What have I seen?- Unusual Light observed 2 times, 1 week apart.

Well where to start, last night (Tuesday for us) around 9:30 pm and last week on the same day virtually the same time Ive seen the same 'object' twice and observed it both times for over 10-15 minutes each time. This will be a lengthy post since I like to be thorough given no photographic or video evidence of any real use... if your a TLDR type, you might want to skip it

Now to put a few things forward first. I sky watch alot, on average 3-4 nights a week for periods of a few minutes to up to an hour+ on and off a night if the weather is warm and fine, ive watched hundreds of planes at night flying around my area over the years and i pretty much know when an object is on one of these flight paths as well as knowing what pretty much what most planes and helicopter lights look like in these situations. Ive watched helicopters doing night time crop dusting on distance farms as well as police helicopters out doing searches, ive watched high altitude airliners and low flying, coming into land commercial and small planes, night gliders and night flying micro-lights all the time heading to and from the nearest airport 30 minutes drive from where I live. So I have some decent knowledge of whats a plane and what isnt in the air above me at night and it only takes me a minute (depending on the angle and distance) to know if something im seeing isnt a plane.

I also have watched and witnessed a large array of satellites, meteors, bolides, break ups and shooting stars (a couple of things ive seen dont fit into those categories and are still 'unknowns' for me but ive either done threads on them at the time I saw em or have yet to do so).

Whether man-made or celestial ,ive also viewed them all with binoculars and through a telescope. Now that ive got my personal experiences with sky watching out of the way on to the actual event.


Ill start with the first time I saw the 'object’-

Last week, Tuesday, around 9:30 pm (it was mostly clear but there was cloud on the horizon) I left the garage and on walking the half a dozen feet to the front door I noticed a rather bright yellowish light in the distance out the side of my vision. First thought in my head was, given its location and brightness and lack of a flashing red navigation light, "Hey its a small commercial plane coming in for a landing run at Hamilton airport" ive seen planes at that location and height and they do a long arc that makes them appear to be static in the sky for a little time and with small commercial planes they often have a pair of very bright head lights that at that point in the turn sticks them directly towards me as a viewer resulting in a big bright light that obscures nav and wing lights (Seeing it even now makes me still go Oooo, but ive seen enough of them to recognize it very quickly now).

Well I stood and waited for 30-40 seconds expecting the planes light beams to suddenly become visible as per usual as it turns to run parallel with my viewing angle as always... well it didnt, which made me hmmm and get just a wee bit excited. It continued to remained where it was in elevation and position, I then twigged to the fact it wasn’t white, instead it was more a pale yellow, slight orange hint. I ran inside quickly and whipped out the Binoculars and went to stand on the back deck for a better more elevated look (I called other family members out to verify what I was seeing also).

Through the binoculars it appeared yellowish white with the occasional shift to an orange outer glow, it was impossible to get focused 100% correctly which was odd, if you’ve looked at airplanes, helicopters and stars etc through binoculars you'll always be able to get them into good focus where any light appears as a fairly sharp bright point with the old pointy star arms/rays sticking out of it depending on how bright it is. There was no visible red flashing nav light, no wing lights or cockpit light, no tail lights just a small yellow white mildly fuzzy sphere. After observing it for a good 5 minutes I began to notice it was descending vertically in a perfect line, their was no movement horizontally in relation to distant house lights, the entire time it stayed relative to these distant houses.

It continued to descend over the period of about 8-9 minutes (could have been longer but was definitely not shorter) eventually it disappeared once it dropped bellow the line of the 3 main set of house lights that during the daylight hours all sit on the same ridge line of a hill about 2 kilometers away from us... now this allowed me to realize that it was also situated between this particular ridge line and the far distant line of hills that more or less denotes the furthest visible land marks you can see from my house on a good day, this proved it wasnt a planet like Venus setting, it also proved it wasn’t a moving light like a car etc out on the furthest visible hill line since when I first saw it, it was visible well above the top of where these hills would be during daylight hours, as well as the fact these distant hills are not even visible from my initial observation point by the garage... the object was defiantly air born and at least 150+ feet above the ground on estimate, further than this first ridge of hills but closer than the furthest hill line.

Now I did try and get some photos of it however trying to get a stable image without a tripod and working out the exposure settings on a camera you hardly use is problematic, I did get one wobbly image (see bellow) with the object and one of the houses lights on the ridge line in it but its more or less useless. Thinking about it now if I had used the video capture mode it would have been a lot better. Now the others from my family who also watched it didn’t really have much to comment and some have little or no interest in UFO’s and ones completely skeptical more or less. I ruled out a helicopter mainly due to the fact that there was no similarity to it to any helicopter ive watched through binoculars before, no cockpit light no tail rotor light no red nav light etc also why a helicopter would sit their for 5-6 minutes then descend straight as an arrow vertically over 10+ minutes doesn’t make much sense, ive watched night work on a farm near by that used a helicopter and this was nothing like it.

I then thought of a flare and those with me agreed it most likely was a flare. The color was definitely flarish, it was descending straight down... but why would a flare be used out on a farm? and from what I can see most flares last from 5-30 seconds at the most… this was stationary for minutes and unchanging in brightness all the way to the point when it was obscured by a hill line. One more thing is at one point as it descended the light appeared to become rectangular, this could be because I was regularly trying to focus the binoculars on it but compared to what ive seen out of focused lights before it didn’t seem the same at all. So I went to bed that night convincing myself it was a flare, I stayed up a good hour and half afterward and checked regularly to see if it had ‘ascended’ but I saw nothing more.

Continued-

Now for the second observation of the object from last night (completely overcast and very blustery strong winds), exactly one week latter after the first sighting, around the same time of night 9:40pm-

I was oddly doing the exact same thing as the first time, I was locking up the garage after removing the cats from it for the night (they keep our mouse population down) and as I walk back to the house bingo, the light… and again I thought ‘hey it’s a commercial plane coming in to land’... then I clicked 'hey its that same light', also this time the light was noticeably more orange and brighter than before. I ran inside grabbed the binoculars and told my brother the light was back in the exact same spot and location exactly, same elevation location everything.

Although some things where a little different, through the binoculars the light was slightly larger, far more orange and it shifted between yellow white, yellow with orange and yellow with dark orange rim. Again it was hard to focus properly this was more than likely due to the fact that unlike a directional light or a small man-made light which tends to have direction to it, this object was a biggish indistinct light source that seemed to project an omni directional light like a frosted light bulb, so what looked still fuzzy to my eyes was in fact the best focus more than likely. At first it appeared as half circle, then it sort of boiled at one point (imagine 3 bright balls rolling around each other while in direct contact) and at another it seemed to have two small points on either side of it… now this is more than likely due to me trying to constantly get a proper focus on it (although the roiling was during a period when I didn’t adjust the focus), but ultimately the best I could do was the yellow, white. orange shifting noticeable sphere (as if you looked at mars through a set of binoculars you can see it’s more than a point of light but an actual sphere). Now my brother who I brought out also mentioned how oddly ‘orange’ it was with the naked eye, I got him to view it through the binoculars also but he had no real comment and passed it off as possibly a helicopter, he has no interest in these sorts of things. This time the object was stationary far longer than the last sighting but it too began to descend after about 8 minutes of observation at roughly the same speed as the first time in the same straight as a post vertical path this decent took around 10 minutes or so (No real time reference sorry, didn’t think of it at the time) until it vanished behind the same hill line once again that the 3 distant houses sit on.

Now heres the kicker, at first I thought hey it must be a flare again, then I twigged… but its blowing a gale out here, how on earth does a flare, or an RC Toy Helicopter with a flare attached, Chinese lantern or balloon etc etc stay perfectly in place and descend that straight vertically in blustery winds that force you to brace yourself slightly from being pushed around every time they blow? This immediately means that the same ‘object’ from last week if it was the same object, was therefore most likely not a flare either.

Another oddity was during the observation as it got close to vanishing behind the hill line during a period I wasn’t fiddling with the focus the object appear to become smeared slightly. Imagine a yellow orange orb smeared so that it gained a small indistinct ‘tail’ to the right and slightly down, if it was out of focus you’d expect to have this blur on opposite sides of each other not just on one side, also the main circular mass of the ‘sphere’ suddenly got a very distinct black ring around it that then vanished then popped back again this black ring did its appear, vanish routine about 5 times over a period of 20 seconds or so. The strange thing is, is the black ring was in VERY good, crisp focus and the blurry tail smudge remained even though with the black ring it now looked like the blurry tail was behind the sphere as a separate object, to me it gave it a very cylinder like appearance with the bright sphere being the closest end and the blurry unlit tail being the length trailing off. A few minutes later it dropped behind the hill line out of sight.

Interestingly after some discussion with my brother latter it was only then that he pointed out it was the exact same time and day as the last one, which hadn’t occurred to me at all. I was unable to get any photos or videos this time since coincidentally, I had stuck the cameras batteries on charge a few hours earlier due to dad requiring the camera for work the next day. As far as to what it was, I cant say. It isn’t as far as im aware from experience any helicopter, plane. Given the weather conditions last night any small or wind born item like flares, kites, lanterns etc are out of the question (but not 100% improbable since I cant be that sure).

Well there are the accounts of my two current observations of this object. The thing is that I find most exciting (regardless of what it could be, either mundane or fantastical) is the fact its got a repeatable frame of time to its appearances (so far, this fact does make it very man made possible). As such im going to prepare myself for next Tuesday by getting out the old Telescope (far better than a pair of binoculars), and using a tripod with a pre-setup exposure and shutter speed on our digital camera. Ill also regardless of weather start observing the location very early in order to hopefully see where the object comes from, after all its airborne and its ‘there’ so it has to get there in some way. Ill also get my brother to be on call since I personally wouldn’t mind attempting to driving out to where it appears to be and that would at least give a better vantage point to see where it goes after it goes behind the hill line. Ill keep an eye out each night also just in case it pops up on any other day, Id love to get a good decent exposure photo of it along with some film… then again it might not appear again (fingers crossed it does).

Im not exclaiming it’s a UFO after all It could be extremely mundane and I have nothing but this account of events, then again it might not be mundane, so far in my opinion its definitely out of the ordinary and like nothing ive seen personally or can logically place, given my own deductions based on what it could be along with environmental and visual observations. My brother insists its more than likely aerial spraying by a farmer in a helicopter, but I disagree since ive witnessed night time helicopter use at a similar distance through binoculars before and the object and its behaviors doesn’t fit at all with his conclusion.

Until then I can only wait.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/07c8aa0b2be7.jpg[/atsimg]

This is the only picture I got of any value from the first observation, its wiggly thanks to long exposure and it being hand held, its cropped to remove all the black, the orange wiggle is the Object, while the white wiggle in the bottom right is the lights of one of the houses on the distant hill line, I couldn't see the object in the cameras view port so i had to aim blindly and was lucky enough to get this. The objects color is far more orange in this pic that what it was through the binoculars at the time of observation thanks to a long exposure time. That being said the color of it in this image is more like the color it was observed to be last night. Its not solid evidence at all, but its all I have so far. So you can rip into it since its of no real use :p

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/607af94f5463.jpg[/atsimg]

Heres a pic of the location during daylight hours showing the various hill lines, the red circles are the houses that sit on the hill line, the purple is the hill line the object descended behind. The distant hill line is the furthest landmark visible from this vantage point during the day.

The inset picture is a darkened crop of the black outlined area made to look more like the first observation that night with the pic of the object from that night aligned with the house whos lights appear in that pic and scaled to roughly where it was at the time of the photo being taken. In reality it was completely dark with only the house lights and object being visible also im still unsure which of the middle two houses the light was closest to, im more or less sure it was the one indicated in the inset, ill have to double check.

Edit:- Anyone know how to make the last pic scrollable? cheers

I applaud your detailed report. I do not have an answer as to what you saw, can only speculate.

Have you tried visiting www.ufocusnz.org.nz... Check to see if any of the recent entries coincide with your sighting, or if they have any similarities?

i see you're in new zealand as well. i live in palmerston north. where was the sighting?

reply to post by phrankie79


Thanks i hadn't thought of that ill give it a look, I still dont believe it was anything extraordinary just very unusual Im a believer but im also one of those who will even look at my own evidence and sightings as hard as I possibly can and if i cant answer it it goes into the 'unknown' folder of lifes experiences, now if i can get some uber shots of it and some video then i might attempt to class it as an actual UFO, rather than an oddity.

I only hope it does come back next week when im fully prepared for it

Originally posted by sc00by_d00
i see you're in new zealand as well. i live in palmerston north. where was the sighting?

Te Awamutu about 30 minutes south of Hamilton, id place the light close by a small mount south east of Mount Pirongia.

Looking at that site its interesting there was 3 sightings recently dealing with an orange light/s.

reply to post by BigfootNZ


well, since you are curious as to why you saw them, lets start with that. i believe(strongly) that what you saw was either an unmanned, or "drone" government craft. now as to why, i speculate they are doing one of two things behind the scenes. they could either be trying to improve their design with as little competition as possible. or they could also be rehearsing for a "false flag" invasion, which would be very costly, but with the right showmanship, and some expendable drones, could pass off as a grand illusion.
in a nutshell, i am inclined to believe that you will see more of these untill the other governments follow suit with americas unveiling of their massive ufo. and with the reveal of this large triangular craft that i cant remember the name of, is it not possible that they waited untill they had improved, mastered, or quantified the design? also explains why miliataries choose to investigate certain ufos, but deny radar blips for others. keep up the truthing

I don't normal comment on primarily eyewitness reports but your report is unusual. Not so much in the sighting itself but because of the very careful observations you've made. It is rare in the extreme, even in the reports of "trained observers" to have so much relevant detail.

Hopefully it appears again. Here's a thought for if it does. While being able to chase it would be excellent, a simultaneous observation from any other location could be quite instructive. By getting reasonably accurate compass bearings from two known locations a good estimate of its true distance and movement could be made. In addition, getting elevation (in degrees above the horizon) would make it possible to figure out how high it is. But that may be a bit too much to ask for.

Originally posted by Phage
I don't normal comment on primarily eyewitness reports but your report is unusual. Not so much in the sighting itself but because of the very careful observations you've made. It is rare in the extreme, even in the reports of "trained observers" to have so much relevant detail.

Hopefully it appears again. Here's a thought for if it does. While being able to chase it would be excellent, a simultaneous observation from any other location could be quite instructive. By getting reasonably accurate compass bearings from two known locations a good estimate of its true distance and movement could be made. In addition, getting elevation (in degrees above the horizon) would make it possible to figure out how high it is. But that may be a bit too much to ask for.

edit on 10/12/2010 by Phage because: (no reason given)

I take that as an extreme compliment coming from yourself. Ive always wanted to see something like this, and while ive seen some interesting things from time to time this is one thats on a different level to the others. I always do my best to take note and remember as much as I can, since without photos it comes down purely to your word and you have to make that count.

Yeah im not that great with the technical stuff though, ive spent most of the afternoon on Google maps trying to match what I see outside with the sat images of the area, doesn't help that they are a good 5+ years old now and a couple of those houses on the hill line didnt exist back then. Its also comes as a bit of a surprise to see that what 'looks' like a distance of 2 or so kilometers to my eye is really 3 times that.

The object if its much further than I think it could be , it might even be a good 18+ km away which would put it coming down around in front of the area of what my brother calls the 'divi' (short for divide) which is the far distant hills seen in my daylight location photo above which divides this part of the Waikato region from the coastline. If its that far off then its extremely bright, or very big. The only way I can really find out just what it really is, would be to witness it arriving at the location again... that would more or less clinch it for me, and get some directional information beyond it just descending from a single spot (for all i know it might have been descending while moving directly away from me, although its constant brightness and size would rule that out somewhat).

If it turns out to be something mundane, explainable or it never turns up again then so be it... ill always have the memory, and the mystery

reply to post by BigfootNZ

It was meant as a compliment. But, please, drop the "the".

The "technical" aspect isn't as important as understanding the variables and not making assumptions about what you saw. If it shows up again I'm sure you'll learn a lot more about it. At the distances you're talking about though, I doubt photographs are going to help much.

Mundane or not, there's a lot to learn from it.

reply to post by BigfootNZ


BigfootNZ.....

Anyone know how to make the last pic scrollable?

Here you go.....



Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not

reply to post by BigfootNZ


BigfootNZ.....

Thankyou for your interesting, well expressed report.

As I read it & tried to think of an explanation, I came up with the idea of a hot-air balloon at night.

I thought the flame could have been the "most visible" "blurred" object & the differing levels of illimunation of the balloon might have caused some of the other (sometimes circular) changing visual effects.

I found this video as an example of night-time hot-air ballooning in your area.....the "Night Glow" balloon festival.



Do you think that could make any sense?

Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not

Originally posted by Maybe...maybe not
reply to post by BigfootNZ

 

BigfootNZ.....

Thankyou for your interesting, well expressed report.

As I read it & tried to think of an explanation, I came up with the idea of a hot-air balloon at night.

Hmm hadnt thought of that its a damn good candidate for what it might have been, the problem with that explanation though is why just a single balloon?, unless they where training which would be an issue since we have alot of very low air traffic around this area (I can see nightly many planes coming in low enough to see window lights on em without binoculars, through the area this object was seen in as they make their approaches into Hamilton) also its the wrong time of year, and the wrong place also since they usually hold that event only within and around the Hamilton city (or at least the Balloons over Waikato event, which is also held usually in the early morning I think... Ive never been to one although my brother and father work in Hamilton and have seen it on their way to work some years). My area is around 35 minutes drive (25ish km distance) on state highway roads south from Hamilton.

The balloon idea also runs into the problem with the winds we had last night (which made my first notion of flare completely invalid), unless tethered in place the balloon would have been in constant motion and really buffeted around and completely at the mercy of the high winds, this object was completely static in relation to its horizontal movement which id assume a hot air balloon wouldnt be. Not sure what sort of permits or locations youd need to use a hot air balloon, or whether your restricted to specific locations for such things, theres nothing but farms out that way unless someones made a homemade dirigible ... I could see a fellow Kiwi trying something like that quite easily and if they have its wind resistant or they like to live dangerously

Other than that id say its a pretty good candidate MMN in respect to anything else it might be, just very unlikely given some of the circumstances. Heres hoping I get to see it again and this time see it arrive, or maybe even get to drive out to where it might touch down.

Also I apologies Phage with my wording in that post, very bad form on my part now that i think about it, ive changed it, and sorry for any discomfort.

reply to post by BigfootNZ


BigfootNZ.....

I'm glad my idea was of interest.

I hope you see the object again & derive more info.....good luck!

Cheers
Maybe...maybe not

Well the week came and went, and unfortunately last night after setting up my telescope my camera on a tripod etc.... nothing bit of a disappointment but C'est la vie.

Although it wasnt all a complete waste, Ive now learned how to set my camera up for taking night shots properly and ive also acquainted myself with Stellarium.

On the Stellarium note after sticking in some dates and times its rather interesting to find out that both Venus and Mars where more or less right in the same location as the 'object', this kinda disappointed me since I know Venus and its location quite easily but I didnt realize mars was there. Mars after all gives of a dull reddish and orange hue to its light. So did i actually see Mars setting?

Given a lack of any real proof ill have to concede yes. Although a couple of points remain to pick holes in that conclusion.

1. The night of the 7th (the first time) was completely dark with no moon in the sky it had long since set, and the 12th sighting was also pitch black due to thick overcast clouds within that area of the sky, even though the moon was effectively within the same region of the sky as the object with the clouds being slightly illuminated from the moon behind them. This is to say that on the second sighting the sky on the horizon in that region was obscured by cloud thick enough to block out the moons light virtually completely. As for the first sighting I dont remember fully what the conditions where apart from being cold and more or less calm, there would have been sporadic clouds since it was far from a clear night but I couldnt say where exactly.

2. While Mars and Venus could very well have been visible the first time, Venus was set at the time of the second sighting, and Mars would have from what I can tell through Stellarium (if cloud cover in point 1 was ignored) been bellow the level of the furthest set hill lines. This also brings up the point that the object 'set' as in vanished from sight at the level of the house lights on the nearest hill line on both sightings... which no planet could do since it would mean it came down in front of the furthest land based set of landmarks, which is impossible obviously :p Also I wouldnt have been tricked by Venus since its been blazing away in night sky here for over a year and its hard to mistake, also through binoculars its more or less pure white, not noticeably orange with the naked eye.

3. Looking at Stellarium it seems Mars magnitude (1.47) is less bright than Antares (1.05) in the Scorpio constellation, Venus is a dazzling (on any night and its always visible on clear nights and even on some overcast nights through thin clouds) at a magnitude -4.46.

The 'object's magnitude was far brighter than Antares, but a good deal less than Venus on both sightings. If I was to guess, id say it was on the first sighting slightly brighter than Rigil Kent and Hadar (two other stars I know well) which both sit around the 0 to 0.10 mark of magnitude, so id say what I saw on the first sighting was magnitude -0.5 at least and as for the magnitude of the second sighting, which was far brighter. Id easily say a -2 when compared to another planet we also have visible at this time, Jupiter which is a -2.77.. so the object couldnt have been Mars since (weather and intervening landscape aside) it was just far to bright to have been it, especially on the second sighting.

These magnitudes of the object is all guess work really but its as close as I can get. Given that I hadnt notice Mars at all over the last month in that region of the sky means it can hardly be bright enough to register as 'odd' for me, I like looking at Venus in the evenings, and Scorpio is my star sign so Antares is a star I know well hence why I use them for my comparisons. It shows to me that Mars registered as nothing more than a background star to my mind... ill have to hope its fine in the next few days so I can actually find Mars and see just how bright it really is compared to the sightings of the 'object' and track its descent to see how it match's up with what i saw, since as each day goes by Mars and Venus are moving more towards the South, meaning that if they fall to the right of the location I saw the object in, over the next few days than they at the time of the sightings where far more to the east and not the right candidates.

4. Also of interest is the fact I was unable to focus, or get what I thought was a proper focus on the object... Ive used Binoculars on Planets and Stars many many times and ha/haved no problem getting them properly focus, the strange visual issues i had on the second sighting are also an oddity that viewing a planet wouldnt bring up, ive looked at Mars and Venus through telescopes and Binoculars quite often (love seeing a Planets little moons) and this looked like none of them.

Despite these points of contention, Ill just class what I saw as an unknown, might have been Mars, but a few to many unusual points to indicate otherwise. Maybe it was a case of the watched kettle never boiling... things like that tend to happen to me alot :p

Overall, a little disappointing but a definite learning experience I can use for later. And its hardly been solved completely...