If you think you saw a UFO...

Originally posted by TheExaminer
May we design a "if you think you just saw a UFO" read this? Providing some proper training materials to the common readers couldn't hurt.

Things like common FAA lights, known flare colors, a few charts showing examples and so on. A sideshow if you will.

Pardon my ignorance if I missed existing training materials here on ATS.

Good idea Examiner! Your wish is my command.

Did You See A UFO?
Commonly Mistaken Objects


AIRCRAFT

Many people often mistake common aircraft as UFO's due to the way planes sometimes appear in the sky.
Here is a chart that describes the light placement on typical passenger jets.


As seen from the ground, these lights can sometimes appear strange in the sky. There are also some strangely shaped aircraft that the military sometimes flies.

Here are some pictures and clips of objects genuinely known to be aircraft.






METEOROLOGICAL EVENTS

Sometimes clouds and other weather systems can look like or give the impression of a UFO. Lenticular Clouds can sometimes look like alien handiwork, but they are just clouds.






ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS

Meteors and stars often get mistaken for UFOs. Meteors race across the sky at high speed, and can look quite anomalous if you happen so see one at close range. Meteors almost always take a straight or slightly curved line, and rarely change direction and speed.

The following are pictures of meteors and stars mistaken for UFOs.






CAMERA ANOMALIES

Maybe you've taken a picture with your digital camera and later
found a possible UFO in the shot. There are many things that
digital cameras sometimes do that get mistaken for UFOs. We
call these anomalies "digital artifacts" and take many forms.
These artifacts are often caused by overexposing the CCD with
too much light, the camera lens can catch a glare, lens flare can
occur if the angles and light intensity are just right, etc. etc.

The following are pictures with digital artifacts.





So there are a few things for you to compare your UFO sighting to. There are many other things that are mistaken for UFO's as well, and I encourage other members to post examples. When I have more time, I'll post some images and videos of things that are pretty good examples of what really could be a UFO.

Nice thread. Some people need to calm down and not jump to conclusions so quickly when they see something in the sky that might not look normal to them. There are far too many UFO reports that are most likely just Venus, a meteor, or some type of terrestrial craft...

This should help a lot of people.

Hopefully we won't be getting as many threads about things that are obviously aircraft/whatever.

do people actually report these as ufos? ridiculous, this will only discredit real sightings . people should not get so excited at 'lights in the sky,' that doesnt prove anything.

Personally I would like to see a separation of 'sightings'.

One type of sighting I read a lot says 'I saw lights in the sky'. To me that is not a UFO. All they were were lights, doing something strange, but lights none the less.

I would like to read more 'I saw the actual craft' and a description of what it did and looked like.

The craft I saw was metallic and had portholes down the side with red light on inside. I saw it go from a standstill to leaving the area in a time of 3 to 4 seconds. I did not see any drifting or other movement. When it shot off, it left a red streak of light. It looked cigar shaped from the angle I saw it, but could have been a disc from a different perspective. The red lights on in the inside made me think it was military vehicle as red lighting does not impair your nightvision.

Yeah, the idea here is to offer some basic educational material to those who think they may have seen a UFO. You know - make them aware of typical anomalies and phenomena, etc. I do not wish this thread to dissuade anyone from posting a possible sighting, but I do hope that the thread helps people figure out if the sighting truly was a UFO.

I really hope some of our members chime in here with more pictures and videos of mistaken UFO's, and describe some of the common explainable phenomena. We've all seen 'em and know what to look for, but some of the people that come to ATS after a sighting might not.

We could also expand this to include how to spot a Hoaxed/Faked image or video, as a lot of people get mixed up in that as well.

Let's make this a quality ATS-Class thread guys!

Originally posted by Spoodily
One type of sighting I read a lot says 'I saw lights in the sky'. To me that is not a UFO. All they were were lights, doing something strange, but lights none the less.

I would like to read more 'I saw the actual craft' and a description of what it did and looked like.

Obviously getting to see the actual craft is desirable, but not everyone will be able to get a look at the shape of it, and all they end up with is 'lights in the sky'.

Doesn't mean we should discard those sightings, nor does it mean we should jump to conclusions of course, but that also applies to when people see the actual craft -- just because they see the shape of the craft and can't identify it, doesn't mean it's not identifiable.

Very nice presentation damajicninja I have a few to add to this since you asked. A Sundog is one that is mistaken as a ufo.


An unusually pronounced sundog produced by sunlight passing through thin cirrus clouds. The true sun is located outside of the picture to the right.

www.youtube.com...

Ball lightning reportedly takes the form of a glowing, floating object often the size and shape of a basketball, but it can also be golf ball sized or smaller. It is sometimes associated with thunderstorms, but unlike lightning flashes arcing between two points, which last a small fraction of a second, ball lightning reportedly lasts many seconds. There have been some reports of production of a similar phenomenon in the laboratory, but some still disagree on whether it is the same phenomenon.

I always wonder, when someone says UFO it is 99% identified as an alien craft or a flying saucer. A ufo is an ( Unidentified Flying Object ) it doesn't mean it's an alien craft from outerspace or another planet. Come on, give the human race some credit, we did split the atom, didn't we. We have and had great minds such as Tesla, Einstein,wright brothers, edison, da vinci, Newton, Bell, Colt, Franklin,Galileo and on and on. Just had to get that off my mind.

The Government wants you to think it's one of these.













[edit on 5/13/2007 by Solarskye]

[edit on 5/13/2007 by Solarskye]

LOL @ Swamp Gas!

Thanks for the post Solarskye - thats exactly the kind of stuff I want to have in this thread. I knew there was a reason I added you to my friend list!

EDIT: Aw, come on guys! Only 2 flags?? Boo. lol

[edit on 5/13/2007 by damajikninja]

Originally posted by damajikninja

Originally posted by TheExaminer
May we design a "if you think you just saw a UFO" read this? Providing some proper training materials to the common readers couldn't hurt.

Things like common FAA lights, known flare colors, a few charts showing examples and so on. A sideshow if you will.

Pardon my ignorance if I missed existing training materials here on ATS.

Good idea Examiner!

Your wish is my command.

Very nice, very nice! I'm impressed with the spread. Let's not stop there. Do you think we can create a power point or you tube video to share? I wish I had editing software over here... I'm a musician, so not much here on the video side of things.

Thank you everyone for all your work. Let's keep this thread going!

I thought you would like the swamp gas

How about stunt kites.



Here's a site with a list of things mistaken for ufo's. I like the Psychological one. ( hallucinations )

www.cufon.org...

I flagged your thread, I feel it's something people should see, especially the new members.

Originally posted by TheExaminer
Very nice, very nice! I'm impressed with the spread. Let's not stop there. Do you think we can create a power point or you tube video to share? I wish I had editing software over here... I'm a musician, so not much here on the video side of things.

Thank you everyone for all your work. Let's keep this thread going!

Thanks for the kudos - even though it was your idea to begin with.

I had thought about putting together a nice media presentation like PowerPoint... or better yet, Flash (my specialty ) ...but I figured it would make more sense to wait for members to fill this thread up with good material first.

After we get a nice list of things going, I'll take all the posted items and make a Flash presentation out of it so that it is more easily accessible to people on the internet.

[edit on 5/13/2007 by damajikninja]

Dont let this thread die! ...well, if you think its a bad idea you can ignore it, but as for myself and some others, this thread is a great idea. TheExaminers idea actually.

The more we can post in here about mistaken UFOs, the more likely we are to see fewer mistaken UFO sighting threads.

I know you guys want to see less of the mistakes and more of the gems. And I know there are more of you with with more ideas to post in here. So get to it!!

Good idea. A needed addition here. I too had some similar ideas in a thread that died, where I tied to interest people in hopes of gathering enough ideas to put out a downloadable 'handbook. ( "Where to turn With UFO pics") And I am still interested in seeing the idea fly.

I lacked your skills in pulling this idea together. I am glad to see the concept return, and if I can assist in any way with this, let me know. (Though you seem to have a better handle on this than I eve did)

Thanks for the kudos buddy!

If we can get some good responses in here, then as mentioned above, I want to make a flash based guide for those that just saw a UFO. I want to make it where someone sees a UFO (or so they think) and they visit the guuide, which asks them questions about it and shows them photos or other common mistaken UFOs based on their response to questions. Lofty goal, I know, but it would be great to have exclusively here at ATS.

Lets get some more ideas together as a group, and I'll make a podcast. We'll even try to get some of you to phone in and talk about these responses/ideas on the podcast.

Lets get to work!

I put up a new PODcast tonight that talks about this thread. It also happens to be the debut edition of The NinjaCast This will be the first of many, of course. I'll be broadcasting The NinjaCast on a regular basis, and hope you'll listen in from time to time.

The NinjaCast - Episode 01

I really like the direction this is going. That's what we need, more action, more things being done to improve our chances of having good reports. Because I'm the world's worst idiot with computers, my assistance in this is worthless, but I mean to do whatever I can, as I think the goal is a very good one.

And while I'm doing my helping out thing, there's another place that needs help. Please check out the thread "Top Cleveland Anchor.....5UFOs........" If you read the whole thread, you will understand why it's important to all of us.

I never try to lead people to my own threads, I wouldn't do that, and the OP has no hand in this, so if this is "bad conduct" in your eyes, then I apologize, but I'm doing it because it is something that could effect us all.

And if I need spanking, send cuffs with the blond girl.

I would have to say that optical illusions are a big part of strange ufo sightings to. Perception and distance is illusional.This is a chalk drawing that you all have probably seen before. The amazing thing is that it's all flat. It's just when you look at it at the right angle your perception sees the illusion.







Is this picture really have moving parts or is it just the way we see it that makes it move ?

And last but not least a cool video of illusions.



I really hope that more people come in here to add more stuff to this thread. Maybe our life is just an illusion who knows?

This is true that some people don't actually see UFO's but actually just see common aircraft. Though it doesn't explain my experiences in the least bit as I have actually seen the craft behind the lights and the beings that travel within them.

Yay! Another post!

**brushes dust of the thread**

Just as I was thinking this thread had been completely snubbed, we get another poster. I really wish the ATS community would be more willing to build a compilation of things mistaken for UFOs, but you can't force anyone to do anything.

Anyways, thanks for your post and interest Amazon.