Not sure what I saw in the sky this past weekend

Let me start off by saying im relatively new to this forum. Im not sure where I stand in regards to aliens or ufos but am exteremly interested in all the recent sightings and news coverage the topic has received as of late.

To give a brief background of myself, I am a 34 years old, married with one child. I live in a town of approximately 20k people in Arkansas. I have never seen a UFO and I am in now way saying that what I saw was a UFO.

This past weekend my wife and I were walking outside around 10 pm and I happened to look up in the sky. I didn't initially see anything unusual but then a movement caught my eye. I pointed it out to my wife and she was watching it too.

The object in question looked exactly like a star. In fact if it wasnt moving you would have never been able to tell it was anything but a star. My first thought was this was a shooting star or meteor. However I quickly ruled this out as the object moved much to slow. We both watched this light in the sky for about 3 to 4 minutes until it was out of sight. My second thought was it was probably an airplane of some sort due to it flying slowing in a straight line away from us. But I have seen hundreds of planes flying in the night sky and in my opinion this was not a typical plane. I can't really explain why I didnt think it was a plane other than it looked too far away and the lighting was all wrong.

Thats all I have on this, I just wanted to get it off my chest because it has been bothering me ever since this past weekend.

Interesting story, thanks for sharing. Prepare yourself for a deluge of people asking for pictorial evidence, though!

Sounds to me like, if it wasn't an aircraft, you may have seen a satellite, maybe. I never have, but I'm told that on clear nights it is possible to see them with the naked eye moving across the sky.

You'll never know, unfortunately... keep looking, though, is my advice, one day it will be a spacecraft!

Welcome searcus.

I lived in Arkansas for a bit (Mountain Home area)... and I had quite a few sightings myself. About 8 total sightings for the 8 years I lived there.

This sighting of yours, was it real bright like Venus? Did it change direction at all? Flare up at all? Could it have been a satellite or an advanced (yet to be revealed) military aircraft?

reply to post by searcus


Thanks for sharing your story.

From the time of day and duration of the sighting it certainly sounds like you observed an orbiting object. Most likely a satellite. Maybe the Intl Space Station.

Satellites are most likely to be seen in the few hours after sunset/before sunrise where the sky is dark but the sun is still able to illuminate high-flying objects.

If you are curious there are resources on the Web to track orbiting hardware...

www.heavens-above.com...
science.nasa.gov...
www.n2yo.com...
spaceflight.nasa.gov...

Definitely sounds like a satellite, I see them all the time (UK), infact almost everynight when I go for a ciggie in the garden I can usually spot one before ive finished smoking.

Originally posted by Kruel
This sighting of yours, was it real bright like Venus? Did it change direction at all? Flare up at all? Could it have been a satellite or an advanced (yet to be revealed) military aircraft?

Im interested in your question about the flaring...I have seen what I though was a satellite suddenly become very bright and 'flare up' then get dimmer and eventually disappear before a satellite normally would. I put this down to some effect of the sun on the other side of the planet catching it or possibly moonlight but hearing you mention it im wondering you ask, what you had in mind

reply to post by Frakkerface


Google: iridium flare

Never seen one myself but they sound cool.

To respond to some of your questions:

1. It did not ever flare up.

2. It did not change directions.

3. It was a very clear night.


It was probably an orbiting object like a satellite or something. If it was it would have been the first one I have ever seen so not sure what they look like. All I can tell you is it looked like a star moving in a straight line.

For what its worth, the object was traveling north.

I think all the recent ufo discussions on TV, Radio and the internet has made me pay more attention to things in the sky.

Originally posted by Frakkerface
Im interested in your question about the flaring...I have seen what I though was a satellite suddenly become very bright and 'flare up' then get dimmer and eventually disappear before a satellite normally would. I put this down to some effect of the sun on the other side of the planet catching it or possibly moonlight but hearing you mention it im wondering you ask, what you had in mind

Yeah it usually happens after sunset. The sun hits it just right and it "flares up", then either goes back to it's usual brightness or disappears completely as it enters the earth's shadow. I've seen it happen a couple times. First time it took me a minute to figure out what it was.

On a related note, I remember reading a few years ago about a satellite put in orbit comprised of a bunch of polygonal mirrors forming a sphere. So it would actually "blink" in and out as the sun reflected off the different pieces of glass. I wish I could find the article...

Edit: here it is - Project Starshine. Looks like it burned up in re-entry 5 years ago. Time sure flies.

[edit on 8/23/2007 by Kruel]

There's a lot of meteor activity right now, and I don't know why.

The Perseids should long be over (weekend of the 12th), but as late as Tuesday of this week, we were seeing really impressive meteors on our nightly run.

We were at a road crossing in the middle of nowhere, and there was a really great meteor, one of those white points that looks about the size of Venus, but instead of winking out immediately, it went on and on, maybe halfway across the sky before burning out.

Then not more than an hour later there was a really impressive bright green meteor with a very large sparkly tail that probably hit ground somewhere. You don't see a lot of those.

There were lots of the little "flash" meteors going on too, the sort you miss if you blink.

I'm not sure what the source is - I have looked but haven't run across any major late August showers.

I have seen the exact same thing the OP refers to.

Only in one night i saw 2 of those, moving in straight lines. Exact same thing, too high to be a plane, moving in a straight line until it becomes out of sight at what seems to me a even speed, looks exactly like a star. Maybe something orbiting the earth. My knowledge of the night skies is pretty limited so i cannot say what the heck it is but me and two more people watched those occur in only a single night.

The first one was weird though maybe it was my fault because my eye isn't trained to do this but it seemed to move for about 10 seconds and then i lost track of it, it seemed to have disappeared...maybe debris of some sort, but it lasted for about 10 seconds before it vanished.

Originally posted by searcus


For what its worth, the object was traveling north.
.

Yeah, I'm guessing it was a satellite. Last Summer I would lie in my hammock in the evening and saw several (I think) satellites travelling from South to North.
RR

Hi sear'. Thanks for posting. When one eliminates all the knowns... bingo.

Could you say what day last weekend and what time (as close as you can) and what the nearest town (or Google Earth data) might be and I'd be happy to check it with the orbital stuff from ISS/STS-118.

The ephemeris is available publicly and I have some NASA-TV public domain video that can be referred to to confirm. There were several passes last weekend that may have been visible traveling North North East also several South East-ish on some orbits. I recall Tennessee and Kentucky being mentioned more than once on different nights but not Arkansas to my best recollection.

The "pass" duration of 3 minutes "fits" ISS just about perfectly, if it was pretty close to being over your head as oppossed to more to the horizon. Closer to the horizion equals a shorter duration sighting. Pass durations in North America last weekend ranged from 1 minutes to almost 5 minutes depending on one's proximity to the fly-over orbital path.

It's pretty big and hard not to miss when looking up at the right time for more than a second or two... the light varies on it as the sunlight it gets (while were in dark on the ground) makes it look "different" on subsequent sightings. It is very noticable at times. If it was late in the weekend one could see two lights one leading the other and separating more and more on each 92 minute "pass" period. It's neat to watch. I have yet to get a decent photo or video... I've tried a bunch of times and I can't get a decent pic... and video? No way to track well - shake-o-rama. I really don't know how some videos can look great but mine are - not worth looking at... LOL.

sear', maybe to check what you saw for yourself, consider clicking to the NASA web site and look for a link to ISS overflights by city and see if you can get a look at an ISS pass and compare to what you saw? It could confirm or eliminate ISS as a potential source of what you saw.

Cheers,

Vic

Thanks for all your replies.

To answer V Kaminski, the town was Searcy, and if you cannot find Searcy its about 45 minutes north of Little Rock.

It does sound like from your description what you saw was the ISS and STS-118 doing a pass.

Like V said, you can go to THIS NASA website, plug in your zip code, learn to use the tracker and start doing some ISS tracking of your own and maybe you can repeat the sighting for the most part to verify it was the most likely the station.

Looks like on 8/24 in the Little Rock area you have a real decent 8:15 to 8:30ish pm sighting coming your way. Good luck!

[edit on 24-8-2007 by Lost_Mind]