did anyone in Phoenix, AZ see the bright light tonight?

it wouldve been really interesting to see them face to face

Long time lurker and I stumbled across this and had to get my two cents in here.

It's not a weather balloon.

It's a high altitude research balloon. (And you can definitely see it in the video on one of the earlier pages.)

And they are damned huge, about the size of a hot air balloon.

aerostar.com...

Not trying to shoot people down, hell, I'm a believer myself (saw a craft a few years ago moving from cloud to cloud.) so don't count me as dis-info guy.

Just needed to add my 2 cents, that's all.

It was definitely a balloon (research or weather, I don't know). I saw the object in the sky, and got out my telescope hoping it was something interesting. In my telescope I could see the shape and structure of the balloon, even the line coming from the bottom and it was carrying some sort of equipment with a light (or the equipment reflected the light). I tried to get a picture with my point and shoot through the telescope but that didn't work, and it was too far away for my digital video adapter.

It was odd though, the thing reflected light and shimmered like a diamond.

It was a cool sight, but it was definitely a balloon - I could verify with my own eyes.

I think it's interesting that this light appeared over Phoenix, and on the same day a phoenix shaped crop circle appeared in another part of the world.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Both events were reported on June 12th, right?

Now look at the object drawn over the phoenix in the crop circle, and compare it with this picture posted by the ATS member "Probrian" earlier in this thread:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1f07236bbd84.jpg[/atsimg]

Now, doesn't that image look like three lights forming a triangle around a circular center mass?

The original post in this thread also mentions a dark spot in the center of the object that he sighted...

I am in Mesa and didn't observe it, darn it, but it is nice to see so many locals come out of the woodwork.

We all went through the balloon thing a week or two ago and now this? Maybe it is an experiment to see who is looking and what the reaction to something unexplained in the sky would be. After all, Phoenix is considered a hotspot of sorts and the local media just loves their UFO stories.

[edit on Fri Jun 12th 2009 by EKron]

Originally posted by mattifikation
Now, doesn't that image look like three lights forming a triangle around a circular center mass?

No. It looks like someone can't hold the camera still.

This same thing happened last month. It was a high-altitude balloon reflecting sunlight then, as well.

www.kpho.com...

aerostar.com...

You can see yesterday's balloon track here:

towerfts.csbf.nasa.gov...


[edit on 2009/6/12 by IAttackPeople]

reply to post by IAttackPeople


Well, I observed the slow moving weather balloon, ofcourse Nasa even has the articles of which.

No but really I observed a light BEYOND that of a weather balloon I used to see alot in Texas where I used to live, this light was not a weather balloon it was completely stationary and than went orange, red, GONE towards California at an immense speed.

As I promised in my previous post, here are the video clips of the object that I took. I really don't think that this was a weather balloon, it was far too bright and was still glowing after the sun went down. I also observed military aircraft in the area. I wish I was able to get more video footage but I had to hurry to catch my plane.


www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...









[edit on 12-6-2009 by ampaf707]

reply to post by ampaf707


Yep, looks like a high alt balloon to me.

And the glowing after sunset bit, easy to explain.

It all has to do with the curvature of the Earth.

Something that far up will be able to catch the light longer than something on the ground. Because even if the sun has "gone down" it's still shining on things that are higher up. Take big office buildings for instance, you can see them being lit up at the top and see the light work it's way down until you can see the sun at ground level. That's all it is.

reply to post by Red-eye-syndrome



Why were there military helicopters there then? I am open to the possibility of a balloon, but I keep thinking that there's more to it.

reply to post by ampaf707


Quality.

I got a frame grab and blew-up the object, pardon the pun.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6ea17383bd03.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by ampaf707


Probably to recover the payload. They carry huge sleds of recording and research gear.

Once they've got what they needed, the payload drops from the balloon, pulling a cord that runs up the balloon to a tear away panel that deflates the balloon. And at that altitude and under those pressures, it'd appear to disappear

edit:
@Iattackpeople: It might help them more if you get that pic and have it side by side with the high alt balloons from the link you (and I) put up.

edit2:
nvm, did it quickly myself.



[edit on 12-6-2009 by Red-eye-syndrome]

[edit on 12-6-2009 by Red-eye-syndrome]

reply to post by Psychonaughty


Here is my common sense last addition to this thread

Said "Research" balloon leaves New Mexico, takes almost a half of a day to reach a point in North West Phoenix where it then stops - brightly glowing and hovers in one spot for over 35 to 40 minutes. Then for some strange reason after sitting motionless for that long period of time it takes off into the West and is gone within one minute.

Is it just me or does that sound really stupid for a "research balloon" to do something like that?

Then you add in the military aircraft that were deployed, and which I might add, just about every witness saw and documented with video and or images, such as myself. Would the military waste resources to send choppers and aircraft to the location of said object if they had already been notified by NASA that said "research" balloon was going to be traveling through their airspace.

Does this make sense??

Wake up, that was no "Research" balloon.

[edit on 12-6-2009 by arizonascott]

Originally posted by dankojudd
Ok so I came across this...

"We saw the same thing, military aircraft and all in so. co. monday night. did you look through binoculars? "

from the youtube...

and this..

hey

its 4:10 am in mid-Michigan and there is something down and to the left of the moon that seems too bright to be a star. Anybody know what it is? We guessed Venus due to the color but we have pretty much no clue. The interwebs were surprisingly unhelpful in this inquery.

ASTRONOMY MAJORS UNITE

c'mon...

thanks!


from another board...



hmmmmmm

I live in Michigan and I think I saw the same thing today. It did appear to be a star or venus or something. But the wierd thing about it is I saw it a few hours earlier, and when I came back a few hours later the moon had moved across the sky and the star/venus thing appeared to be at the same position relative to the moon. Like it was following the moon across the sky. I had to do a double-take, I didn't think stars/planets could move across the sky that fast. I thought it was just a trick of the mind until I read your post and it made me think there might be something more to this.

Anyway, I did see something as bright as what you Phoenix guys are talking about, just a year ago or so. In fact there were two of them, and they were probably at least as bright and as large as what you're all talking about. It was at night though, and there was a dark object connecting them, as though they were part of one object. My sister and nephew saw an airplane pass under it too (I left for a minute) and they said the plane was tiny in comparison. The whole object rotated and took off.

Apparently a lot of people called in about this. You know what excuse we got from the news in Michigan? International space station! What the crap?? So I know how you guys feel. Good reporting guys.

Hey all,

Just to clear up this sighting, the object seen in the sky over New Mexico and Arizona during the day and night of 6/11/09 was a polyethylene balloon filled with Helium used for carrying payloads (up to 6000 lbs) for high-altitude research, particularly astrophysics research. How do I know this? I am part of the team that constructed and launched this particular experiment, which is a cosmic microwave polarization anisotropy experiment named EBEX.

The balloon was launched at 8:04 AM MDT at the NASA facility called the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Fort Sumner, NM. It initially drifted east but then rose to around 113,000 ft and started traveling west at around 50 knots, passing just north of Phoenix. The flight terminated a little east of Lake Havasu City at 9:40 PM MDT, at which point the balloon was separated from the payload and the payload parachuted downward, drifting to the east and landing SE of Yucca, AZ. The last position reported by the tracking instruments report the payload at 41,000 ft and falling was taken during this descent and is being widely reported at the altitude of the flight, but is incorrect. This last position and the tracking of the experiment can be seen at towerfts.csbf.nasa.gov...

The balloon was approximately 50-70 ft across during the launch (just a guess from my eyeballing it) and expanding to a diameter of about 300 ft at the maximum altitude. This give it an angular size of roughly 10' in the sky, roughly 10 times the size of Venus, but 1/3 the size of the moon. The plastic of the balloon material is highly reflective at large viewing angles (try it with Saran wrap) and was reflecting the light from the Sun, hence the apparent "self-illumination." This would persist even as the Sun sets on the ground, since the high altitude lets the balloon see the Sun longer, due to the curvature of the Earth. But at some point the Sun would set on the balloon, and it would appear change to a reddish color and then disappear entirely.

As for the military craft going in the general direction of the balloon, I have no idea. We received no assistance from any military personnel in the launch and recovering of the payload, and I can only explain their appeared involved as a coincidence of timing.

Believe me or not, this is the full explanation of this light in the sky. Its a rather interesting area of scientific research and method for gathering data, so please investigate this topic further if you're interested.

I dont think it was a weather balloon. Cant be.
I live in the city. In PA. So, i dont get to see things like this.
Although, i have before come to think about it. It looked exactly like this.
It was about 11:30 at night last June. There were stars. But this was much bigger and brighter than any of those. At first i thought it was Jupiter, but i still had my hopes on a UFO.
The next night i looked in the same place.....it was no where in site.
I dont know of any planets to move that fast. Or dissapear at all.

And i dont know of any weather balloons staying in one spot even being out in the middle of the night.


I hate ot when people use the weather balloon theroy.

Oh wow another Maitreya star thread when they don't know it's the Maitreya star. Can this be considered proof of what I'm saying or not?

www.share-international.org...

Although don't go thinking he's necessarily good just yet. Remember in their own words "Follow me or utterly perish." The best way to hide the truth is in plain sight. This man is GASP the Anti-Christ. Of course it would be in a UFO.

I was going to create a post on this but don;t have enough posts yet on my counter.

I live in California and was leaving Harmony Festival last night, at 3:00 A.M. and right next to the moon was the brightest object I have ever seen in the night sky. It was very very close to the moon. I asked my friend to snap a few pictures and I have to wait for the e-mail but what I saw was extremely bright and it was not venus, because Venus was across the sky on the other side.

I was on top of the Superstitions 6-11-09 waiting to photograph the sunset and the city lights, when I noticed a bright object in the sky. Initially I dismissed it as Venus, but quickly realized the object did not lie on the ecliptic, it was north of the setting sun. I continued to photograph the sunset and watch the object when I noticed an unusual contrail. It was nearly vertical and growing. Did anybody else see the contrail that evening? I have searched the internet and can find no mention of a launch. I have pictures of the "balloon" and the contrail, but I do not see how to post them. The contrail was a approximately 10 degrees further south on the horizon for me. If somebody can give me some instructions for posting pictures I would be happy to share them. The two events in some ways seem mighty coincidental to me.

reply to post by nikiano


Im waay in Tucson i wouldnt have seen it but next time get a VIDEO!!!

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