Can someone explain to me how Venus can be mistaken for a UFO?

I've heard Venus used as an explanation for UFO sightings millions of times. But I can't for the life of me figure out how someone could be dumb enough to make this mistake.

Venus stays stationary, right? It doesn't move around any? And it doesn't pop out at you like a 3-D movie right? Getting closer and closer as to appear as if it's moving towards you?

Also, from what I understand, Venus just looks like a slightly brighter star. Not humongous but just a few shades brighter than all the other stars?

So if it doesn't move up down left or right. If it doesn't move towards you. And it's only a moderately brighter version of a star, explain to me why people would think it's a UFO.

Or is this just one of those situations where governments use it as an easy excuse? Has anyone here mistaken Venus for a UFO? Can you explain to me how?

reply to post by ReaverTheBeliever


First thing you need is a damned good imagination...

I have always had the same thoughts about this OP... (sorry I didn't catch your alias)

Imagine seeing something moving at incredible speeds, this way-and-that ... defying everything you thought was physically possible...then having some ... huffy stuffy desk clerk tell you it was Venus...!

*Face palm*

Originally posted by ReaverTheBeliever
So if it doesn't move up down left or right. If it doesn't move towards you. And it's only a moderately brighter version of a star, explain to me why people would think it's a UFO.

While it doesn't move up down left or right, it can APPEAR to move up down left or right.

Atmospheric effects combined with physiological and psychological issues can result in Venus (or the Moon or countless other objects) being the stimulus for all sorts of weird and wonderful perceived effects.

The simplest and probably most signficant effect is autokinesis. But a list of all relevant factors would be rather long...

Basically, our eyes and brain are not precision instruments - lots of things can (and do) go wrong with our perception and identification of objects.


All the best,

Isaac

It does move around, everything does.

The planets though have very different paths to the stars... So lets just make something up here, say you go for a smoke out by your back door at more or less the same time every evening, but then your pattern is changed, you went away for 2 weeks on work or a holiday... - Now when you get back into your routine, you glance up and there is a very bright, maybe slightly orangey star low in the sky... Well that's odd you think to your self, by the time you have downed some jack danels and got your useless youtube clip up it's time to load your shotgun and brush your tooth, and Obama wanted to take yer guns, it's Independence day YeeeeHaww!

Also something low and bright in the sky, if it takes you by surprise can seem to have un natural movements... It's because your mind can try to put it into perspective with fixed objects like trees and the trailer, and don't forget all that Jack! - Now maybe a cloud blocks the view, that could make it re appear a few times - it is quite easy to see how so many people get caught out - but if you have an internet connection and some idea of your relation to the cardinal points there should be no excuse for jumping the gun.

IDK...a few weeks ago, as i was going to bed, i looked out the window, and thought for sure i was seeing another UFO....//it was flashing...disappearing, and reappearing......it looked very strange and bright.

before jumping to conclusions i checked stellarium and yeah, it was just venus

being an avid sky watcher, i'd never seen venus look like that......

i can understand the initial mistake....

(whispy clouds that i could not see were making the planet look like it was flashing etc.)

be good

Originally posted by ReaverTheBeliever
I've heard Venus used as an explanation for UFO sightings millions of times. But I can't for the life of me figure out how someone could be dumb enough to make this mistake.

Venus stays stationary, right? It doesn't move around any? And it doesn't pop out at you like a 3-D movie right? Getting closer and closer as to appear as if it's moving towards you?

Also, from what I understand, Venus just looks like a slightly brighter star. Not humongous but just a few shades brighter than all the other stars?

So if it doesn't move up down left or right. If it doesn't move towards you. And it's only a moderately brighter version of a star, explain to me why people would think it's a UFO.

Or is this just one of those situations where governments use it as an easy excuse? Has anyone here mistaken Venus for a UFO? Can you explain to me how?

edit on 22-12-2010 by ReaverTheBeliever because: deleted "that" in first sentence

Whenever I hear an "expert" give Venus as an excuse for a UFO sighting it makes me laugh and wish I was face to face with the anal cavity that spews that b.s. Venus vs. stars is the same thing, a star is seen to blink because of the atmospheric disturbance and Venus doesn't blink but they're still on the same magnitude as far as mistaking either one for a stationary UFO. The best bet is not to report any nightime sightings unless the light moved or made zig-zag type movements. Then you know damn well that it's not a celestial body. Only daylight sightings should be given any weight if the object is clear enough to separate it from mundane human craft. And we know how many nighttime airplanes have been reported as UFOs because they're approaching the witness so they seem to be hovering.

reply to post by hhcore


Or some damn good drugs....
Op I all ways was baffled by this too, but always though maybe I was missing some critical piece of info that only top notch nut jobs knew about.

Ask the US Air Force... it seems to believe the mistake happens all of the time!

When you see it during the day, Venus is very easy to recognize as Venus. Hell, you can't miss it shining in the day sky. It had been quite some time since I had seen it though until a few weeks back. Maybe 5 in the morning, had to get up to use the bathroom. Take a peek out the window and there it is. Double checked the next day after work, could have been Jupiter maybe, but it was Venus.

So yes, the Venus explanation for UFOs is largely D-bunker BS.

Venus, balloons, little lights in the sky, a quiet air plane.
to me it's all the same.
If it's not a big arse triangle or saucer, cylinder, cigar shape hovering over your head, it's as good a venus to me.

It's really not that hard to do. Venus can be very bright and as others noted autokinesis can make it appear to move around. Heck, even ex-Navy officer Jimmy Carter filed a UFO report on Venus. As a MUFON SSD I investigated two cases of Venus misidentification. One woman refused to believe it was Venus even after I brought her a printed sky chart of the sky from her backyard at the exact time of her sighting. Most people rarely look at the sky at all and have next to no knowledge about what does and doesn't belong there.

reply to post by ReaverTheBeliever


Its just called Venus some days when they are outta swamp gas......

in specific lightning conditions people do not expect to see something in the skies.

these conditions often allow to see a bright planet Venus standing above the horizon maybe with some halo around it and people get very excited to have seen an UFO. They do not think about other planets or even stars they just see something which is hoovering above the ground, which does not move and is definedly brighter than some airplane.

channelizing this sighting may bring up another UFO report, and -HEY- 100 other people saw it too.

Originally posted by tezzajw
Ask the US Air Force... it seems to believe the mistake happens all of the time!

Tezzajw, it sure does and there are so many examples at this thread that it's almost laughable - perhaps some people just mindlessly accept these UFO explanations because that is what they want to believe.

Here's a good quote about Venus taken from one of the police officers involved in the Portage County incident :

"I've seen Venus many times, but I never saw Venus 50 feet above a road and moving from side to side like this was..."

Portage County Sheriff Ross Dustman to United Press International.

Cheers.




reply to post by ReaverTheBeliever


ReaverTheBeliever, great thread.

People mistake tin lids as UFO's, Venus is an amazing step up for those sorts of folk...

At least they picked on something not of our world

reply to post by UFO Partisan

So yes, the Venus explanation for UFOs is largely D-bunker BS.

No, it isn't.

Every time Venus, or for that matter Jupiter or some other celestial object becomes brighter than normal, youtube and ATS becomes inundated with "UFO videos", my favourite are the diamond shaped ones, from when they've zoomed in too much with the old digital zoom.

Fact is, A LOT of people mistake Venus (or other bright celestial objects) for something else. Hell I though Jupiter was chasing me one night, it sat on my 3 o'clock for nearly two hours whilst driving home.

At least they're no longer saying weather balloons.

Weird story that goes with this topic..

The other day I was waiting to watch the lunar eclipse and the sky was clear, I noticed a very bright star and assumed that because it stayed stationary and I was looking at it through the top of tree branches..

Well I watched it for at least 10 min and sometimes it seemed to move very slightly but thought it might of been the tiny tree branches moving and making it seem like it was moving or I was just staring at it too long and my eyes were playing tricks on me lol..

I went back down stairs to read some more posts for about 20min and decided to go back up and check the status of the moon .. To my surprise this star or object was completely gone and could no longer track it in the sky..

I watched it not move for ten min and 20 min later it was gone.. Have no idea what might of happen here..

Originally posted by Chadwickus
Fact is, A LOT of people mistake Venus (or other bright celestial objects) for something else. Hell I though Jupiter was chasing me one night, it sat on my 3 o'clock for nearly two hours whilst driving home.

I was running a 50' yacht from Galveston, TX to Ft. Lauderdale, FL when a crew member got me up because, "Something's coming up behind us". It was the middle of the night and we were in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico so I thought this was unlikely. What's more I had only been in bed about an hour and was dog tired. Anyway, I got up and went up to the flying bridge and sure enough there was a big white light behind us on the horizon. I went below to the wheelhouse and tried to see it on the radar, with no luck. I called out our position on VHF channel 16 and requested a response from the vessel behind us and heard nothing back. I went back to the flying bridge and watched it some more. We were in 6-8' seas so the boat was moving around some. In the binoculars there was just the white light with no red and green running lights below it. Finally I concluded it was a star, or more likely a planet, and went back to bed telling them to come get me if it really was a ship. Over the next couple of hours they watched it rise higher in the sky until there was no doubt it was a celestial object. At least they let me sleep in late the next morning.