Just had a sighting - UFO "dimmed out".

I don't typically post, but I'm somewhat excited over seeing what I just saw.

I was waking my daughter to the bus stop so she can take the bus to school. It's still dark outside as we walked part of some apartments in our apartment complex. My daughter exclaims, "Look daddy at that star!". I glance up and see a large white "orb" next to a "regular" star. A second or two passes as I'm standing there looking and all of the sudden it starts to dim. My eyebrow is now raised in wonder and I can just make out a small pin light where this orb was located. It started moving directly to the right towards the other star and then directly upwards at a 90 degree angle before dimming completely out.

The time this happened was 7:38am in Norway (I won't disclose where, sorry). Here's a recreation I made of the event in Photoshop to give you a better understanding of what I saw, what happened and how it moved.


(Right click - View image for a better look.)

Since I have no evidence, It will remain a personal experience. I'm not sure if this U.F.O. is of E.T. origin or not, but I've spent enough time around aircraft and helicopters (which was my first thought, a helicopter with it's spotlight on) to know this wasn't that.

Just wanted to share a neat experience.

First of all, thanks for the well detailed sighting report. Excellent work. One thing you didn't mention was the duration of the sighting and how long it took the light you saw to travel. Also was the travel in one fluid movement or did it appear to stop?

Also you mentioned you're in Norway. Are you near Hessdalen by any chance?

I Have no comment on the apparent 90 degree turn.

As to things in the sky dimming, well, that's typical of satellites falling into the Earth's shadow.

More than that, I leave your observation to speculation.

AliceBleachWhite

I Have no comment on the apparent 90 degree turn.

As to things in the sky dimming, well, that's typical of satellites falling into the Earth's shadow.

More than that, I leave your observation to speculation.

That's why I asked about the motion and duration.

I have seen the exact same thing before! But in Australia thanks for sharing

I'm far away from the Hessedalen phenomenon. The sighting lasted for about seven(ish) seconds so not a long experience, but long enough to leave me with a "WTF" look on my face.

As for satellites, doubtful. Living where I do provides me with a sky with very little light pollution. One thing I used to love doing was go out back with an ice tea and stare into space at night (Better than TV!). I could see everything from planes to satellites. I don't think people are fully comprehending the size of the "orb". Take a look at the illustration above as it's identical to what I saw with my own two eyes.

To go into further detail, the light orb stood perfectly still leading me to first think it was a planet. After about three to four seconds of staring, it dimmed out like you would dim a light bulb with a dimmer dial. I could barely make out a little light where the big orb was. It then proceeded to move right towards the other star, stop and make a 90 degree turn upwards. I've never seen a satellite do this. (And I have witness satellite shimmering you speak of prior. This was nothing like that.)

The light was from what I recall nearly perfectly round. I could see where the light "stopped" and the darkness around it begin. There was a slight halo around the light (as I tried to portray). The light was steady all the way until it dimmed. So for four(ish) whole seconds It just stood there.

On my way back from the bus stop, I had my phone recording in my hand in case it would appear again. Unfortunately it did not. That's how strange it felt to me.

Thanks for sharing your UFO experience.

It appears you are intelligent enough to have considered other possibilities before posting and your succinct explanation and diagram are commendable.

Perhaps you could compare the exact area at the same time tomorrow and other times during the day, for a week to see if there is anything reoccurring, perhaps you have already considered this but it would provide further information as to whether this is an anomaly, which it sounds like it is.

reply to post by theabsolutetruth


This is right down the street from me, maybe 150 feet away. I see the top of the apartments on that block when I look out my master bedroom window. I'm quite aware of whats in that area of sky, in fact the big dipper isn't too far away from the area. (A little to the right I believe.)

But good idea none the less Absolute.

I'll find a map of the stars later today/tonight and affix it over the graphic I posted above to give everyone a good idea of where in the sky I saw this. I like everyone's comments and appreciate the input. The more I think about it, the more the 90 degree turn bugs me. I've not seen anything do that. I like the theory of it being nothing more than just a satellite, but the sheer size of the "orb" rules that out.

reply to post by Auricom

The time this happened was 7:38am in Norway (I won't disclose where, sorry).

Nearby Hessdalen, maybe...?

About 18 months ago I witnessed something very similar: I went outside my house to greet a group of relatives who just left (oddly enough, I was talking about stars and telescopes to my nephew just few minutes before). I watched the dark sky and I said to myself "wow very clear sky, stars are very bright tonight" because there was a group of 3 apparent stars bright more or less as Jupiter and at the very first moment I thought they were three of the Cassiopea stars...then all of a sudden these three shiny stars started to fade out and I yelled "WTF"...I didn't even finish to yell when the three bright stars dimmed out totally...vanished. I was quite impressed, same as my nephew (10 years old) who was watching with me. I didn't have time to take my phone and try to film all this. I was so disappointed it lasted only about 10 seconds.
I was in South Holland, not far from Rotterdam.

Auricom
I like the theory of it being nothing more than just a satellite, but the sheer size of the "orb" rules that out.

The ISS (space station) could appear VERY bright in the sky, and so could Iridium satellites (i.e., "Iridium Flares"). They could be the rightest objects in the night sky, other than the Moon. Plus, both the ISS and Iridium satellites can appear to fade out as their angle of reflection with the Sun changes...

...However, that does not explain the "turn" you say the light took.

reply to post by Shana91aus


Me too. About a week before christmas last month I was standing outside my apt getting some air around 3am and was looking up at the stars. This was in the santa monica area of los angeles It was a cloudless night and there was no wind. I saw at what I thought was only a few thousand feet up a fuzzy/blurry (like a bright light in the fog, but on a cloudless night) star that was about the size of venus was to the north and it would fade out, then flare up brightly and descend for a second or so what appeared to be about 200 foot in altitude and then bob back up and disappear. Then in the exact same place it would do the same thing again. It did it a few times then completely vanished. There was nothing around the object in the sky including aircraft.

It reminds me a lot of what you and the op posted. A friend of mine who lives a few blocks a way in the same neighborhood said he watched the exact same thing happen in the exact same area of the sky two years earlier. I frequently go outside early in the morning to watch the stars as it relaxes me. I do this several times a week sometimes and have never seen this happen before.

Probably just a chinese 'party lantern' and/or a local boy scout troup doing a science experiment with LEDs and Balloons.

Auricom
I don't typically post, but I'm somewhat excited over seeing what I just saw.

I was waking my daughter to the bus stop so she can take the bus to school. It's still dark outside as we walked part of some apartments in our apartment complex. My daughter exclaims, "Look daddy at that star!". I glance up and see a large white "orb" next to a "regular" star. A second or two passes as I'm standing there looking and all of the sudden it starts to dim. My eyebrow is now raised in wonder and I can just make out a small pin light where this orb was located. It started moving directly to the right towards the other star and then directly upwards at a 90 degree angle before dimming completely out.

The time this happened was 7:38am in Norway (I won't disclose where, sorry). Here's a recreation I made of the event in Photoshop to give you a better understanding of what I saw, what happened and how it moved.

(Right click - View image for a better look.)

Since I have no evidence, It will remain a personal experience. I'm not sure if this U.F.O. is of E.T. origin or not, but I've spent enough time around aircraft and helicopters (which was my first thought, a helicopter with it's spotlight on) to know this wasn't that.

Just wanted to share a neat experience.

edit on 9-1-2014 by Auricom because: Edited for clearification.

reply to post by Auricom


Thank you for your thoughts and work put together in your thread. Were there any reports on this at MUFON?

reply to post by Auricom


Thank you everyone for your input. I appreciate it. I'm not sure how to check Mufon, but thanks for the suggestion. If I can figure it out, I'll give it a go.

After re-reading my posts and taking a look at the image I feel I wasn't too clear. It was early and I was excited. So let me point out a few things.

In the image in my original post, you'll see two circles of light. One large (left) and one quite small (right). There are two square red boxes, one detailing how the large white orb dimmed out. If you look very closely to the left at the end of the scale you'll see a small circle. That's basically what I saw once it dimmed out. The other red square isn't a highlight of anything in the sky, but rather a snipped of how the large white orb moved once it dimmed from the position shown on the left side of the image next to the little "regular" star.

The large white orb is what I saw. The little prick of light directly to the right is a stationary star that this orb was next to. As you can see, there's quite a difference in the sizing of the two. Naturally earlier this morning when I saw it I was trying to find a mundane explanation, but when I look back I realize that it was truly far too large to be a planet, star or even a plane. In fact, in mid 2012 an elderly man disappeared in this area which lead a police helicopter to go looking for him. The police helicopter buzzed my apartment several times with the spotlight on full about 100 or so feet above me.

With that in mind, I can't compare the polices spotlight to this orb in either size or intensity. I'd also like to point out that I'm not 100% sure how long this all lasted. It felt both quick and slow at the same time for me so I'm only surmising the entire experience lasted for about six to seven seconds from start to finish. It could have been longer or shorter.

Due to all of this, I'm chalking this up to a neat personal experience. If I was absolutely certain that what I saw was of E.T. origin I would report it to Mufon. Whatever it is was created by someone's hands. (I.e., not natural.) It wasn't a satellite as they're no bigger than a prick of light in the night sky and are often seen above. I'm starting to feel like that Ancient Aliens guy with the meme "I'm not saying it's aliens, but it's aliens". I just can't for the life of me consider a plausible explanation. I have a military background, I've used signal flares, been on and around various aircraft, so I know what these all look like.

I really wish another person was there with me and my child when we experienced this.

Everything else says chinese lanters/balloons/flares, but not the 90 degree turn. And by the way, its hard to know for sure when object is going "up". In picture it seems it was coming towards you. Satellites dim out when they are going to Earth's shadow, but it never goes to shadow if its going up.

Skywatcher2011
reply to post by Auricom

 

Thank you for your thoughts and work put together in your thread. Were there any reports on this at MUFON?

You would be as well telling Ronald McDonald than that bunch of clowns!

reply to post by Auricom


Mufon reporting form

Reports received at Mufon from 7/1/14 - 9/1/14 (UK style date).

I doubt many in Norway have heard of Mufon but here's the report anyway. I also think probably at least 90% of people that have seen such things didn't report it anywhere.

Mufon might not be all that credible but I guess at least it's a public database. The more people that report these things and the more professional places readily available for reporting will give a much clearer picture of actual events, real time, worldwide. This would be such a good thing, perhaps ATS could be instrumental in the formation of such a provision.

Well, first of all great description and depiction of your sighting!
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