of thousands of light years away just to draw a bunch of meaningless doodles upon a corn field? WHAT'S THE POINT?!

I'm sure that these extra terrestrial beings have their own feilds to do this kind of childish nonsense; why bother going thousands of light years away?

Oh, wait a minute! I get it...they're just delivering some encrypted message for the benefit of all humankind. OK: So if they're such a highly intelligent species, possessing the capacity to develop technology to travel the vast ends of the universe, then figuring out one of our native languages shouldn't be a problem for them either, should it? Why use a bunch of mysterious, circular symbols when a message written in plain English, Spanish or whatever would be MUCH easier?

If that is TRULY INDEED the case, then they really ARE a much lesser species than ourselves, and wouldn't care to know about what they have to offer, bottom line!

[Soapy Sam]

On distant worlds, animals never evolved. Instead, grasses developed intelligence. (Don't ask why grasses evolved. That's another story).

Now these grasses fly around the universe seeking other intelligent cereals. That's why they are interested in cornfields.

They're not little green men. They're little green plants.

Remember. You heard it here first.

[LostAngeles]

Originally posted by tommyz
Thanks Patricio, your's is also a great post. Along the same lines, could you imagine traveling hundreds of thousands of light years away just to draw a bunch of meaningless doodles upon a corn field? WHAT'S THE POINT?!

I'm sure that these extra terrestrial beings have their own feilds to do this kind of childish nonsense; why bother going thousands of light years away?

Oh, wait a minute! I get it...they're just delivering some encrypted message for the benefit of all humankind. OK: So if they're such a highly intelligent species, possessing the capacity to develop technology to travel the vast ends of the universe, then figuring out one of our native languages shouldn't be a problem for them either, should it? Why use a bunch of mysterious, circular symbols when a message written in plain English, Spanish or whatever would be MUCH easier?

If that is TRULY INDEED the case, then they really ARE a much lesser species than ourselves, and wouldn't care to know about what they have to offer, bottom line!

Maybe the aliens are like me. They're a bunch of *******s who like to screw with the gullible for fun and they find this funny.

Because it is. It's sad and really funny all at the same time how people make these ridiculous leaps in (il)logic.

[Hellbound]

Originally posted by LostAngeles
Maybe the aliens are like me. They're a bunch of *******s who like to screw with the gullible for fun and they find this funny.

Because it is. It's sad and really funny all at the same time how people make these ridiculous leaps in (il)logic.

If I were an advance alien race, I'd just surround the planet with yellow police tape (you know..."Police Line: Do Not Cross").

That'd be funny. :)

[tommyz]

No one on this message board had YET to answer my question:

Has anyone ever had a UFO (Unidentified Fried Object) experience??? Like at McDonal's or Burger King?

[MikeSun5]

No one on this message board had YET to answer my question:

Has anyone ever had a UFO (Unidentified Fried Object) experience??? Like at McDonal's or Burger King?

Had one? I used to make 'em.
(I did time at Popeye's in HS.)

[arthwollipot]

Had one? I used to make 'em.
(I did time at Popeye's in HS.)Allow me to be the first to say...


ZOMBIE THREAD!!!!
:scarper:

[MikeSun5]

I saw something in Colorado Springs I've yet to figure out. Feel free to brainstorm. It was a super clear night and I was looking up at the stars. Suddenly I saw an orange circular light followed by another to the right of it and another dimmer one to the right of that. They appeared one after the other in a slow pulse, almost like a yellow hazard light. My first thought was that they were explosions at an extremely high altitude (there was no noise). Maybe they could have been meteors falling directly towards me? It was weird. I've read about sprites and elves and stuff, but they're usually associated with storms. Any ideas?

Of course with Colorado Springs' close proximity to NORAD, the CT crowd would suggest the little green men may be responsible... The alien thing is so dumb. If aliens had technology enough to make it here, then they wouldn't bother stopping here. Would Bill Gates land his helicopter at the Quicky-Mart? Negative.

[UnrepentantSinner]

ZOMBIE THREAD!!!!

I'm glad he resurrected it so I could read Soapy's hilarious explanation for crop circles.

[richardm]

I'm glad he resurrected it so I could read Soapy's hilarious explanation for crop circles.

You missed it before?

I've been lobbying my MP to start a space-based herbicide station project for months in order to prevent these cruel incursions. It will be a fascinating culmination of effort between ESA and Kew Gardens. My MP is quite enthusiastic, partly because the keystone of the plan is to place Alan Titchmarsh in Low Earth Orbit with some secateurs developed by NASA.

[Lanzy]

So you really had an IFO?