Poll for all members (skeptics, debunkers, and believers) of ATS: Have you ever had a UFO sighting?

a reply to: cuckooold

Yes, several in Arizona, as an adult. But those are all easily dismissed due to my years of drug and alcohol usage that at one point *might* have bordered on a abuse. I don't think it was ever that bad but I suppose there are "professionals" we leave that type of diagnosis to.

But the several in Arizona over the course of many years has nothing on the one week I spent in Mexico, in the cities of Hermosillo and Magdalena, when I was 12 years old and very sober. I saw just as many there as I did during the rest of my life time and trust me, I spend a lot of time looking at the night sky. But the stuff I saw in Mexico, the quality of the sightings were above and beyond anything I saw in adulthood. We're talking close up and personal, too. The neighborhoods I was in, dare I say the entire cities, would vouch for me. It was well known among locals and my friend used to come back from there every weekend with stories none of us ever believed. So I accepted an invitation to go with him down there because he had family in those 2 cities. I love Mexico so I jumped at the chance just because of that alone. And I'm so glad I did.

Still won't make the jump to claim they're ETs, but if that was government then I must say they're WAY ahead of us technologically. To a SCARY degree.

No.

Last year I noticed something I could not identify as I was driving. It was not far away, within 50 yards, and low to the ground, but it was dark outside so all I could see were the lights. I believe it was likely a helicopter, but it was so close I would have expected to hear the noise and I could not.

There were also trees and houses in the way, so I never had a very clear look. I've explained it away as a helicopter but I can't be completely certain that it was. Ultimately, it didn't capture my attention enough to investigate, as I just continued driving to my intended destination.

I do remember two thoughts. The first being, "what the hell is that?" and the second being, "Damn you, ATS!"

Saw a light close by when looking out of plane window on a night. Moving past the plane, fast and close. Not sure what that was.

Also saw in daylight, in city centre on a busy day - cone shape, no lights, looked silver and red. Moved along sideways then descended behind a building. 1/4 of mile away max, 200m high max(total guess). Not sure what that was. Open to suggestions of balloon or blimp.

As an astronomer I am someone who spends a great deal of time getting intimate with the night sky. On two separate occasions I've seen something I could not readily identify.

However the fact that I could not identify what I saw did not lead me to run around screaming "OMG Aliens!"

It lead me to engage critical thinking in the face of a complete lack of or absence of enough data on what I saw.

Most people are not as familiar with the night sky, cutting edge aerospace developments and weather phenomena which can look very strange, or even dare I say, "alien" to them.

I am not immune. No one is. It's how we react next which separates the "UFOs as proof of aliens" crowd from the more rational minded.

In one instance what I saw turned out to be a weather phenomena known as sprites which I knew about but had never seen first hand.

The other instance remains unidentified and while that fact would lead many on this forum rush to the least likely explanation (that "OMG Alienz!" reaction), for me it simply means it is unidentified and with further data it too would probably turn out to be something quite earthly in origin.

My field of study is astrobiology or how our understanding of astrophysics, biology and organic chemistry inform the possibilities of alien biology from microbes to super civilizations.

So I have no bias against the possibility of life out there. I am however rightfully skeptical of people who jump to conclusions that things which they can not readily explain are somehow indicative of extraterrestrial life visiting the Earth.

As someone who has done a lot of reading of both refereed articles detailing research in journals on subjects such as the formation of planetary systems, the early earth's biome and how it has evolved over time, extrasolar planets, the search for various types of technological signatures in astronomical data (Astroarcheology or the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Artifacts -SETA-) as well a ton of the better documented UFO literature I've come to the conclusion that there is not a lot in the way of evidence to tie the two subjects together.

That doesn't mean I think UFOs are all hoaxes, overactive imaginations, swamp gas and weather balloons either.

As a skeptic I feel the UFO community would do well to scientifically document and study in fine detail UFO activity in places where it happens frequently in a RATIONAL way.

That doesn't mean jumping to conclusions. That means setting up something similar to the monitoring set-up like they have done in Hessdalen, Norway.

Only when the phenomena is investigated in a scientific way will the study of it progress beyond gathering and retelling stories.

For all the money in the UFO field (and don't kid yourselves, there's a LOT of money in the UFO speaker circuit/UFO conferences), VERY LITTLE of it goes to SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH of the CORE PHEONOMENA.

Think about that for a moment.

Do the people who really profess to want the truth actually open up their wallet to find it? Or do they simply take your money from the next book, the next documentary or the next conference which features little if any scientifically admissible evidence for the various "out there" hypothesis (Extraterrestrial, Interdimensional, etc).

There is more money to be made from UFOs as entertainment than from the scientific study of them which explains why 1) There are so many quacks, liars, frauds and entertainment industry people involved with it and why 2) There are so few scientists willing to get involved with that mess.

There's also more money to be made from a mystery which remains a mystery than a mystery which is eventually solved through careful observation.

Follow the money and ask for better evidence than stories or easily faked photos/videos.

a reply to: cuckooold

DEBUNK THIS PLEASE !!

Here is the post that made me come out of my Lurker-ish ATS behaviour in 2011.

I just had to post my experience as follows!

Hey this is my first post so cut me some slack

The last day of August 2010 me and three other friends were having a 'poker night', anywho things got a little low later on and 3 of us decided to go for a midnight walk out of boredom (the other stayed behind). We walked a country path local to our area at the foot of a big hill that we call the Nab. The path leads over a ford with a footbridge from which you can clearly look out to the countryside (i can give more specific demographic locations if need be). We decided to stop on this bridge for a while and then head back. As we did staring out towards the hill a dim object on the left of us in the sky rose up in the distance, we disregarded it as a lantern - as it looked exactly like one and people seem to launch those things all the time. I personally was fascinated with the object and continued watching it rise (slowly). The other two were not paying attention and the object seemed to rise, dither and fade out...however this is where i was extremely surprised.

The object changed course, going from a wavering pattern that rose (as if it was coming from the horizon to a closer perspective) and it started to travel towards the hill in a straight motion. I tried to get their attention and they weren't interested, at this point the object in question had become bright (but not growing in any size) just a solid light, which i can only describe as looking like a dim star (but obviously bigger). When this happened they started to notice and we watched this object...

It came right across the hill (which is the area of Anglezarke/Rivington, Chorley, UK) the direction it was moving across the hill is south, which means it rose from southeast our position. It came to more or less central of the nab, it looked as though it was over or just behind on the other side. Then it started to alter its course again - in our direction (slightly to the right of us, which would be northwest, it wasn't heading directly for us). At this point we were jaw-dropped and trying to record it on our phones and what not but couldn't get a video which included a visible image of the object due to lighting and low quality cameras.

As the object moved in our direction it became apparent to me that it was about the same height as a low-flying aircraft and so this was one of our first debunks, a low air craft with a spotlight, sounds simple enough right? Nope! no noise, no flashing lights on wing tips or anything to indicate a civilian craft! So back to the event...it was moving towards us and the light, to our surprise, split into two! Equal size, shape brightness, we were dumbstruck. It carried on its coarse and was at an angle to us where if it was a plane we would be able to see the shape (exempt the darkness). These lights were in tandem, side-by-side and seemed to be about a wingspan apart from where we were standing.

We began to think perhaps this was a covert military craft and what we could see were the afterburners, but this wouldn't explain why it rose and split into two - i.e. we could see the lights front and back! The object altered coarse one more time flying off into the distance of the west over towards Bolton. As we watched it fly off into the distance...and get this...to add icing to the cake it seemed as though some material/another object left the object in question. This was quick and happened in mere milliseconds. At first i didn't say anything and then we were like..."did you see that?" which confirmed we were all paying CLOSE attention (lol). When the material fell it looked like a very faint falling star (dimmer than the object) and appeared to drop directly vertical from the object.

And there you have it, this is the first time anyone else apart from the guy who was back at the house and my dad has been told this in such detail. Like i say its my first post and im sorry it is lengthy but i wanted to include all details as i remember them, im open to questions and im still in close contact with my friends who were present. This has just been niggling my head ever since and finally i want some ATS answers!

I have had an account since '08 and have sat here without one since about mid '07 so, thanks for your time people, i hope you ponder this one good

Source (me) @ ATS

And if anybody has any questions I shall be happy to answer, if anybody has any remarks or debunks I'd be really happy to hear those too!

a reply to: cuckooold

I've only once seen something that I couldn't understand.

Three or four years ago, during late summer and nighttime, I saw what appeared to be a satellite. It looked like a moving star, much like other satellites I've seen in the past.

It moved slowly and steadily across the sky, but then began moving in what I can best describe as a rapid acceleration and stop, numerous times, almost as if skipping across the sky.

Has anyone seen this or can anyone identify what I might have seen?

I've seen a truck sized red orb in close range with two other friends sometime around or after 2:30am in the summer of 2008. We were on a dead end street in a suburban neighborhood that has a lot of trees. Turning the corner at the end of the street, are bright flashing red lights, which at first look was an emergency vehicle, coming directly towards us. It's about a football field length away from us.

We run. We bolt back up a trail, basically across someone else's driveway, connecting us to other backyards of houses in the neighborhood. We stumble through a garden and turn around to check because our ears were ready to hear car doors shut, and then for us to see flashlights of policemen. Hence the speed the object was traveling at.

But when we turned around to look, thats when we knew something was strange. The bright red light filled through the trees, it was amazing. There was no sound and all we could see was bright red light. The strangest thing is the object did not go all the way to the dead end of the street where we were standing. That was very strange. Instead it went down almost about a house and half away from where we were, and bounced back perfectly in the other direction without changing speeds, kind of like the old video game Pong. The object didn't stutter or move left or right, nor make any sort of u-turn motion. It just came down the street at a medium speed and reversed back in the same speed, not once slowing down or speeding up, and went back down the street, lights still bright red. At this moment too we could see the object was round, and about the size of a truck.

We started to creep towards the trees a little bit closer, and thought about running towards it, but didn't of course. We did start to walk back down the trail. Right before it turned the corner we were back towards the dead end street we were previously at. We saw it turn the corner with it's lights still flashing.

We decided to run to the next street where the object might be on, to try and catch it, but we didn't find it.

To this day we still talk about it occasionally, but laugh now, my guess is an emergency vehicle all along, but just with red lights is not too common, usually there is white and/or blue. And why would it have it's lights flashing in the late hours of the night?

The most breath taking moment was when the object reversed back in the other direction, not making a sound. Our minds were telling us we should expect a u-turn by a car or truck, and when it bounced back like the game Pong, we instantly knew this was weird! For many months to follow we all remained speechless, and it was difficult for us to shake off.

Yes, I have seen a few UFOs over the years.

Obviously though, no evidence these were alien spacecraft!

originally posted by: game over man
I've seen a truck sized red orb in close range with two other friends sometime around or after 2:30am in the summer of 2008.

And none of you had a phone with a camera?

a reply to: JadeStar

Cell phones in 2008 weren't nearly as high tech as they are now. I can't recall what the cell phone situation was like for each of us back 6 years ago, but good question. No never thought about taking a picture because for the first half of the encounter we thought it was the police and the second half we were in shock observing in awe. We did try to scurry around the neighborhood looking for it, but it was gone.

On 3 occasions once when i was around 9 or so. The object was a cigar when I lived in Scottsdale AZ. My dad noticed it first and called me outside. He was a retired air traffic controller and former pilot. He had called his buddies in the tower at the air port concerned since this was below regulated altitude and was doing some crazy things in the sky. Such as hovering for some seconds then zipping off miles away in the blink of an eye stopping on a dime. Nothing showed up on radar and yet there it was right before us. His jaw dropped, told me to remember this and that it was a "UFO" all though I had no idea what that meant. The old man seen the foo fighters in WW2 by the way as a fighter pilot. He had also been a air traffic accident investigator as well, was test fighter pilot for the super saber as well. So he was a authority on the matter and trained observer.

Second time was in the mid 1990's well in to my adult hood. Was driving home from a basketball game at night 2 miles out of town. I live in the mid west so it is mostly corn fields during any road trip. So I seen this red light flying low over the corn fields in the same direction as us. It was not a flashing light that could be associated to a radio tower or anything it stayed in a solid state of red. After about 10 minutes it became obvious it was "staying with us" had it been something like a light that remained stationary we would have passed it but no it just stayed with us. Then all of a sudden it shoots off at extreme speed making a b line. cant explain away for the life of me what it was. I had 3 other witnesses with me.


2009 seen a amber color orb over the local high school football field one evening. Upon observing it it seemed to shoot out or let off a after burner or something then moved off in the direction of the local mall. My friend was the one that seen it first because he came to pick me up and told me about it. So we just watched this thing. was it a drone ? Perhaps. I have never seen drones behave like that before though. I have had other strange experiences too but those are the UFO sightings I have had. I wont pretend to know what was behind the wheel so to speak but none of these 3 objects can be associated to anything conventional. Not even the cigar in 1982.

Yes, twice.

a reply to: cuckooold

I have one very good sighting. I was about 12 years old, but I remember the sighting like it was last week. My mother, brothers and I were headed home from a shopping trip. It was perhaps August, warm outside, early evening and the sun was behind the hills but it was still light enough to see quite well. Clear day, few to no clouds. We had the window rolled down in the 4-door American land yacht we were in, and this extremely bright sphere came from the SSE, following the river that ran through town. It was about maybe 4 meters in diameter, perfectly spherical, and it moved too slow to be an airplane. It was about 200 feet over the river, and as we passed over the bridge, it passed directly over us. It was maybe 70-80 feet above us. Completely silent. I watched it as it continued on for a mile or so, then it made a hard right without decelerating, and then a hard left again after maybe a hundred meters back on its prior heading. At that point it was going directly away from us and it accelerated so fast it took all of a moment to disappear into the sky. I forgot to mention that for as bright as it was, it was not "casting" light. In other words, the ground was not lit up like it should have been for there being a ball of unbelievably bright light above it.

My mom called the state police to report it, and they told her that they were getting a lot of calls about it. They had no explanation.

I think my mom and others had actually stopped on the bridge to watch it. I've included an actual map of the place this happened. I have photoshopped out the route numbers, etc. I have a thing about giving away too much personal info.

Yes, I have had many sightings. Most were far above, with one being chased my two jets at night. Another one I saw in the sky, around or shortly after 6pm, dissapear from the rear to the front, in increments but quickly. The closest one was just above the trees in the downtown area during the day, and I was not alone. It was huge, rectangular, and a dull black, with windows along the side, and a large one in the front like a plane would have. None of them have been explained.

Yes i posted a thread of my experience on this site its titled "my ufo experience".

Lots. Saw both ships and aliens since the age of 5. Less now that I'm headed up in years. I've written about them here on ATS. I never worry whether anyone believes what I say or not. These are a few things they have told me for those who are interested:

I have been told that everyone walks there own path. Aliens included.

If it's been thought about, written, or seen (like in tv and movies)...it exists whether you have seen it or not.

We are just one of the many, many, times man has walked the Earth. We all will walk it again. (Not as many as "ascending" as they believe. And yes, there is reincarnation for those who want to.)

Where you go after death depends on what you believe. There is heaven, hell, and there is a whole lot more.

There are too many people with too many different views to come to a common consensus...therefore peace is virtually impossible for the world to grasp at this point in time.

Not all aliens are friendly or tell the truth or want to help us. Some laugh and obverse up like bugs or small children

We were seeded. There is still new seeds happening. (Remember the red rains and the desert orbs? A lot of it so small we could not trace it.)

The Galactic community to coming to terms with the idea that it may take us a lot longer, than they first hoped, for us
to openly join in with them....basically due to the lack of willingness to work together and our desire to conquer anything that crosses our path. They also say we have a tendency to "bend" the truth a tad.

Talk of ships coming to our rescue is just that...talk. They are not to interfere. Think Star Trek.

However, there are "some" who think we are worthy enough to being saved and could break that initiative and assist in the event of world cataclysm. (Confusing, yes. We are not the only ones given the option to choose or alter our paths.)

Yes, they walk among us.

If i m in UFO, watching from above, does that counts ?
If does, I saw you all, so count me in..

I have seen many and of differing sizes and or shapes. Some were just lights in the sky similar to stars that take off and dart forward, do abrupt stops or turns and of into space. One like in 1956 passed over as a easily seen silver disk, which went from horizon to horizon in minutes.

One was very low and stealth as well as huge which went over our anchored sailboat in fl. Two other were mid Florida, extremely large lights in the sky in the afternoon. They both shown a bean towards the earth just before disappearing making our cape canaveral stuff look like kids fireworks. Two differing times, we saw three extremely large cylinder type, above airline hight just going slowly out into the gulf in the afternoon. Last year I watched one dart up and down at a rapid speed and slowly go towards the gulf, also during the day. There are more and I only outline here. I know they communicate for a few years ago in the night in Wisconsin I stopped my friends and pointed to some stars. I told them to watch this. Then one of the stars started making a dance, darted down and then a right turn to the east and then went straight up and out.

Like said, there is more and I am a pilot also plus having built airplanes, I understand what is normal and is not.

Yes and in some way it changed my life.In 2006 i saw a huge ufo , not a tiny light on the horizon, but a HUGE bright light over my head.Circular 150-200 ft in diameter (if not more) ,and approximately 600-700 ft high, happeared from nothing , stationed just over my head for about 3 or 4 seconds, then accelerated at incredible speed and vanished .It was completely silent.
Never told anyone about it.