Phoenix UFO reported on news 5/18

PHOENIX - A strange glowing object in the sky was a bizarre sight for Valley residents Monday night. The light was clearly visible and stationary for most of the afternoon before vanishing around sundown. So far, not one business or company has taken credit for the object. The FAA, Luke Air Force Base, SRP utility company, and the Sky Harbor Airport all have no information on the mysterious object.

Source with video:

www.myfoxphoenix.com...


The front page of azfamily.com (upper right of the page) has some excellent time-lapse footage of this object standing absolutely still for hours on end:

www.azfamily.com...


I didn't see this object myself (why am I never around for these things?!), but apparently a lot of people have since late this afternoon. An expert Fox 10 consulted says it might be a NASA balloon, but admits that the nearest places it could have come from are Texas or New Mexico, and from what I'm hearing on the news, this thing had been at a standstill for hours. It was also brightly glowing.

The close-up pics do look like some kind of balloon, but who knows? It's strange no one is explaining this one away...

Update: ABC 15 recently reported (can't seem to find the link, as I lost power temporarily) it to be the Columbia weather balloon someone mentioned further down in the thread, but this news hasn't been posted on other local news sites yet. Strange how still it seems to have been, but I didn't see the object myself so I can't say for sure.



Edited to add my own comments and extra links.


[edit on 18-5-2009 by writtenimage]

[edit on 19-5-2009 by writtenimage]

Yes, I heard this myself. Arizona is one of my favorite places to head to for sighting UFO's, you are never disappointed when you head down there!

towerfts.csbf.nasa.gov...


Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility
Boggs/NCT Flight # 594N

Payload Has been Launched
Payload position as of:
Time: 03:44:31Z Date: 05/19/2009

Latitude: 34?48.33 N
Longitude: 113?40.24 W
Altitude: 34781 Feet

35 Knots @ 276 Deg
37 Feet / Minute
467 Nm from launch site
65 Nm @ 35? deg radial from VOR Parker .

reply to post by Pauligirl


Laymans term for that? Please, La, and Lo leave me at a lost, i'm that person that drives for hours to get down the street because there easily lost.

Originally posted by Republican08
reply to post by Pauligirl

 

Laymans term for that? Please, La, and Lo leave me at a lost, i'm that person that drives for hours to get down the street because there easily lost.

Sorry! it's a real time tracker for the NASA balloon

The Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, is a NASA facility managed by the Physical Science Lab of New Mexico State University.

reply to post by Pauligirl

Do the weather balloons illuminate? Or was the light reflected from the sun or moon?

BTW good quick confirmation by you

[edit on 19-5-2009 by FX44rice]

Originally posted by FX44rice
reply to post by Pauligirl

 

Do the weather balloons illuminate? Or was the light reflected from the sun or moon?

BTW good quick confirmation by you

[edit on 19-5-2009 by FX44rice]

Thanks. According to the news report:

"Astronomer Steve Kates, also known as Dr. Sky, says it is a weather balloon and it may be from NASA. He says it may look like it's glowing, but it's actually just reflecting light."

It also says it vanished around sunset. I don't know if that means it just couldn't be seen without the light, or if it disappeared into the distance.

edit for typing too fast

[edit on 5/19/2009 by Pauligirl]

Just a simple question from a person with no weather balloon experience.

What would mage a weather ballon sit still for so long?

t that height it would have to be sitting in the jet stream wouldn't it?



[edit on 19-5-2009 by munkey66]

Originally posted by munkey66
Just a simple question from a person with no weather balloon experience.

What would mage a weather ballon sit still for so long?

t that height it would have to be sitting in the jet stream wouldn't it?



[edit on 19-5-2009 by munkey66]

I have no experience either. Looking at
www.wunderground.com...

shows the jet stream way to the north. Click on the state and it shows current winds--mostly calm, but I'm assuming that's ground level. Haven't found one yet with upper level winds. Probably have to get that from an airport.

The object is moving, perhaps 1 pixel every second (when zoomed in) or several seconds(zoomed out), towards the left-hand edge of the screen. This appears to be the direction the clouds are moving too.

Suggesting that whatever it is is moving with the wind. Radiosondes usually reach a service ceiling of about 90,000 ft (or ~17.04 miles) before they burst.

The one thing I do find interesting is I don't see the object moving up, rather it seems to moving a bit down and to the left. Granted this is likely an optical illusion of the object moving away from the camera and getting smaller.

I think it's a weather balloon too. But looking at this and remembering when the Mexican government came out and released video of their jets following multiple UFO's they look very similar.

The objects I'm referring to start on this video at 1:20.

This could be the government & media using propaganda to down play or further discredit the Roswell incident before the Anniversary in two months, by trying to prove once again that balloons are what people always mistake for UFOs.

It's obvious to me that the object is a balloon of some kind. What crashed near Roswell in 1947 was not a balloon of any kind.

news.yahoo.com...

[edit on 19-5-2009 by ufo reality]

Good Mornin' UR, et al,

Good friend and colleague, Mike Fortson sent us an excellent photograph of the "balloon" which can be seen here:

Mystery Object in Arizona Skies is No Mystery at All!

Cheers,
Frank



[edit on 19-5-2009 by Frank Warren]

reply to post by munkey66


The jetstream is primarily a winter weather phenomena over most of the continental United States. This time of year, it's not unusual to have very light and variable winds at 35,000 feet (FL 350 to the aviators in the crowd).

This is what I could pull up for the current winds over Phoenix.

Winds Aloft

So relatively speaking, the balloon should have been moving rather slow.

By the way, I've seen these balloons from FL 350 and above. They are very cool and look just like the pictures and the video.

[edit on 5/19/2009 by JoeBarna]

Even FOX Noise is getting in on this.

www.foxnews.com...

This report makes it seems as though there's nothing to UFOs or the Roswell incident. Just people seeing weather balloons for the past 60 years.

Nice try propaganda machine - AKA mass media + NASA!

could this be related to thisor thiswww.youtube.com... seems about the right time frame here is his youtube channel and if you watch the vids he does a pretty good job explaning what he is seeing with the naked eyewww.youtube.com...

[edit on 19-5-2009 by paradiselost333]

reply to post by writtenimage

reply to post by writtenimage


Can you give me a direct link on the pics? I can't find them on there.

reply to post by Frank Warren


Yep that matches up perfect with this Gamma Ray observation balloon that NASA uses.



Image courtesy of nasa.gov