Strange light?

becomingagodo · 19th July 2007, 03:50 AM

Well, I was reading Penrose book road to reality and they was talking about god creating the universe and how we should try to explain it using the theory of everything instead of saying god did it. Then after I read it I looked out the window for some freash air, then I saw something that I coudln't explain.

I saw a red glowing object that moved perfectly down, at first it looked like a star. It was similar because it was the same size and looked roughly the same as the other stars, however it was red.

The object moved slowly straight down and I saw it for roughly about five minautes. I think it is not a plane as I know what a plane looks like and this wasen't. Can a meteroid be seen without a tail, as the object had no tail behind it?

Anyone know what this is?

yairhol · 19th July 2007, 03:56 AM

[QUOTEbecomingagodo]Anyone know what this is?[/quote]
of course, it's a UFO.

Next...

Regards,
Yair

becomingagodo · 19th July 2007, 04:02 AM

Quote:

of course, it's a UFO.

Come on can you be serious for a minaute, was it a meteroid? and can be meteroid not have tails?

yairhol · 19th July 2007, 04:14 AM

sorry, I couldn't resist.

I suppose it could have been a meteor and if it was far enough from you and on a sunny day, its tail could have not been obvious enough to distinguish it from the main meteor body.

But there's a much simpler explanation. The army has illumination bombs (I don't know their name in English) which is something every soldier carries in his vest. You fire it at night to light up the area underneath it or you can fire it at day time to signal your position to distant troops or whoever.
Maybe someone had that with him (soldier, civilian, etc.) and they shot it.
It would look exactly as you described it.

Regards,
Lieutenant Yair

Cuddles · 19th July 2007, 04:30 AM

Originally Posted by yairhol

The army has illumination bombs (I don't know their name in English)

Flares. Sounds the most likely explanation, and they seem to be fairly common as a cause of UFOs.

As for meteors having tails, they actually don't. They appear as lines rather than points because they are moving so fast that your vision can't distinguish them. Effectively, they are faster than the shutter speed of your eye (or brain). It is entirely possible to see slow meteors that do not appear as streaks, but they are usually very bright and often appear as fireballs. It is unlikely that such a slow meteor could be mistaken for a star, and five minutes is far too long for one to be visible.

yairhol · 19th July 2007, 04:33 AM

Originally Posted by Cuddles

This signature has been constructed entirely from recycled electrons

becomingagodo · 19th July 2007, 06:03 AM

Quote:

Flares. Sounds the most likely explanation, and they seem to be fairly common as a cause of UFOs.

It was really high up and moving down. I thought flares normally move upwards and have a tail, like fireworks. Also their was no smoke around it. Again it was really high up.

Quote:

far enough from you and on a sunny day

It was night time

yairhol · 19th July 2007, 06:08 AM

Originally Posted by becomingagodo

It was night time

If it was night then you wouldn't see any smoke. The light is very bright and right in the vicinity of it you cannot notice anything. The flare is intended to light up the ground which is sufficiently below it.

It was probably a flare.

Regards,
Lieutenant Yair

Cuddles · 19th July 2007, 06:21 AM

Originally Posted by becomingagodo

It was really high up and moving down. I thought flares normally move upwards

Nope, flares obey the law of gravity.

Quote:

and have a tail, like fireworks.

Also their was no smoke around it.

There are plenty of fireworks that don't have tails, the ones that do are specifically designed to do so. I see no reason why someone would design a flare to have a tail, so I don't see why you'd expect them to have one. As for smoke, how would you see that at night?

Quote:

Again it was really high up.

How do you know? You saw a point light source at night. How could you tell how far away it was?

casebro · 19th July 2007, 07:11 AM

At night, and having no frame of reference, how can you distinguish 'falling' from moving sideways? My guess would be an airplane with a red light, moving by, or landing, with what appeared to be a falling trajectory.

Five minutes for a flare would need a parachute, and a BIG flare, but planes fly all day (or all night). And red flares don't usually have parachutes, or last for five minutes. White ones, used for illumination, do. That big of a flare would only be launched by the military, only in a war zone or training area. Any such in sight of B. Godo?

yairhol · 19th July 2007, 07:19 AM

Originally Posted by casebro

Five minutes for a flare would need a parachute, and a BIG flare, but planes fly all day (or all night).

I would be so sure it was 5 minutes as the OP said. It could have been easily 2.5 minutes which felt more than that because of the curiosity around the incident.

Regards,
Yair

Buckaroo · 19th July 2007, 07:54 AM

Yup, sounds like a flare. Here's one of the most famous cases of flares being mistaken for alien spacecraft (not to imply that this is what you're doing):

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4041

becomingagodo · 19th July 2007, 08:32 AM

Well, if it wasen't for this forum I might have started to believe in aliens i.e. went crazy. It looked more like the flares in that picture, I guess I couldn't really trust my perception of time and perspective.

Leif Roar · 19th July 2007, 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by casebro

And red flares don't usually have parachutes, or last for five minutes.

Actually, red rocket flares with parachute is an international distress signal for ships. They don't quite last for five minutes, but they last long enough that one might mistake it for that long.

kerikiwi · 19th July 2007, 05:26 PM

Skeptic Guy · 19th July 2007, 05:34 PM

Originally Posted by Buckaroo

Yup, sounds like a flare. Here's one of the most famous cases of flares being mistaken for alien spacecraft (not to imply that this is what you're doing):

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4041

That's a perfect example and one that I would have used if you hadn't.

fuelair · 19th July 2007, 05:52 PM

Originally Posted by becomingagodo

It was really high up and moving down. I thought flares normally move upwards and have a tail, like fireworks. Also their was no smoke around it. Again it was really high up.

It was night time

Flare is fired up, 'chutes down after igniting to provide a light source for 30+seconds. The down is slower and brighter.
How far was it from you?

mhaze · 19th July 2007, 07:32 PM

Airplanes have a rotating beacon top of the vertical fin, and one red and one green light on wingtips. When the plane is positioned relative to a ground observer such that the rotating beacon (red, but flashing) cannot be seen because it is obscured by the wing, there are then only two things you can see

1. A green light on the right side of the vehicle
2. A red light on the left side of the vehicle.

Incidentally, this is the same for ships, aircraft, and manned spacecraft, so you may presume

that alien vehicles entering our airspace would try to fool us by having the same lights.

From the above it is obvious that if the aircraft was high up, then the tail could easily have been obscured and you would not have seen the vertical fin rotating red beacon.

Ergo, red light, aircraft above you with it's left side visible (it is to your right).

Beerina · 20th July 2007, 11:41 AM

It could have been a jet flying right at you. The same thing happened to me around July 4th.

We were outside watching neighborhood fireworks, 6 or more different places visible from my front porch. There was this bright red and white light up in the sky just hovering there over my neighbor's house.

For about 10 minutes, it just hovered there. Obviously it must be a helicopter of some kind, but very far away. Or a UFO, of course (

)

After 10 minutes, it started moving very slowly, then within 10 seconds picked up a huge amount of speed and roared overhead. It occured to me it was a jet coming in for a landing, and had been on a descent path that was more or less coming straight at me. Hence it "wasn't moving". When it got closer, it leveled out and went right overhead. (We're about 10 miles away from a cargo airport.)

19th July 2007, 03:50 AM	#1
becomingagodo Banned Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 698	Strange light? Well, I was reading Penrose book road to reality and they was talking about god creating the universe and how we should try to explain it using the theory of everything instead of saying god did it. Then after I read it I looked out the window for some freash air, then I saw something that I coudln't explain. I saw a red glowing object that moved perfectly down, at first it looked like a star. It was similar because it was the same size and looked roughly the same as the other stars, however it was red. The object moved slowly straight down and I saw it for roughly about five minautes. I think it is not a plane as I know what a plane looks like and this wasen't. Can a meteroid be seen without a tail, as the object had no tail behind it? Anyone know what this is?
becomingagodo Banned Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 698

19th July 2007, 03:56 AM	#2
yairhol Graduate Poster Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 1,403	[QUOTEbecomingagodo]Anyone know what this is?[/quote] of course, it's a UFO. Next... Regards, Yair
yairhol Graduate Poster Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 1,403

19th July 2007, 04:02 AM	#3
becomingagodo Banned Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 698	Quote: of course, it's a UFO. Come on can you be serious for a minaute, was it a meteroid? and can be meteroid not have tails?
becomingagodo Banned Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 698

19th July 2007, 04:14 AM	#4
yairhol Graduate Poster Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 1,403	sorry, I couldn't resist. I suppose it could have been a meteor and if it was far enough from you and on a sunny day, its tail could have not been obvious enough to distinguish it from the main meteor body. But there's a much simpler explanation. The army has illumination bombs (I don't know their name in English) which is something every soldier carries in his vest. You fire it at night to light up the area underneath it or you can fire it at day time to signal your position to distant troops or whoever. Maybe someone had that with him (soldier, civilian, etc.) and they shot it. It would look exactly as you described it. Regards, Lieutenant Yair
yairhol Graduate Poster Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 1,403

19th July 2007, 04:30 AM	#5
Cuddles Decoy Moderator Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: A magical land full of pink fluffy sheeps and bunnies Posts: 16,597	Originally Posted by yairhol The army has illumination bombs (I don't know their name in English) Flares. Sounds the most likely explanation, and they seem to be fairly common as a cause of UFOs. As for meteors having tails, they actually don't. They appear as lines rather than points because they are moving so fast that your vision can't distinguish them. Effectively, they are faster than the shutter speed of your eye (or brain). It is entirely possible to see slow meteors that do not appear as streaks, but they are usually very bright and often appear as fireballs. It is unlikely that such a slow meteor could be mistaken for a star, and five minutes is far too long for one to be visible.
	__________________ I am not a little teapot.

19th July 2007, 04:33 AM	#6
yairhol Graduate Poster Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 1,403	Originally Posted by Cuddles This signature has been constructed entirely from recycled electrons
yairhol Graduate Poster Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 1,403

19th July 2007, 06:03 AM	#7
becomingagodo Banned Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 698	Quote: Flares. Sounds the most likely explanation, and they seem to be fairly common as a cause of UFOs. It was really high up and moving down. I thought flares normally move upwards and have a tail, like fireworks. Also their was no smoke around it. Again it was really high up. Quote: far enough from you and on a sunny day It was night time
becomingagodo Banned Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 698

19th July 2007, 06:08 AM	#8
yairhol Graduate Poster Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 1,403	Originally Posted by becomingagodo It was night time If it was night then you wouldn't see any smoke. The light is very bright and right in the vicinity of it you cannot notice anything. The flare is intended to light up the ground which is sufficiently below it. It was probably a flare. Regards, Lieutenant Yair
yairhol Graduate Poster Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 1,403

19th July 2007, 06:21 AM	#9
Cuddles Decoy Moderator Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: A magical land full of pink fluffy sheeps and bunnies Posts: 16,597	Originally Posted by becomingagodo It was really high up and moving down. I thought flares normally move upwards Nope, flares obey the law of gravity. Quote: and have a tail, like fireworks. Also their was no smoke around it. There are plenty of fireworks that don't have tails, the ones that do are specifically designed to do so. I see no reason why someone would design a flare to have a tail, so I don't see why you'd expect them to have one. As for smoke, how would you see that at night? Quote: Again it was really high up. How do you know? You saw a point light source at night. How could you tell how far away it was?
	__________________ I am not a little teapot.

19th July 2007, 07:11 AM	#10
casebro Philosopher Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 6,799	At night, and having no frame of reference, how can you distinguish 'falling' from moving sideways? My guess would be an airplane with a red light, moving by, or landing, with what appeared to be a falling trajectory. Five minutes for a flare would need a parachute, and a BIG flare, but planes fly all day (or all night). And red flares don't usually have parachutes, or last for five minutes. White ones, used for illumination, do. That big of a flare would only be launched by the military, only in a war zone or training area. Any such in sight of B. Godo?
casebro Philosopher Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 6,799	__________________ Please pardon me for having ideas, not facts. Some have called me cynical, but I don't believe them. It's not how many breaths you take. It's how many times you have been breathless that counts.

19th July 2007, 07:19 AM	#11
yairhol Graduate Poster Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 1,403	Originally Posted by casebro Five minutes for a flare would need a parachute, and a BIG flare, but planes fly all day (or all night). I would be so sure it was 5 minutes as the OP said. It could have been easily 2.5 minutes which felt more than that because of the curiosity around the incident. Regards, Yair
yairhol Graduate Poster Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 1,403

19th July 2007, 07:54 AM	#12
Buckaroo Graduate Poster Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Washington, D.C. Posts: 1,717	Yup, sounds like a flare. Here's one of the most famous cases of flares being mistaken for alien spacecraft (not to imply that this is what you're doing): http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4041
	__________________ "You ask me do I love you... does the pope live in the woods? Quad Erat Demonstrandum, baby... " "Oh! You speak French!" -- Airhead, by Thomas Dolby "When you're slapped you'll take it and like it." -- Sam Spade

19th July 2007, 08:32 AM	#13
becomingagodo Banned Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 698	Well, if it wasen't for this forum I might have started to believe in aliens i.e. went crazy. It looked more like the flares in that picture, I guess I couldn't really trust my perception of time and perspective.
becomingagodo Banned Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 698

19th July 2007, 01:04 PM	#14
Leif Roar Master Poster Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 2,800	Originally Posted by casebro And red flares don't usually have parachutes, or last for five minutes. Actually, red rocket flares with parachute is an international distress signal for ships. They don't quite last for five minutes, but they last long enough that one might mistake it for that long.
Leif Roar Master Poster Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 2,800	__________________ "Our feature on cloud seeding (16 Apr, p40) should have started with the words 'Cannons blazed'. No clergy were set on fire in China's rainmaking experiment." -- New Scientist, 7th May 2005

19th July 2007, 05:26 PM	#15
kerikiwi Philosopher Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Bay of Islands NZ Posts: 5,847

19th July 2007, 05:34 PM	#16
Skeptic Guy Raccoon Death Squad Leader Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Southeast of Disorder Posts: 6,996	Originally Posted by Buckaroo Yup, sounds like a flare. Here's one of the most famous cases of flares being mistaken for alien spacecraft (not to imply that this is what you're doing): http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4041 That's a perfect example and one that I would have used if you hadn't.
	__________________ "Our history is in part a battle to the death of inadequate myths" - Carl Sagan Even Mother Teresa^WP doubted.

19th July 2007, 05:52 PM	#17
fuelair Cythraul Enfys Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 28,961	Originally Posted by becomingagodo It was really high up and moving down. I thought flares normally move upwards and have a tail, like fireworks. Also their was no smoke around it. Again it was really high up. It was night time Flare is fired up, 'chutes down after igniting to provide a light source for 30+seconds. The down is slower and brighter. How far was it from you?
fuelair Cythraul Enfys Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 28,961

19th July 2007, 07:32 PM	#18
mhaze Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Woo*(+-1.10)^20=AGWwoo Posts: 15,396	Airplanes have a rotating beacon top of the vertical fin, and one red and one green light on wingtips. When the plane is positioned relative to a ground observer such that the rotating beacon (red, but flashing) cannot be seen because it is obscured by the wing, there are then only two things you can see 1. A green light on the right side of the vehicle 2. A red light on the left side of the vehicle. Incidentally, this is the same for ships, aircraft, and manned spacecraft, so you may presume that alien vehicles entering our airspace would try to fool us by having the same lights. From the above it is obvious that if the aircraft was high up, then the tail could easily have been obscured and you would not have seen the vertical fin rotating red beacon. Ergo, red light, aircraft above you with it's left side visible (it is to your right).

20th July 2007, 11:41 AM	#19
Beerina Sarcastic Conqueror of Notions Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: A floating island above the clouds Posts: 23,835	It could have been a jet flying right at you. The same thing happened to me around July 4th. We were outside watching neighborhood fireworks, 6 or more different places visible from my front porch. There was this bright red and white light up in the sky just hovering there over my neighbor's house. For about 10 minutes, it just hovered there. Obviously it must be a helicopter of some kind, but very far away. Or a UFO, of course ( ) After 10 minutes, it started moving very slowly, then within 10 seconds picked up a huge amount of speed and roared overhead. It occured to me it was a jet coming in for a landing, and had been on a descent path that was more or less coming straight at me. Hence it "wasn't moving". When it got closer, it leveled out and went right overhead. (We're about 10 miles away from a cargo airport.)
	__________________ "Great innovations should not be forced [by way of] slender majorities." - Thomas Jefferson The government should nationalize it! Socialized, single-payer video game development and sales *now!* More, cheaper, better games, right? Right?