Sept 22 2012 Melbourne UFO sighting. What did I really see?

Before I get into it, I just want to clarify that the "glowing ufo" lights that were witnessed in Melbourne on the same night as my story, is currently being discussed in this thread: ATS THREAD.

However, what I saw happened hours after the time-frame reported in the news, and I saw no flashing lights as was described in the article whatsoever.

I'd really appreciate your opinions on what it could be that I witnessed. Unfortunately, I have no video/photos of the incident as it happened too quick for me to grab my camera. Sorry guys!

Time: Midnight approx.
My Location: Carlton, Melbourne, Australia.
Object Location: CBD/Southbank, Melbourne, Australia.

I walked outside to the balcony of my girlfriend's 3rd story apartment to have a cigarette. The balcony overviews the CBD, and Southbank direction. I looked to my left just casually observing the sky, but when I turned to my right, I saw something about the average size of a 4 door sedan speeding across the sky (moving from the right side of the sky to the left).

It didn't glow, and it had no flashing lights.
It made no sound whatsoever.
It wasn't metallic looking.
It looked like it had a matte-grey hue to it.
The shape of the object resembled that of an egg.

The flight pattern was very irregular. It changed it's direction and speed at an alarmingly fast rate.

At first it was traveling at an extremely fast pace in a straight line. Then it began to slow while increasing it's altitude. Just as it was coming into the path of the moon, it curved downwards and flew beneath my line of view of the moon (which allowed me to see the top of the object as more light reflected off it). It then slowed it's speed down, before turning 45degrees and shooting down in a straight line towards the ground at an incredible speed.

It was definitely too big to be a bird, and the shape of the object doesn't match up either.
The size and the speed of the object really has me stumped.

Any thoughts on what it was I may have seen? I'm not claiming "little green men", but it was certainly a flying object I cannot identify for the life of me.

Happy for you S & F

I think 7/10 probability is a UFO
Ya thing are heating up

I'll be so bold as to state that what the OP saw was indeed a U.F.O. (Unidentified Flying Object) but as they stated themselves, they didn't believe it to be "little green men". So yes to U.F.O. but no to aliens ( well at least at this point)

Thanks sharing OP.

Congrats on seeing something in the sky

My thoughts: could it have been a blimp?

reply to post by violet


Due to the size, speed, and erratic movements of the object I saw, I'm convinced it wasn't a blimp.

A giant bird high on energy drinks having a heart attack mid flight?

The fact that it dropped straight down (no curve in it's descent at all, just 45 degree change in direction) after traveling at the speed it did, really throws me.

I was wondering how you were able to calculate the size to be as big as you say from such a distance?

reply to post by InhaleExhale


It was moving very close to buildings in my line of sight, and was in focus. Similar to looking out the window and seeing a car parked down the street, you can gauge the size of the object.

Originally posted by Noinoi
reply to post by InhaleExhale

 

It was moving very close to buildings in my line of sight, and was in focus. Similar to looking out the window and seeing a car parked down the street, you can gauge the size of the object.

You said that you were on a balcony in Carlton and this thing was over the CBD or Southbank, thats at least 1-4km depending, so I cant see that as being similar to looking out a window and seeing a car down the street.

The fact that a numerous amount of the buildings in Melbourne have some sort of illumination on their roofs and the high numbers of seagulls and others birds flying around the city I would suspect you misidentified a bird as they can very quickly change direction and if ones mind has the impression that the size of the object is larger than it actually is it would seem to move extremely quick.

Not doubting what you saw, just trying to keep you down to earth as it seems from your OP that you very simply dismissed more mundane explanations in favor of the unknown before really thinking it through.

Keep viewing the skies

Breaks my heart that I live on the corner of Lygon and Queensberry street and did not get a glimps of this object.

My opinion is that as much as there is a possibility of mis identifying an object due to lights on tops of buildings and seagulls etc it would also be very possible to identify an odd occurrence as I personally have a roof top decking and have been able to properly identify planes, helicopters, birds, fireworks.

Once again I'm so disappointed I missed this

InhaleExhale:

Yeah, I assumed it was a bird at first too, but due to the size of the object disappearing behind buildings quite a distance away, and the fact it was in focus (plus no signs of wings in any shape or form) made me re-think that explanation. Obviously I'm not counting that option out, but it doesn't seem like the most likely one to me.

The part that's doing my head in, is the erratic flight path, speed, and size. Especially when the moonlight lit up the surface of the object for me to get a good look.

You may very well be right about it being a bird, but I would have expected to see some wing movement considering it's behavior.

Mark_Frost:

Yeah I was basically on the cnr of Drummond st and Queensbury st. It happened quite late. Don't feel too bad though. I missed seeing any of the blinking/flashing lights everyone apparently saw.

Hi Noinoi,

Firstly, what surprises me is that we have +3 peeps interested in UFO phenomena who all live in that tiny area of Carlton! Well, i used to live on the cnr of Queensberry and Lygon about a year ago

It certainly is an odd sighting you had.

There was alot of things flying around in the sky that night. My sister, who lives in Carlton, also saw a bunch of orange lights flying through the sky. I suspect they were Chinese lanterns frrom the way she described them. I saw the "LED UFO" over the Carlton Gardens, as I described in the other thread. And now you're saying you saw an oval matte grey UFO flying erratically.

Well, it was a big AFL night on that night, and lots of people were out, so I am certain that that had lots to do with the chinese lanterns and maybe even the glowing LED UFO?

As for your sighting, I have no idea.

One thing that I will entertain, is weather balloons. Yeah, i know However, I have seen weather balloons in that area of Carlton before, not the huge ones, but sizable ones nonetheless. Maybe the size of a car, but it is hard to judge from a distance. Could it have been possible that it was a weather balloon that was descending and flying erratically in the wind? Erratic winds at higher altitude really can throw balloons and other objects around at almighty speeds.

If it was matte-grey then how did you see it in the midnight sky? Was it low enough for city lights to reflect of it? Or could you make out a sillohette against the general light ambience of the city?

I would also like to add that there are many helicopters (private) that fly through the area late at night that go to the Crown Casino. (Japanese/Chinese) gamblers who fly in.

My only ever sighting in the area, which had me baffled for a good 30 minutes ended up being a military helicopter that sat stationary in the air for a good 30 minutes.

I still have no idea why a military helicopter would be around the Carlton area, but with that being said I really thought I had spotted something special for a second.

My point is there is a lot of activity around the area, still you just never know!

reply to post by Noinoi


Wasnt at about 10:45ish heading in an east bound direction was it? (East bound from the city)