Just saw the CRAZIEST thing in the sky over Houston!!

Originally posted by SeenAlot
reply to post by My.mind.is.mine

 

I found 2 more links on a topic that makes me a bit nervous (as I said, we are neighbors)

www2.gi.alaska.edu...

motoji-ikeya.jpn.cx...

Curious. Hope we don't get shook...

earthquakes down here? when was the last one??

OP, there was another weird sighting in Texas City on Saturday seen by many people. I would start a thread about the sighting, but unfortunately I don't know much. The witnesses seem to be telling their friends but they aren't reporting it to any central repository like MUFON. Apparently the same formation of 5 red/orange lights was seen in Ohio and Virginia that same evening (if you query MUFON for 4/7/12).

I wonder how many people saw your UFO and never bothered to report it? MUFON needs an advertising campaign to educate people.

Originally posted by My.mind.is.mine

Originally posted by SeenAlot
reply to post by My.mind.is.mine

 

I found 2 more links on a topic that makes me a bit nervous (as I said, we are neighbors)

www2.gi.alaska.edu...

motoji-ikeya.jpn.cx...

Curious. Hope we don't get shook...

earthquakes down here? when was the last one??


I realize that two 5.0 in the last 100 years hard makes a earthquake worthy news to some. However, the Gulf of both Mexico, and Baja areas are getting repeatedly bombarded. Y quakes that statistically do not happen. Just not interested in my sociological crowd being armed and confused.

Don't be sarcastic, it isn't necessary. My point was a potential solution lights that were seen. And a personal note. One sentence. Sit. Stay. I will tell you when you may be rude

Originally posted by Arrowmancer
Erm, imma have to go with a lower-altitutde event. I was stargazing nearly the whole night with a friend up by Bush. I set up my olympus with a wide-angle lens and took a picture every two minutes to create a time-lapse video. Nothing on my images and neither of us saw anything unusual in any direction other than the occasional shooting star.... Whatever it was, we didn't see it by 1960.

According to the OP you wouldn't have caught it if you were taking pics every 2 minutes!! The OP states it only lasted a few seconds MAX.....So your odds of catching it within that timeframe are Ultra slim to None.....

OP.....I think it would even be hard to catch again on camera if it was only a couple seconds long!! By the time you even focus and snap the picture it would be gone again!! You would need a video camera set up, screw the camera!

Originally posted by My.mind.is.mine
I've seen plenty of meteors, and shooting stars, to know that this was definitely not a shooting star, and more than likely not a meteor..

I'm still trying to figure out if it looked natural, or like some weird technology.

With all due respect, and whilst you may be right (without seeing it myself, it's impossible to be sure) it's not uncommon for people to misidentify bright meteors. I've seen it many, many times in the last 14-15 years I have been reading reports and an active meteor observer myself.

A bright meteor or "fireball" often has very different characteristics compared to most "normal" meteors, and most people have little or no experience with them, although they may well have seen "normal" meteors as you have.

Can you describe any characteristics that you observed that were not meteor-like?

You seem to be most baffled by the "bright trail of light" the meteor left behind it, but this is actually quite a common phenomenon that is seen when a bright fireball is observed. You see, when a meteoroid enters our atmosphere, high speed collisions with air molecules create a glowing cloud of plasma around the meteoroid, which is what we are seeing when we see a meteor.

The same plasma also forms the "trail of light" left behind the meteor, otherwise known as a persistent long-duraton meteor train if it lasts more than 3 seconds. They can last much longer in some cases.

One particular fireball I saw a few years back, which must have been brighter than the full moon, left a persistent train so bright, it looked like the sky had been "torn open", and daylight was streaming through the tear, which then sealed itself up completely after 5-10 seconds. I'm fairly sure I'd have been as perplexed as you are, had I not had any previous experience, and been able to identify it as a member of the annual Perseid meteor shower.

Whilst every fireball is unique and different, perhaps this one which left a bright persistent train resembles the meteor/train that you saw, minus the flares/flashes, and significantly slower moving from the sound of your description.



Here's a meteor compilation with more examples


A "shooting star" is an informal name for a "meteor" by the way. They are the same thing.

If you could confirm the time when the event took place, I'll be more than happy to check if any fireball reports were made in the area at that time.

Originally posted by Chrisfishenstein
According to the OP you wouldn't have caught it if you were taking pics every 2 minutes!! The OP states it only lasted a few seconds MAX.....So your odds of catching it within that timeframe are Ultra slim to None.....

OP.....I think it would even be hard to catch again on camera if it was only a couple seconds long!! By the time you even focus and snap the picture it would be gone again!! You would need a video camera set up, screw the camera!

Whilst I agree that Arrowmancer would be unlikely to catch anything if he/she was only taking exposures of a few seconds length, it is possible that much longer exposures were being used - up to 2 minutes is easily possible when photographing the stars with a slow/stopped down lens and/or using a low ISO. As far as I know, Olympus is not known for having any particularly fast wide angle lenses in their line up.

However, even with a relatively wide angle lens, the vast majority of sky would be out of shot, which would be the main reason why a meteor was not caught on camera in my opinion as someone who has been photographing meteors for nearly 15 years, using up to 5 cameras with wide-angle lenses

It's possible Arrowmancer & friend might have taken their eyes off the sky long enough to miss the meteor, so I'd agree that meteor should not be ruled out simply because of that.

Oh, you haven't seen the best yet!! Many strange things have and will occur.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by Human_Alien

 

I've been seeing weird things in the sky 3-4 times per week. My Mom and Dad noticed it first, and it took a while before they were finally able to get me to notice one. They stand outside and smoke when they are visiting, but I'm usually in and out very quickly, and what they saw takes some patience to see.

Anyway, a very dim star will travel across the sky slower than an aircraft. It could easily be a satellite, but sometimes it happens in the dead of the night when a satellite wouldn't be reflecting. Anyway, it can't be a satellite, because sometimes they stop, they might stay stopped for 5 minutes or more, and then begin moving again, or they might make a 90 degree turn and go slowly in a totally different direction, or they might just stay there until I run out of patience. It is very odd. You can watch one traverse half the sky, and then stop, and then move again a little later in a different direction. They are dim, and move slowly, definitely not bugs or meteorites. I've tried to take video with several different cameras, but it is just too dim and the brighter stars wash it out.

Anyhow, if anyone else wants to see it, I go outside, usually after 11 p.m., look in the generally straight overhead, and watch patiently. You'll see many aircraft come and go, but eventually you will see a dim star move slowly across the sky, and if you watch it long enough it will do something odd. Sometimes they just traverse the whole sky, and that is disappointing if you've been watching for 15-20 minutes, but it is still curious, but at least 3 or 4 times per week one will stop or turn and really blow your mind. I can't think of a single logical explanation for it.

Saw that in Atlanta last year. At first you think, "Nah". Then your like, "$#!t, that's really moving"

I saw it a few times, I have no idea what to make of it. I've heard satellites and such, but that is not what they are.

Very interesting OP, I saw something very similar the Thursday before last. I was sittting in my hot tub looking toward the South East, and I saw a circle(it looked like the end of a pencil eraser) of green the size of Venus, and it made a straight line across the sky, then it stopped and then the whole thing disappeared. It had a very surreal look to it(the line it made was perfectly straight, with no bleeding of color). Anyway's I had my stepdad come over two days later with his fancy smansy telephoto lenses and camera to try to get it again, with no such look.I have seen plenty of meteor's in real life and on countless video's, and nothing I have seen looks even close to that.

The funny thing is that the reason I was out in the tub stargazing in the first place was because a week prior to that sighting I had seen some visual anomaly's three or four different times while outside relaxing. What I saw was a flash of white light that lasted for a second maybe, the light brightness would come up and down, reminding me of the flash of a light house seen from miles away. It would happen every fifteen minutes in roughly the same spot, so I had my wife come out to make sure I wasn't losing it and sure enough she verified what I was seeing.

I had her bring out my hd video camera, but I don't think the light sensor is good enough to pick it up cause I thought I got it a couple different times, and while watching it back on the tv it was just black.

Originally posted by jaws1975
I have seen plenty of meteor's in real life and on countless video's, and nothing I have seen looks even close to that.

Just because you have not come across another example, does not mean that what you saw was not a meteor.

Having seen many thousands of meteors myself, and watched hundreds of videos, I would have to say that there are many meteors that I have observed that do not look like any footage out there.

Not to mention that seeing a meteor or fireball in real life looks nothing like it does on camera in many cases

I'll ask you the same question I asked the OP - what characteristics would you describe as being non-meteor like?

reply to post by consigliere


Well, saying that something is just a satellite or meteor is just convenient. Human nature.

Huge Meteor flew over South Florida tonight, southwest towards northeast.
It was so awesome I totally didn't even think about grabbing the camera...sorry.

reply to post by cloudyday


Hello to all my fellow Southeast Texans!

Here is a thread I just started a little while ago about that very incident:

Mysterious red objects in sky captured on video

This does not sound at all like what the OP experienced and I must admit that his sounds more unnatural than what is in my thread.

Originally posted by cloudyday
OP, there was another weird sighting in Texas City on Saturday seen by many people. I would start a thread about the sighting, but unfortunately I don't know much. The witnesses seem to be telling their friends but they aren't reporting it to any central repository like MUFON. Apparently the same formation of 5 red/orange lights was seen in Ohio and Virginia that same evening (if you query MUFON for 4/7/12).

I wonder how many people saw your UFO and never bothered to report it? MUFON needs an advertising campaign to educate people.

Honestly, we thought about calling the police... But decided against it for the obvious reasons..

Texas city is a little bit further east than where I saw this. And I really mean a LITTLE bit. Could be related.

Originally posted by Chrisfishenstein

Originally posted by Arrowmancer
Erm, imma have to go with a lower-altitutde event. I was stargazing nearly the whole night with a friend up by Bush. I set up my olympus with a wide-angle lens and took a picture every two minutes to create a time-lapse video. Nothing on my images and neither of us saw anything unusual in any direction other than the occasional shooting star.... Whatever it was, we didn't see it by 1960.

According to the OP you wouldn't have caught it if you were taking pics every 2 minutes!! The OP states it only lasted a few seconds MAX.....So your odds of catching it within that timeframe are Ultra slim to None.....

OP.....I think it would even be hard to catch again on camera if it was only a couple seconds long!! By the time you even focus and snap the picture it would be gone again!! You would need a video camera set up, screw the camera!

I'm wondering if there is a web cam or something that I could look at a past date on. I remember the time and position very well. Just need the archive.

Originally posted by consigliere

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by Human_Alien

 

I've been seeing weird things in the sky 3-4 times per week. My Mom and Dad noticed it first, and it took a while before they were finally able to get me to notice one. They stand outside and smoke when they are visiting, but I'm usually in and out very quickly, and what they saw takes some patience to see.

Anyway, a very dim star will travel across the sky slower than an aircraft. It could easily be a satellite, but sometimes it happens in the dead of the night when a satellite wouldn't be reflecting. Anyway, it can't be a satellite, because sometimes they stop, they might stay stopped for 5 minutes or more, and then begin moving again, or they might make a 90 degree turn and go slowly in a totally different direction, or they might just stay there until I run out of patience. It is very odd. You can watch one traverse half the sky, and then stop, and then move again a little later in a different direction. They are dim, and move slowly, definitely not bugs or meteorites. I've tried to take video with several different cameras, but it is just too dim and the brighter stars wash it out.

Anyhow, if anyone else wants to see it, I go outside, usually after 11 p.m., look in the generally straight overhead, and watch patiently. You'll see many aircraft come and go, but eventually you will see a dim star move slowly across the sky, and if you watch it long enough it will do something odd. Sometimes they just traverse the whole sky, and that is disappointing if you've been watching for 15-20 minutes, but it is still curious, but at least 3 or 4 times per week one will stop or turn and really blow your mind. I can't think of a single logical explanation for it.

Saw that in Atlanta last year. At first you think, "Nah". Then your like, "$#!t, that's really moving"

I saw it a few times, I have no idea what to make of it. I've heard satellites and such, but that is not what they are.

I just moved back here from Atlanta. While I lived there, I heard the "strange sky sound"... I'm not moving anymore. Weird # is happening.

reply to post by My.mind.is.mine


I heard the sky sound too. i also heard a very large boom, then a bright flash of light (probably a meteor tho).

Yep, strange days indeed

reply to post by My.mind.is.mine


Actually, Texas City is way across Houston from Katy:



I'm closer to Ellington than you are by a lot.

From rereading your post again, it sounds more and more like a bolide.

Originally posted by jadedANDcynical
reply to post by My.mind.is.mine

 

Actually, Texas City is way across Houston from Katy:

I'm closer to Ellington than you are by a lot.

From rereading your post again, it sounds more and more like a bolide.

I'm on my work computer so I can't play with that image, but I was in Mission Bend. So a little further in. However I work on Bay Area Blvd, near Webster. (sucks too, cuz gas is NO CHEAP).

I looked at a few videos of bolides, and read about them. I can't say that what I saw was like that either. I don't think it was natural at all.. That's all I'm gonna say. I hope I can find it on a web cam archive or something..

reply to post by My.mind.is.mine


Still too far across town IMHO. Your work commute is hideous, I used to have to drive from here to 59S & Beltway 8 until I change companies.

Being as I did not witness what you did, I must defer to your insistence that what you saw does not match with known bolide experiences; I was only going by what I could imagine from your description.

Hopefully you'll be able to find a webcam that caught the phenomenon.