I thought all this alien and UFO stuff was a joke but last night.....

reply to post by formerlynormal


Welcome to ATS .
Its a lantern 100%

Total time it lasted was roughly 10 minutes the first 2 ufo's had me so frazzled it wasn't till the flew off into the atmosphere that I had my cell out for the third. Something I didn't mention was the third seemed to come very rapidly from higher up, then you see it recorded here hovering as before my biggest regret was not waiting another minute to see it jettison back into space. That way this whole lantern thing could have been tossed out.

reply to post by formerlynormal

I'm sorry but I know what we saw.

So why title your video UFO?


What was it?

Unless it was national Chinese lantern launching day and lanterns have built in rocket thrusters

Why not the possibility of just another lantern being witnesses a few states over, no rocket thrusters required or a national launching day.


Oh and welcome to the mad house

Those aren't UFOs at all
Sorry
All you saw were some exciting 'ordinary' objects.


Just do the world a favor and delete the video from YouTube maybe?

I know you meant well but then there will be 1 less false UFO video/report in this world to influence other's perspectives thus leading them into fictional expectations of what to look out for

source: self

Considering the speed that it is going, as well as the fact that it's flickering, i think it's safe to say it's a Chinese lantern.

reply to post by formerlynormal


Considering how some have picked up the Chinese lantern story as a way to dismiss your claims, I deeply apologize. What he saw was not a Chinese lantern. I've seen what he saw myself and they are seriously not cool. My intent on sharing that story was a lighthearted attempt to show how much seeing the actual orange lit craft in the sky terrified me. Period. As much as I don't like causing people distress, I kind of hope you "it was a Chinese lantern" people someday see one of these for yourself. The effect of seeing one is chilling. Heck, even the crickets and dogs quieted down when it passed. They didn't like it either.

I think the reason why they get mistaken for being boomerang shaped is because of how they are shaped. The front and sides are thicker than the back portion (think Flight of the Navigator). There was a few daytime sightings of these things where I used to live and they are very, very shiny (like liquid mercury) and tear drop shaped. If I could, I'd draw the shape but even with the close flyby, there was just too much detail missing between the very bright lighting and the darkness. So reverse the klingon ship, flip the v part of it so that it tapers behind and smooth the transition from the v portion to the column so it's more tear drop and that's the closest approximation of what we saw. It was also very massive. The single white dome light was at least 4 feet in diameter. The entire craft was close to the length of a football field but maybe a little smaller.

I spent a lot of time on USAFB as a kid and adult because of my grandfather who was a full bird colonel. Hence why I called them and only did a cursory report to MUFON. I figured that, regardless of it being an experimental craft or something of extraterrestrial nature, my account could be helpful in either way (from canning the experimental pilot or having more information of a possible invader in our airspace lol). When we saw the five in the sky and watched them change formation, that event lasted for 45 minutes. One shot straight up in the sky and disappeared. One landed and another flew off to the south. Flares don't do that nor do Chinese lanterns. Very similar to what you describe. Rest assured, I believe you. The people that are jumping up to dismiss what you witnessed have obviously never seen one of these things and maybe they should.

I've pondered them a lot. I still am unsure as to whether they could be some form of experimental craft. I could see some experimental pilot thinking it'd be a hoot to terrorize the Natives (was living on a rez). God knows, they used to practice bombing runs over that same town. The thing that I have trouble with in regards to that is that there were no traditional navigation lights on it. Another aircraft would have to be blind not to see one of these coming. The other issue against it being an experimental craft is that they have been spotted around the world. Whereas flying in them in the "Native SW" would be somewhat excusable, buzzing them over foreign allies or cities the size of Phoenix (those weren't flares) would not be. Guess that's what makes the unidentified flying objects though, right?

P.S. Out on the rez, they were seen often enough that everyone kind of half jokingly referred to them as "the Tourists" in a mocking of the tourists that would come out to visit the rez. It was such a common usage that when a Fed Ex guy (white guy from a border town) out there walked into the office building that my ex worked in, he told the front desk that "the Tourists were hovering above the building". Everybody knew what he was referring to and scrambled outside to look at it. I used to joke that maybe they were tourists and somewhere on that ship, some teenaged little alien was saying "this trip SUCKS". It's how we all dealt with it. A little humor helps ease the discomfort.

Here's a great video of how fast they can go. There's all sorts of things that go through one's mind when seeing these things in the sky. Then there's that moment where your heart absolutely stops.

reply to post by formerlynormal

my remark about how it looked through my cell camera as spherical

Actually you said Cylindrical...

Originally posted by coastlinekid
reply to post by formerlynormal

 

my remark about how it looked through my cell camera as spherical

Actually you said Cylindrical...

Yes, in the video he said "cylindrical" but in his full post, he said the light was spherical but his wife and he thought it was boomerang shaped. From a distance, these things do look like a spherical orange light in the sky. That should make sense when even a typical aircraft's navigation lights tend to look like 1-2 spherical white lights in the sky. It's when they approach that their true shape becomes a little more clear. Cylindrical would mean having a length behind it. It's not that they are actually changing shape but that, as they draw closer, one can begin to fathom their actual shape as they no longer are simply a spherical orange light in the sky. Watch a plane approach and pass overhead and you'll get how something can go from spherical to cylindrical to a close approximation of the actual shape. You're nitpicking on the way the eyes work even in a normal situation.

Cylindrical would mean having a length behind it.

reply to post by WhiteAlice


Not necessarily, a vertically oriented cylinder extends up and down,... much like a chinese lantern...

just sayin...

Originally posted by coastlinekid

Cylindrical would mean having a length behind it.

reply to post by WhiteAlice

 

Not necessarily, a vertically oriented cylinder extends up and down,... much like a chinese lantern...

just sayin...

I really very much hope that you see one of these someday. They aren't vertically oriented. They are horizontally oriented. If it were a Chinese lantern, that would cause some pretty serious problems through either burning up the paper or extinguishing the flame. Like I said, I really hope you see one of these someday. It's very easy to dismiss such a sighting when you're sitting comfortably at a computer. It's a whole other ball game when you're outside watching these things in action.

reply to post by WhiteAlice


Thank you for your humble response...

I suppose I would like to see what you seem to have such extensive knowledge on, someday...

reply to post by Magister

The fp is for starting a thread in the intro forum

mb you could give yourself a fp too.. for trying to do the job of a mod...

Welcome to ATS..)

reply to post by formerlynormal


I have no doubt you believe this to be something you are not familiar with, and it wouldn't cost much to purchase a chinese lantern, and send it up, and shoot some video of it with the same camera, if only to eliminate or verify if it was one of those....... A lot of people here including myself firmly believe in UFO's and/or Aliens, but we also are 100% sure that hoaxers are hard at work to try and fool us, which makes us very wary and cautious as to what we accept as footage of something lingering around near our planet....anyway thanks for sharing and now I guess it goes into the pile of other similar recordings that really dont betray the truth of what it actually is in our reality..

Welcome to ATS where it's hard to pull the wool over anyone's eyes, not saying you are trying any such thing I'm just letting you know there are lots of knowledgeable people in here.... and very few if any village idiots...

Originally posted by coastlinekid
reply to post by WhiteAlice

 

Thank you for your humble response...

I suppose I would like to see what you seem to have such extensive knowledge on, someday...

While I know you're being facetious, I'd say that no you probably wouldn't like it. I was once just like you until I moved out to "UFO country", throwing out what I thought were plausible alternatives, dismissing the individual's experience, level of intelligence and their observational abilities. I was just like you once until I saw it for myself. It's not a pleasant experience to have what you were so certain of once upon a time get utterly dismantled in a matter of minutes. Then you find that, should you talk about it, you spend the rest of your days talking to people who were just like how you once were yourself at one time. Maybe it's karma. But that's why our new member here is "formerlynormal". While I generally avoid all subjects ufo/alien here (not a huge fan of the subject because there is so much I question about what people present), I'd be a pretty crappy human being not to reach out to somebody to say "I get it and I've been where you're at, too" and to share what I saw in a free exchange of information.

I still have questions about what I saw in those events. All I know is what I've seen. If you want to knock another person's experiences with thinly veiled fallacies, be my guest. Like I said, I hope you see one someday. It's called karma.

Originally posted by purplemer
reply to post by Magister

 

The fp is for starting a thread in the intro forum

mb you could give yourself a fp too.. for trying to do the job of a mod...

Welcome to ATS..)

I did not know expressing one's opinion was the exclusive domain of the mods. Thanks for informing me.

A couple of years back, with a few friends we tested Chinese lanterns and were lucky enough to have a weather split across the city I live in. On our east side of the city the sky was almost clear, the West side of city had a low cloud cover across it with the split in the weather about 300 yards from our position. We lit several lanterns and in still air they go straight up and vanish from view in about 2-3 minutes, we know that as we timed them. They do not at any time "stand still" they are always moving.

By pure coincidence someone at the same time we were testing out lets 4 go from the cloud covered side of the city and they traveled under the cloud cover at almost exactly the same height on the wind until they burned out in 4-5 minutes.

If an object appears to be standing still and its' size does not change then, it is most likely stationary and it is not a Chinese lantern. I'd also point out that, the vast majority of Chinese Lanterns are so small that, if you can see it at all, then anyone with decent vision can , after a few seconds spot the actual yellow of the flame that's powering it.

One of the reasons we did the experiment was because, shortly before it, two orange "orbs" were reported moving North to South across an area of some 20 plus miles. covering Warwickshire and Oxfordshire. The first though was that, they were Chinese Lanterns however, their speed and their duration almost certainly rules that out as, to have covered the distance in the time they did, the wind speed would have been sufficient to have meant they would have almost undoubtedly been destroyed inside a couple of minutes as the canopy would have caught fire. Try launching one in anything other than virtually still air and they are lucky to make 20 feet off the floor and 20 feet sideways before the whole thing goes up in a ball of flames. There's even an episode of the series "Fact or Faked", where you can see exactly that happen to them when they try to launch Chinese Lanterns in a relatively light breeze.

I've never had any patience for lights in the sky since my encounter. That said- I am tired of the new explanation for these things as Chinese Lanterns- *everything* now has to be lanterns, because that's the easy way out.

WhiteAlice, could you draw what you're talking about? Just a line drawing? I am trying to visualize it... and I keep tripping over my brain. :-P Reason is... I want to see if what I saw one night looks like yours at all. the pilot of the one me and my wife saw... he was less a 'tourist', and more of a showoff. He turned on the cockpit light. :-P I'd like to see if it is at least the same shape as the one we saw.

Originally posted by gortex
reply to post by formerlynormal

 

Welcome to ATS .

Its a lantern 100%

I knew you d say something like that. However, skeptics keep the whole debate thing healthly. Hurray for skeptics, they make ats a better place.
Btw OP this Is a great thread. But I would suggest, due to the rules of ATS, id finish this thread and start another in a more appropria.forum. Im really looking forward to your stuff.