UFO over Minneapolis right now.

Originally posted by onlyinmydreams
Speaking of position, I think a NEO would move relative to the observer's point on earth during the day. Think about how the stars and planets move at night... unless this thing was in geosynchronous orbit it (if it really were a celestial object like a NEO) should have moved.

Thanks, I had asked prior as to how long it had been in the same position. If it has been in the same position all day, and into the night, than its either a balloon or something else. I am well aware of the fact that it would have to be in geosynchorious orbit to stay there all day, but the original description was that it was drifting slowly southwestwards.

Why isnt there more media coverage?

Media comes from the Pentagon

I just checked the Star-Tribune's night owl edition....

...and they have a buried story about the 'dot' in the sky:
www.startribune.com...

Of note: Police were calling aviation authorities as well as residents... so some police must have seen it as well.

What time is it there now? Sorry I'm from the UK and it's 10:10am here, I just wondered when I should check back to see if it is still there...

I've taken the liberty of cropping Jammer's picture he took and zooming in on the anomaly, so here you go! :

Hi everyone, I'm new here. Found this interesting topic and thought I might be of some use.

Anakinou, I took your photo (hope you don�t mind! ), made a selection around the object and changed the "levels" (anyone with photoshop can do this).
I then enlarged the image and sharpened it up...

Here's the result:

(notice there are black dots at the bottom... Perhaps windows of some sort..
Might be an upside-down UFO or a "blimp". (which of course probably wasn't , because of those reported heights..)

And the edited image:
img.photobucket.com...

Wish I was in the area to witness this thing.. >.<

[edit on 20-8-2004 by Adregalus]

[edit on 20-8-2004 by Adregalus]

Weather Service meteorologists weren't claiming it.

"It's not ours, either," said meteorologist Rick Hiltbrand.

The Weather Service launches its tan balloons at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily. They are used to record temperature, barometric pressure and humidity.

They can reach heights of 100,000 feet and float for two hours before losing pressure and exploding, Hiltbrand said.

There goes that theroy.

startribune

[edit on 20-8-2004 by Die Trying]

Is it still there today?

Could it be something like this:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Would certainly fit with the shape.

I checked out the shot taken with binoculars and IMO, given the shape of the reflection, I would say it's a hot air baloon or a meteorlogical baloon.

Having said that, the radio station mentioned earlier looked at it through a relatively powerful telescope and confirm it was a baloon, so what exactly are you guys debating now??

Can't find it in the sky this morning. What radio station spoke about it. I haven't heard anything on either tv or radio. Hope someone can come up with an answer.....

If it's not there today then we'll probably never know for sure - though I do remember reading that bit about someone IDing it as a balloon.

I think it's amazing we manage to get any photos at all of the usual quick UFOs though, seeing as we have had virtually none of this relatively stationary object that was present for hours and hours over a city.

Well you remember in the movie "Signs" they only saw the UFO at night cause they have invisibility shields during the day.

WATCH OUT FOR FALLING BIRDS MINNEAPOLIS!!

[edit on 20-8-2004 by deeprivergal]

The local Fox news station just showed the object from yesterday. They said nobody still knows what it is. The FAA has not returned calls, and the airport did not know what it was either. They said they have been getting a lot of calls, but nobody knows what it was. They said everyone will just have to wait.......

Originally posted by Adregalus
Anakinou, I took your photo (hope you don�t mind! ), made a selection around the object and changed the "levels" (anyone with photoshop can do this).

nice work... it does look boxy, like other people had suggested. i'm yet to see a weather balloon that looks like that. it just wouldn't work. as some people said, weather balloons are teardrop shaped.

one thing that bugs me is how the object disappeared as the sun went below the horizon. for the object being up so high it would have been in the sun a lot longer. like in my nifty image below... since it's up higher it would have had much more of a horizon and been in the sunlight a noticeable time longer.

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!! Perhaps the greatest discovery known to man is over the twin cities and no one can get a decent shot of it?!?!?!?! Is it still there? Are there any MN residents here in ATSville that can give us some updates?

Apparently it is no longer over the city/cities, so we may never know. However, many were reporting it on a very slow southerly path, so maybe a course could be plotted using surface wind maps and such (I'm no expert), perhaps it could be searched for along a projected direction of travel?



At this point though, my money is on a UofM science experiment.

As slow as it was reported moving, and assuming it was over the Minneapolis area, wouldn't the people in Apple Valley or Rosemount be able to see it by now? How's the weather there anyway? Cloudy? Clear?

In the Twin Cities area the skies are pretty clear. Baring like looking like a 'kook' I just went out to the parking lot where I work. Scanned the skies for a while, especially looking southward. I don't see anything like I saw yesterday. One of the local meteorologists said it was a research balloon that sits up in the Stratosphere where winds are low. He said it is big enough to fit 3 747's inside of it. Anyone hear of something like that?

Originally posted by Muckwa
He said it is big enough to fit 3 747's inside of it. Anyone hear of something like that?

no, definitely not. weather balloons, when they've expanded to their maximum, are still only about 100 feet in diameter.