Interesting light.

Last night (8/24/03 9:15-9:20 PM Central Time) I was outside looking at the stars like usual. I looked south and a star (white) caught my eye. I looked at it for a little bit and saw it was moving (about the speed of a satellite- and at the time I thought it was a satellite). I watched it move slowly up-wards as in toward the zenith. I then noticed it was turning red. Within 5 more seconds it faded away. I looked for it but couldn't find it. So I went inside and got out the star simlulator program (very good one at that). I saw that it couldn't have been light reflecting off of a satellite because it would have still reflected the light from the point it disappeared.

My take on this is that it was a meteor burning up in the atmosphere. Please give me your thoughts.

Sounds like Mars, correct me if I'm wrong

It was a ufo of course, you couldn't identify it. Oh, and for the last poster, mars just doesn't disappear.

Originally posted by Niclas
Sounds like Mars, correct me if I'm wrong

Whoa... Sorry, but where did that come from?

Mars wasn't out there. I would have noticed on my simulator. I think it was under the horizon at the time. But as I said before, it was probably a meteor.

It might disappear behind a cloud or something. Mars rises about that time in southeast and stays up all night. On Wednesday it's closer to earth than ever before since stoneage, and only moon is brighter.

mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

But if you're sure it also could've been something else of course lol.

well if there was a cloud in the way then i think that he would of noticed and not just assumed that it vanished without explanation. and yes, clouds are visible to the naked eye at any hour of the night.

~Jeff

Originally posted by Niclas
Sounds like Mars, correct me if I'm wrong

Mars wouldn't move that fast.

"The speed of a satellite" - that a star has a visible speed is evident if you see it rise from the horizon or behind a house. The problem is you can't judge the speed an object in the black sky if you have no point of reference. That makes many interpret planets as UFOs. But if you actually see that the speed is more like the speed of a rocket, well that's another thing.

Originally posted by Niclas
"The speed of a satellite" - that a star has a visible speed is evident if you see it rise from the horizon or behind a house. The problem is you can't judge the speed an object in the black sky if you have no point of reference. That makes many interpret planets as UFOs. But if you actually see that the speed is more like the speed of a rocket, well that's another thing.

I live next to a United Methodist Church. From my house it is south. So I used the church as a reference point.

I doubt it was a cloud. It was a very clear night and there were stars I could see behind it.

If you're sure the speed was faster than a planet and there was nothing in the way in the sky it was probably something else. A meteor? I've never seen them go upwards.

Originally posted by Niclas
If you're sure the speed was faster than a planet and there was nothing in the way in the sky it was probably something else. A meteor? I've never seen them go upwards.

Think about distance, from a farther view, the upward movement could look like a meteor traveling north. So that would make sense. It was about 35 degrees upwards.

Turns out someone else in my town has claimed to have seen the same thing. I was just talking casually about Mars and she had said that they saw things before that were "red things that fade away."

Now I know I'm not crazy. ...and the even better part is I never brought it up. She did.

She also said that they were always in the south.

Any more thoughts?

Edit Note: Now that I think about it, it was right after 9 PM. That is one of the best times to spot UFOs.

...I'm going to interview that person to see what time she usually saw the red lights. Then I should probably see if others know about them.

...Now after I put even more thought into it, I have seen a mutilated cow before in my area. Click here for my report and discussion on it.

[Edited on 10-22-2003 by Cammo Dude]

Originally posted by Cammo Dude
Last night (8/24/03 9:15-9:20 PM Central Time) I was outside looking at the stars like usual. I looked south and a star (white) caught my eye. I looked at it for a little bit and saw it was moving (about the speed of a satellite- and at the time I thought it was a satellite). I watched it move slowly up-wards as in toward the zenith. I then noticed it was turning red. Within 5 more seconds it faded away. I looked for it but couldn't find it. So I went inside and got out the star simlulator program (very good one at that). I saw that it couldn't have been light reflecting off of a satellite because it would have still reflected the light from the point it disappeared.

My take on this is that it was a meteor burning up in the atmosphere. Please give me your thoughts.

Correct me if Im wrong but meteors travel down no? Not up.... maybe a high flying aircraft or something... unless it bounced back off the atmosphere and burned up that way...

Originally posted by TheyWatchYouToo
Correct me if Im wrong but meteors travel down no? Not up.... maybe a high flying aircraft or something... unless it bounced back off the atmosphere and burned up that way...

Read back. I said something about that.