I experienced a "classic" UFO sighting: Nov. 28, 2010

Most people here on ATS who have been around awhile know me as being "skeptical" that UFO sightings represent something of non-terrestrial origin. I've been on record several times stating that I simply don't believe we mere earthlings would be interesting for any advanced civilization capable of interstellar travel. However, last night I experienced something that defies terrestrial explanation.

First, my reason for being outside at 10:30 in the evening in Phoenix. Without getting into details, we've had a problem with nocturnal critters in our back yard. So for the past few nights I've been sitting outside in the hopes of seeing what problem critters are coming into the area. With iPad and a couple beers (and a couple Nat Sherman's cigarettes), it's rather enjoyable.

The account of the sighting is a mix of 70/30 information discovered at the time, and going back to the tools available to confirm what I saw. I'm doing my best to document as much detail as I can so that others may compare against the sky and research what I may have seen.


Sighting Details

It was a clear night, 50 degrees or so, with low humidity, and the time was about 10:30 mountain time. I happened to look up at the stars, as I always do whenever I'm out at night, and noticed a bright star that I don't recall seeing before. So I paused the Netflix movie on my iPad and launched the SkyWalk app to figure out what it was. The nice thing about the app is that you can point the iPad up at the sky, and the app is aware of the angle and direction so as to give you a detailed star map of where it's pointed.

As near as I can figure, the bright "star" was to the left and slightly higher than the Menkalinan star in the Auriga constellation, making nearly a right triangle with the Capella star, also of the Auriga constellation. This new "star" appeared to be about 1.5 times the distance to the north from Menkalinan than Menkalinan is from Capella. It was slightly brighter than both of those stars.

My immediate thought was a satellite, and I went back to watching Netflix. About 15 minutes later, I noticed that the "star" I saw was a bit lower in the sky relative to Menkalinan, no longer forming a right triangle with Capella. Again, I thought my feelings of a satellite (possibly geo stationary) were confirmed as Capella and Menkalinan would be rising through the night. As I was thinking perhaps I should grab our binoculars, it suddenly moved.

The motion was rapid, and appeared "downward" from my position -- though the motion also could have been to the north east. The motion didn't seem to be perpendicular to the horizon, and may have been slightly to the north (left). When the "star" hit a position that appeared to be at about 20 degrees elevation, it split into two with both portions going immediately in opposite directions and out of sight within seconds. As best I can tell, the two new "pieces" went north and south, but it's hard to be certain on exact direction.

(NOTE: At the time, I noted the two nearby stars but not the actual names. I obtained those by using SkyWalk and setting the time to yesterday evening when the observation happened.)


Additional Information

The light of the object seemed to be pure white, no distinguishable flashing, and no flicker.

No sound either before or after as far as I could tell.

When it began to drop, I stood and walked back a bit for a better view. It's unlikely the observed effect was due to any latent adjustment of my eyes from watching a relatively bright LCD screen in the night.

I had not yet finished the first cerveza Tecate I brought along.


My Interpretation

Going back to the beginning of the post, my reflexive thoughts have always been that "things in the sky" are not of fantastic origins beyond this earth. But this defies explanation as something earth-bound technology could produce, especially in the apparent speed of the two "objects" that broke away and apparently split to travel north and south at an exceptionally high rate of speed.

All you have is my word; the word of someone who habitually doubted extraordinary explanations of things like this, suddenly compelled to post his observations of something extraordinary.





I've created a QuickTime video that simulates, as much as possible, what I saw.

I used Google Sky to grab the star orientation at the time, and make the "object's" size and brightness appropriate relative to the Capella star... so the ultimate scale and star-field size may be off a bit, but the motion of the object is nearly identical to what I saw.

sighting-11-28-2010.mov 510k movie file.

The animation illustrates better than I could describe that the motion was very linear and abrupt... no apparent acceleration/deceleration, just instant full-speed motion

Sounds like a cool sighting. I saw something similar last year and I have been waiting to see it again, so far I haven't. I sit outside often with camera(s) ready to go. I bet if i didn't have one that is when something would happen. Go figure

I love that sky app on the iPad, it's awesome. I have something similar on my droid that I always have ready to use if I see something questionable. I also use stellarium as well.


Thanks for sharing your sighting if you see it again, take a pic

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


seems rather spectacular, especally for a doubter.

and, sense i have no level of expertise in astronomy, i will leave the debunking to the experts..............

I will say to check the nat shermans, see what might be in them.....LOL

Why does everything gotta happen in Az? lol

Thank you for your recounting of the event. I am rather curious about this effect of "splitting" that is so often described. I have a couple of "theories", but all they are is just thoughts, since there is absolutely no way to really approach proving them.

1) The splitting effect is caused by some sort of physics phenomenon of ftl travel.. maybe a jump to warp or hyperspace or whatever it should be called.

2) Maybe these vessels are actually conglamerations of "pods" and they routinely function in this manner, staying as one unit until needing to run off on missions.


In any case, glad this was caught, and might I say, very good formatting of the sighting report.

Originally posted by rogerstigers
1) The splitting effect is caused by some sort of physics phenomenon of ftl travel

I really doubt that. Going back to pure physics, "IF" the objects were traveling faster than light, the observed effect would be different. I'd either see no light or much slower observed motion (as the distance increased at ultra-luminary speeds, light would take longer to get to me).

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord

Originally posted by rogerstigers
1) The splitting effect is caused by some sort of physics phenomenon of ftl travel

I really doubt that. Going back to pure physics, "IF" the objects were traveling faster than light, the observed effect would be different. I'd either see no light or much slower observed motion (as the distance increased at ultra-luminary speeds, light would take longer to get to me).

True, however, I worded that poorly.. I meant an "apparent FTL" mechanism, since neither a worp, wormhole, nor a hyperspace concept would necessitate true FTL travel so far as I know. But then again, I am not expert on such things and really just threw that out there because the splitting effect really intrigues me.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


The sad thing now is that you know what you saw but can't prove it.
That is the really frustrating part.
I am in the same boat as well.
I saw one a few years back and people still think I am nuts...thankfully I was with someone and can verify it.
Still...we can't prove it.

The part that i thought was cool was after the fact we found out we were a few kms from where project magnet happened.
Its also one of the reasons I ended up on ats.

I am glad you got to see one...thats alot to wrap your head around in my opinion.


Now...pics or it never happened.

good post, this should be a sticky or something for everyone to read and know before a sighting, very good observations

wish I had some theory to add to it, only thing I can think of is pure energy it emits light we are all energy it could have been some planetary traveler meeting up with another traveler to exchange clean towels...remember never forget your towel!!

good post, this should be a sticky or something for everyone to read and know before a sighting, very good observations

wish I had some theory to add to it, only thing I can think of is pure energy it emits light we are all energy it could have been some planetary traveler meeting up with another traveler to exchange clean towels...remember never forget your towel!!

Welcome to the club friend!
It will now be much easier for your imagination to accept the infinite reasons of why alien beings would want to come here. I too have had sightings just as you described. They all happened this year (2010) and I had never seen any before. The ones I saw split were in broad daylight with clear blue sky's. The ones at night I have seen scatter about and move in all different directions but they weren't splitting.
Anyways, it is good to have skeptical opinions around to bring things back into perspective. But I can assure you that if you look into history you will come to find "they" or whomever has been here since our existence and is possibly responsible for our being here. Keep looking UP!

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


I'm glad you posted this sighting as so do many others but they are flamed by the skeptics, a trait which doesn't seem to be happening with your post..
Sometimes there's no physical evidence to put forward and therefore we must rely on the words of the witness..
I just wished the skeptics would treat all such sightings with as much respect as you are receiving..

I have never seen anything strange in the skies but would imagine it would change your perspective on many things once seen..s&f

So now that you have had your own sighting,you are a believer.It took that to make you believe?Did you doubt the testimony of an entire town of roswell that they saw the downed craft and aliens?Did you doubt the testimony of millions of abductees who claim abduction?Its great that you now believe,but take stock in what other credible people have seen.

Hmm

That's a stumper...pity there is of course no video to accompany this...

meteors entering the atmosphere often split up...but they don't go opposite ways...they tend to create a sort of V pattern once they break apart at best.

so...its a UFO...now...what could it possibly be that would explain it from a earth viewpoint...

oh, and of course report it to mufon

good thread Skeptic, yup it sounds classic. The very few times I caught a UFO clearly one of the things that implicated to me it was not of terrestrial origin was its moving mechanics. It seems defying our system of physics is a theme.

Anyhow I will stop there so I am not classified as "tin foil hat" nutter or whatever.

Also another thing I find intriguing is how you feel after you discover what your looking at..

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Being relaxed and seeing a short sighting is only the begining, over the course of time the nagging questions
of why? who? what? and then: why is everyone in charge lying? etc.. will drive you nuts. No answers forth comming.

Originally posted by dplum517
It will now be much easier for your imagination to accept the infinite reasons of why alien beings would want to come here.

I remain skeptical. My primary reasons are that we represent a relatively mundane existence when compared against the wonders of the galaxy available to an interstellar species. Even very advanced technology -- if it exists at all -- capable of traversing the stars will be exceptionally "expensive" in terms of the cost of energy required. I can't imagine any intelligent species wasting that energy on us when the entire galaxy calls.

But I can assure you that if you look into history you will come to find "they" or whomever has been here since our existence and is possibly responsible for our being here.

Again... referencing the above post... I remain skeptical as to the potential value we might represent to any advanced interstellar species.

Also, I tend to reject any notion that our existence here might be due to any off-planet influence as evolution tells us differently (unless you subscribe to the possibility that all life on earth was seeded).

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


BRAVO!!! Well, seems your intuition about moving to Arizona was correct. Well documented and detailed witness report my friend.

I have not yet read the responses by members yet, so I am very curious as to what our resident skeptics, believers and experts have to say.

Really all can say to you is "Far Out!!"

Keep watching the skies So because once you have been attuned to see this set of physics, it all comes together. It is almost easier to have remained on the other side of the fence, but there is no turning back now. Really puts it all in perspective as to the vastness of our existence and the connectivity of each one of us being an important part of that reality.

Congratulations on your first possible sighting.

Originally posted by Bicent76
good thread Skeptic, yup it sounds classic. The very few times I caught a UFO clearly one of the things that implicated to me it was not of terrestrial origin was its moving mechanics. It seems defying our system of physics is a theme.

Defying physics may not be at play here. if you can create a time distortion around a object and within the bubble, time is going much, much faster...from a outside perspective, they are doing wild moves...making 180 degree movements on a dime, etc...however, within that bubble, that split second change in course may have taken 10 minutes...who knows.

Basically, I am just saying don't dismiss physics here...rather, try to understand how things could be done within the laws of physics...build on verses remove and say we know nothing...

Originally posted by antar
Congratulations on your first possible sighting.

I've had other "sightings" over the decades, but this is the first in which a terrestrial explanation is proving difficult.

one more addition to this thread

This is not proof...if it was anyone else on any other board...the general skepticism would include:

A website owner that has a ET forum suddenly has a sighting...clearly this is just hype to increase traffic and discussion in the forum..total hoax and didn't even need to use a camera.

Not saying this is the case...just saying people need to keep things in perspective...I would bet a dime OPs is being as honest as he can be...however, I would not bet my life on it.