What's going on off CA coast right now?

Originally posted by Havalon
reply to post by Diplomat

 

Thanks for coming onboard Diplomat,
I was racking my brains as to where I had seen a similar pic on here!
Are the co-ordinates (Roughly) the same as your sighting.
Where are you in relation to the OP's position?
I am wondering if this is the 'same' thing, i.e. a sattelite in lowish orbit picking up the suns rays. This is why the position/location is so important to finding the cause of the anomoly.
H

Whatever I saw seemed to be out around over Half Moon Bay, possibly a ways out over the ocean. I watched it seem to hover there as we drove through Hayward and then along the San Mateo bridge.

The light didn't seem to move, it looked like it was just hovering there, but in my thread someone mentioned that maybe driving in the car threw off my perception a bit, and that is possible. If it was a contrail from a jet then I've never seen a small one stay in the same place like that.

reply to post by Prophet-Ezekiel


Fair comment P-E,
but as you can see from both OP's and Diplomat's pics, there is no other air traffic in the area. The OP even states that what her hubby rang her about was different from what she actually photographed.

The lads in their jets may have been on another mission. Not trying to debunk it btw, just trying to understand it!

reply to post by Havalon


Didn't want to be so direct but.....

This is why I am so curious about OP's recollection of how fast the "object" moved, because this would refute other explanations such as "sun dogs" which can't be ruled out from Diplomats pics, imo.

reply to post by eerieleary


Please forgive my ignorance, what exactly is a 'sun dog' (not being rude, just haven't heard that expression before.)

Here is Diplomats pic (for ref, kept the pole in!)



and the op's (for ref kept the tree in!)



Similar or what? Now if they both in the same area/location a month or so apart can we say they have a similar flight path?
H

reply to post by Havalon


Nicely done, Havalon. It definately looks to be the same phenomenon. Frankly, i don't think that it's a contrail. I've seen contrails pics but no one of them matches this one. Its appearance looks natural, but is not posting a picture of a contrail watsoever that one can debunk this one.
I really wonder what's going off CA coast


[edit on 4/3/2008 by internos]

Originally posted by Havalon
reply to post by eerieleary

 

Please forgive my ignorance, what exactly is a 'sun dog' (not being rude, just haven't heard that expression before.)

A sundog is an extra-image of the Sun created by falling ice-crystals in the Earth's atmosphere. Examples:



Now I'm not saying this is what Diplomat's pic is of, but because there was no movement, or it wasn't noticeable, I lean more towards a natural phenomenon.

reply to post by eerieleary


Thanks for that Eerieleary, great photos, probably accounts for quite a few sightings!

I am still leaning toward the sattelite theory, reflecting the dying suns rays. The fact that it has appeared (or been noticed!) in the same area leans me in that direction, (I wish I could positively prove it otherwise - maybe someone else can?) but recently we had the ISS do a fly-by over us and that looked similar!

http:www.weatherforum.org.nz/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2934

No photo's on that site tho'
H

[edit on 4-3-2008 by Havalon]

I'm very skeptical of these for the reason I am very familliar with the effects off the coast skies. I have an archive of images and meteorological oddity's that are much stranger than these. I need to PhotoBucket those in the morning so I can show them.

These look like incidentals, where a jet hits a small area of different humidity and the turbulence condenses in a discrete area.

We need a better description of the dynamics observed. I'm not sure of the use of the work "streaking" and the OP need return to answer some specifics. The aircrafts "chasing" need better description too.

And I will try and post some of my many Sundogs from west coast SF Bay area. I am an expert at these types of phenomena and have many photos.

I found the streaking object and followed it in zoom mode as I could see firey streaks coming off the end and saw it swerve right a bit too. I could see 2 streaks under it, probably from the aircraft chasing it. So it went south into some trees in my front yard and I lost it as it seemed to be going a bit downwards too.

If in a "zoom" mode, determining movements of objects would be hard, considering very small movements, autonomic, heart and respiration and small "twitches" would translate to the camera and unless you where a good photographer, especially of such effects, you could be easily fooled.

Saw this too late. Posting tomorrow, and I will attempt to educate the group on Sundogs.

I also have two books I pulled on the subject I use for research.

Handbook of unusual Natural Phenomena

and my hardbound first edition I've had since 84.
Sunsets Twilights, and evening skies

These are two of the best in explaining the physics of sky phenomena. You can find them in used book stores if you are lucky. I have two of the first one. One is on loan to the Nor-Cal Mufon director.

Arm yourself with good reference like these. Harder to be fooled.

ZG

Well all I know if jets we're flying over CA in any kind of formation it needs to be explained by either military training or some kind of threat.

We need to have a link to why those jets we're up there before we can make any assumption of this being anything but a UFO.

Originally posted by AWingAndASigh
I wonder what the purpose in chasing after UFOs with planes is, since the UFOs have greater maneuverability and there's no way the UFO could be caught.

So what's the point in the government having planes chase after them?

Do they only chase some of them - one particular type of alien that isn't so friendly, maybe?

im not saying this case is a alien spacecraft, in fact, i think these photos are of Earthly aircraft

but if it was a UFO, the Reason to chase it would be to make it leave our airspace immediantly

making it leave asap helps keep these things Under the rug, so to speak

the quicker the incident ends, the better, right?

I'm really not seeing anything here other then a very distant aircraft contrail that occurs at a specific alt. There's a very good reason for other planes chasing this object.

Flight lines, or commercial flight paths.

You may see contrails, and you may see lower aircraft, either way, same general flight path. I see this kinda thing all the time while driving home at night or dusk, on interstate 95, which in it's northern area of the state is practically right in line with BWI's flight paths for incoming and outgoing.

Unless this thing shot off at ridiculous speeds, or made right angle turns I wouldn't put too much into it.

reply to post by jritzmann



Jeff, given you experience and your world class in photo analysis, i trust you.
There are just some details in Diplomat sighting that pheraps ***may*** deserve your attention: is it ordinary for a contrail to change inclination?
I'm asking it because i'm really ignorant on this matter and i'm sure that to clarify this point may help even in the future, not just in order to put this one to rest.
Thank you in advance.

And boom goes the dynamite.

Star and a flag !

And a star for internos lol.

Take care.

Regards
Lee

reply to post by internos


Beautiful post!!!!!!!!

And once again, we need more disclosure.

This is odd i've seen plenty of real news on this site and now this story gets mad attention. It has to be that site owners chimed in early and like the sheep we are, we just flock to it and star and flag it and all it is is a little light on a picture.

Personally I think that its sad that the site owners chime in on something so flimsy and don't even comment on real stories that have real significance. As soon as they make a comment everyone goes nuts and i don't see anything in the picture at least nothing "phenomenal"

Personally i think this whole thread is probably the most over "hyped" thing ive seen on ats in awhile and didn't get many diggs because there is nothing in the story just testimonials and a lame picture imo.

Forgive my rant but seriously this story is weak. Our governemnts is steamrolling over us with corruption and crimes and we freak over a this. I see why the nwo thinks we are useless eaters.

Ok i see something in the pics but jeesh its not groundbreaking. Its not going to get non believers to believe and well the ones of us who do don't need the pic.

[edit on 4-3-2008 by Beefcake]

reply to post by Beefcake


Yer that must be it ! Your right we are all just sheep.

Have a star.

Regards
Lee



[edit on 4-3-2008 by h3akalee]

Here's my take. I see a high altitude contrail, a short one in an area of higher than average humidity or lower than average temperature. That is, the dew point of that area is a little different from the average. I see a short contrail being shifted by high altitude winds so its angle changes over time.

I don't believe the apparition is a sun dog. These phenomena require an aerosol of ice crystals to reflect the sunlight. This sky looks totally clear, without the prerequisite mistyness. I believe the sun must be at specific elevation and angle to the observer for them to be seen. I think this sun is too low.

The two other streaks are obviously contrails from a pair of airplanes on a different heading. Parallel trails like these are often military formations and commonplace. There is nothing to indicate these planes are chasing the first object or that they are even at similar heights. They look lower in my opinion.

The object photographed isn't that which drew attention to the sky anyway. That apparently was something completely different. So is it likely that there were two unusual phenomena happening in that part of the sky at about the same time?

I see a typical sky at sunset, nothing more.

WG3

[edit on 4-3-2008 by waveguide3]

i distinctly remember a thread about someone in australia who saw pretty much an idenctical thing!

i might add the thread mysteriously dissapeared!..

perhaps such missles are infact anti ufo missles?,given that the military have been lied to as to the nature of the ufo inhabitants,decieved into believing they were hostile it would stand to reason they would create defensive countermeasures against any percieved threat.

or perharps its related to these random meteorite type objects we keep seeing recently?,shooting them down before they hit earth?

Ok to clarify what husband saw. He confirmed the two lines in sky to the side were what he saw but he said there more of them and the object he saw the contrails following was going in an upward positions like a missile. By the time I saw it I was only able to see 2 contrails and the object in a slow descent. I viewed it through my zoom and it appeared to go slow, almost not moving at all and slightly changing shape or emanating something like flames etc... Very far away for me but the outside areas were moving as if on fire. Also for a moment the shape changed to a dot at which point I think it turned right due west for a few seconds then back to its original direction going South. I sent the 14 pics to several people and they should be able to tell by the time frame how fast the object was moving. I'm about 40 miles away from Malibu coast I believe, if it was over the sea. It's hard to tell by where I am but I'm quite sure it would have been visible from any west coast facing beach.

reply to post by internos


Anything at all in the upper atmosphere can change inclination depending on the atmoshperic conditions there at the time.

Contrails are nothing more than water vapor, and the temperature, wind shear, any upper level disturbance or lack thereof could well dictate how a contrail acts, how long it "lingers", what direction it takes, or, in this case, it's inclination. The colder it is up there, the longer it stays around, else it dissipates quickly. For the lengthier ones, they remain as ice for an extended period of time.

Also, the photographers ability to have a pre-determined angle that is shot consistently, i would imagine (not being a photograper) would have a lot to do with it too.

Just my $.02 on that facet of the discussion, as far as the rest, it doesn't seem overly disturbing to me anyway.


AB1