View Full Version : question with a UFO claim....

2006-Jan-03, 03:09 PM
I require assistence with an individual.

He describes a sighting of a UFO. The account as follows:

It was night time. i was about 7 (I'm 15 now) and we were just watching TV. I don't remember quite how we first got to see it but at one ppoint or another I found myself by the window watching the sky in puzzlement.

Up there was a tiny orange glowing ball. Very slowly moving over the sky. Hardly movig at all. I run like a bat outta hell to my room and start to make a huge mass looking for my binaculars. I find them race back down. The thing is still there. hardly moved. I look at it thourgh the binaculars. it's hard for me to keep it still but i can see that it doesn't look like no craft. but rather like a ball of concentrated fire. like a very small sun that doesn't give out sun rays.

Like things aren't exiting enough guess what shows up on the sky? A damn commercial airline jet. We can only see it's lights but we know it's a plane. and it's heading straight towards the glowing ball. Well it's going very slow, we must have been watching the for like 20 minutes. and then.......I can't remember anymore. complete blank. but I think that they never met and went seperate ways. now tell me.

What did I see?

I offerred the explaination it was a jet aircraft, seen from an angle. I based that off of personal experience.
He counters with this:

A jet? dud i live in norway. all we have here are f-16's. and no plane in the world would have been designed so that when you walk outside in the dark the plane would be the first thing you would see!

I'm curious as to other people's thoughts on this.

2006-Jan-03, 03:53 PM
Could be a weather balloon reflecting the sun or a blimp.

I'd go with a weather balloon though they can be quite reflective and would stick around for a while.

First ask him what time it was...

2006-Jan-03, 04:00 PM
Ahh the old weather balloon solution. Unfortunately that excuse doesnt fit every UFO sighting.

This couldnt have been a weather balloon reflecting sunlight because it was at night.

2006-Jan-03, 04:14 PM
Well it was a ball shape

And if it was in the early evening it can have a high enough altitude, [they can reach 27400 m (90000ft)] to still reflect light esspecially if you are at a high latatude.

2006-Jan-03, 04:17 PM
Yes, he said it was at night.

He didn't give complete details. For instance, he says it was moving across the sky very slowly. Then, he later told me the object wasn't moving. So, I now assume he's not a credible witness.

He emphasized later the object just stayed in one spot for half an hour. I'll press him for details.

I wonder now if a star or other celestial phenomanon might be the culprit. What would look bright, orange, and stationary, and be confused for something else, and just appear as a disk in binoculars?
I wonder if Mars or Venus might be a possible explaination as well.

2006-Jan-03, 04:52 PM


Do Mars and Venus appear larger near the horizon the way the Moon does?

2006-Jan-03, 04:53 PM
Could it be a blimp or a hot-air ballon?
Where and when on the planet did this take place?

2006-Jan-03, 04:54 PM
He was also 7 years old.

Venus sounds more likely than a balloon- a bit of clouds can easily make it appear to move.

2006-Jan-03, 04:58 PM


Yes but not noticibly...

with binoculers venus would look like a bright orange/yellow blob... It's so bright it can look like a ball even nacked eyed...

2006-Jan-03, 06:49 PM
He was also 7 years old.


Memory is constructive, not linear. Dealing with anecdotal (http://www.skepdic.com/testimon.html) accounts under the circumstances likely won't be very productive, Grand_Lunar.

2006-Jan-04, 12:33 AM
I'd guess Mars.
Did he at the time have any experience with looking at the sky? Does he now?

2006-Jan-04, 03:28 AM
Given the nature of his earlier posts, I assume he doesn't have experience of observing the sky, then or now.

I read other posts, and he doesn't think it was Venus.

You're exactly right, Wolverine. I'll point it out to him, as unproductive as it might be.