Two star-like UFOs sighted

Summary:

Two star-like objects were observed at approx. 55 degrees above the horizon; after approx. 3-10 seconds, they started moving. I was at first unsure whether they were actually moving, but it quickly became apparent they were. They ascended either to somewhere around 70 or 110 degrees above the horizon at approx. 17:33:32. and reached approx. 140 degrees at approx. 17:35:38, at which point I no longer sighted them.

One of the objects was brighter than Sirius, the other much dimmer but still easily noticeable. They appeared to be approx. the size of my thumb held at arm's length appart, and appeared to get closer to each other whilst moving, but never very close.

Longer account:

I was looking out a window, and noted two objects that appeared to be stars that seemed strange - I'm unsure why, I guess my mind recognized them as not usually there. They appeared to be stationary, at about 55 +- 5 degrees above the horizon. I'm unsure how long I had been observing them, I'd guess 10 seconds, but it could be considerably less. I'm unsure how far apart they were, slightly more far apart than my thumb held at arm length, I'd guess.

They both appeared to start to move - they appeared to reach their speed instantenously, but I am unsure whether they did accelerate over a longish period of time; they definitely started moving quickly. At first I was unsure as to whether they were actually moving, but it quickly became apparent that they were due to such telltale signs as having moved a large amount in the sky, and no longer being visible through that window without moving my head.

I rushed to another window (a skylight) and continued observation. I'm unsure exactly what I did after this, but I attempted (and failed) to locate my stop watch, so entered `date` at the CLI prompt on this machine, then ran back to the skylight. I'm unsure of what position they were in at that point - I think they were either around 70 degrees or 110 degrees. They got fainter as they travelled. They finally became imperceptible (I'm unsure if this was due to the light suddenly being turned off, or just them becoming sufficiently faint that I was unable to perceive them) at about 140 degrees. I, alas, did not immediately rush to note down the time now, but after a while - I'm confident less than 20 seconds, probably much less - I did rush back to the computer and record the time. The first time was 17:33:32 UTC, the second 17:35:38.

My clock is synchronized via NTP - it should be accurate to UTC within 1ms, but I'd allow a margin of error of upto a 100ms - clearly a problem given the immense preciseness with which my recording was made.

I also grabbed my binoculars and a lousy point-and-shoot camera; I'm unsure if I ever actually looked at them through my binoculars, but I *think* I did! If so, I saw nothing remarkable about them.

I think the objects had a similar magnitude relative to each other throughout the sighting, but I am unsure of that. They had very differing magnitudes, I - alas - don't have any objective measure of it, but I'm confident it was brighter than Sirius, but not hugely so.

I'm confident the objects varied their position relative to each other - I think they always moved closer to each other, but they never got very close.

I took a photo of them - obviously, it was crap (low light, high exposure time, messed up aperture (I thought I'd had it zoomed in 4x, in which case it would have been the minimum aperture), moving object, camera shake. unprepared, poor position...). Settings (as Exif data should display) were ISO 320, manual focus set at infinity, f4.8 aperture, 1.3s exposure.

Picture is here.

So, what could it be? I suppose it could be two planes with landing lights flying right at me, then ascending, but it seems unlikely. There is little air traffic around here, though there is quite a lot of military activity - mostly naval, though.

EDIT: Fixed link

[edit on 28-11-2008 by tcujie]

reply to post by tcujie


Is it possible that the lights were moving when you first noticed them but it took a moment for you to realize it?

Is it possible you saw the ISS and the shuttle which had just separated from it?

You don't give you location. So I can't check but if you go here
www.heavens-above.com... you can see if the ISS was passing over your location at the time.

(can't see your photo)


[edit on 11/28/2008 by Phage]

probably the ISS and the space shuttle?

I can see the ISS at night from my backyard

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by tcujie

 

Is it possible that the lights were moving when you first noticed them but it took a moment for you to realize it?

It's possible, but I'm confident it wasn't. Still, eyewitness observations are unreliable.

Is it possible you saw the ISS and the shuttle which had just separated from it?

You don't give you location. So I can't check but if you go here
www.heavens-above.com... you can see if the ISS was passing over your location at the time.

The time and direction does roughly coincide (interestingly, heavens-above.com and NASA give different results for what time it should be visible), so I think that's the most likely option; if it were something other than the ISS and shuttle, I should really have spotted the ISS too

I'll try and watch the ISS tomorrow and see if it appears similar.