Sightings we've had, debunked or not

[toothdust]

I was thinking about starting this thread as a place for people to tell of stories of UFO sightings they have had, and then whether or not they ever figured out what it was. Would be a good resource for people to look through if they have had sightings themselves, and to hear what other unexplained phenomenon has been witnessed by members.

Things like age, location, activity at the time, state of mind, weather, time of day, etc.

I will start.

Age: 19
Location: Lino lakes, MN
Activity: Bonfire
Time: 3AM
Weather: Clear
State of mind: A few beers, alert.

Sighting: This is an easy one. Looking at stars, talking about aliens/UFO's with friends (ironically), see a moving 'star', within a couple seconds brightens by about a thousand times, fades and is gone within a few more seconds.

Conclusion: Satellite reflection of Sun from solar panels most likely.

Next.

Age: 13
Location: Alma, WI (Mississippi river valley, about 7 miles from river)
Time: Afternoon sometime
Activity: Hiking with dad up on a bluff, building a deer stand
Weather: Mostly clear, some haze
State of mind: Sober, alert

Sighting: Dad spots something coming up the valley, REAL low. Slightly reflective, both assume plane. We watch with interest. Object passes over our bluff within about 1/8 mile. Determined by shadow moving over tree tops/ nearby clearings. Both puzzled by the lack of sound that normal plane would make. Object zips over treetops and disappears into next valley. My dad, having been in the air force, said there was no wings or tail on object, to which I agreed. We both described it as a "flying rod".

Conclusion: No idea. Could speculate, but no sure answer.

Bonus: Find out a month later that a neighbor in the area saw the same thing, told my aunt who lives in the area about it, although she called it a "flying pipe". Remains a mystery.

So, it would be interesting to hear other peoples sightings, explainable and unknown alike.

And please, if you have nothing interesting to post, keep snive comments to yourself.

[kleindoofy]

Well, yesterday something flew past my window. I only saw it out of the corner of my eye, so I don't know what it was. I could have been a falling leaf, a bird, a piece of paper, the kid from upstairs, or a spaceship full of hostile aliens who want to colonize the Earth and eat our brains.

As of yet, it's unidentified and it was flying, so it's a UFO.

I've had plenty of sightings. If wanted, I'll describe them. ;)

[timb]

Only one. I was about 17, riding my bicycle. I saw this weird line of lights in the sky. I rode like mad to get nearer... please please beam me up... the lights turned, got closer and finally I could make out what they were saying... Bob Smith Used Auto.

[TobiasTheViking]

Age: 14
Location: Ringsted, Denmark
Activity: Watching the sky
Time: 1AM
Weather: Clear
State of mind: Alert.

Sighting: Some kind of reflecting object, with a burning tail. Looked like a rocket that was so far off that the rocket itself was just a dot, but i could still see the propulsion. Was watching through binoculars. Object appeared to be steady, not moving, for a long time, which i suspect is just because of the distance(or it was coming right for me)

Conclusion: Probably just a comet. also, the alien invasion still hasn't happened, so, unless they have infiltrated earth and are now fluoridating our precious bodily fluids, i think we can feel secure that what i saw was indeed just some celestial object with ice melting off and creating a small tail.

[KaiYeves]

Age: 11
Location: Worcester, Massachusetts.
Activity: Exploring my aunt's house.
Time: Around 9 PM.
Weather: Cold and cloudy. It was a few days before Christmas.
State of mind: Frightened, but alert.

Sighting: I was reading a ghost story that somebody had given me for Christmas in my aunt's house. I suddenly remembered how, as a child, I had believed there was a ghost in the attic of the house, and decided to pretend I was ghost hunting like the people in the book. I found a flashlight and walked up the stairs to the attic and opened the door. I felt really scared and ran back downstairs.

Conclusion: Imagination.

[mugaliens]

Age: 45
Location: Newberg, OR
Activity: Stepping out of Arby's
Time: Around 5 pm.
Weather: Partly cloudy to partly sunny.
State of mind: I already said I was in Oregon. What other state would my mind be in when my body is in Oregon?

Sighting: While walking out of Arby's, I spotted a flash of gold and green down the street. Something in my brain said, "that's not natural," so I proceeded to the edge of the street to get a better look. I never did find out what that green and gold streak was, but I could easily see where it landed.

It landed in the parking lot of the Honda dealership:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d185/mugaliens/IMG_0183-small.jpg

[toothdust]

Wow thank you so much for all the sarcastic remarks. You can't tell me none of you on this board have never seen anything weird; I've seen it mentioned many times in other threads.

Leave it to scientific dogma to scare people from speaking their minds. Some things rarely change.

Although I got a kick out of KaiYeves post.

[Neverfly]

Leave it to scientific dogma to scare people from speaking their minds. Some things rarely change.


Aww... Grow Up Already...

[Michael Noonan]

Wow thank you so much for all the sarcastic remarks. You can't tell me none of you on this board have never seen anything weird; I've seen it mentioned many times in other threads.



Well they could but that would mean leaving me out. Not sure about Australia but Mufon the Ufo group estimate one in seven people have seen or know someone who has seen something they can't explain.

Age somewhere around 23 - 24
Cloud in clear sky with 15 to twenty bell shaped lights in a slow regular pulse from nil to quite distinct. Assumption some form of ball lighting. Reaction say nothing because at that stage it was considered best practice. Hence no clear idea of exact age but I believe mid afternoon. Wagin Western Australia.

Second one fun and a genuine bottle of port alert.
Time of day well after dark, memory somewhat impaired.
Bright lights moving in the sky low altitude at friends house. Phone call to brother (and unfortunately to air traffic control who put me through to some center for reporting such events and so this is why it is included although within an hour it becomes plainly identified).
Most interesting feature was how quickly younger brother arrived at friends house from time of call. Now a days he is what is known as a non responder (and people doubt that I can teach the skeptics method).
Turns out to be enthusiasts with LED lights sometime in the early nineties and what I saw was a kite shaped like a bus.

Pilots make the best spotters according to the people who document incidents because they rather quickly rule out cases like the second one and go on to enjoy the second bottle of port as perhaps I should have done (or maybe did).

Third case in broad day light high up about 20 degrees from overhead. Time and date not recorded (although I had given up any pretense of being sane by then). Altitude was at high to the point I haven't a clue which is why pilots are good at such things. Motion from southerly at a good clip to a halt and then rapid acceleration to easterly. Orange in color, exact shape of blobish and gone in less than two seconds.

Nature of third incident I have guessed at (because who wouldn't) and you would have to find it in the Mufon forum to see what I said (with the real likelihood of being not much point speculating on either forum).

'Other' incident also on Mufon books but I guess by now I am considered a right nutter (or not nutter enough) or in the Aussie backwaters of the world or so long ago as to make it an unreliable (or usable report).

[Chip]

I saw the Noss Triads once (and posted about it somewhere back in 2006 on the BABB). That was pretty cool. They are satellites appearing to move in formation. Very eerie.
Here's an archival link:
http://www.bautforum.com/archive/index.php/t-40486.html

Before that, years earlier in Phoenix Arizona around 1988, late one night I saw a magnificent silent gigantic winglike object glide majestically over the city. I was able to fumble for some binoculars and on focusing; I saw the leading edge of a formation of geese. The Phoenix city lights illuminated them from below as they winged their way overhead and eventually honked humorously. My mind had simply connected the dim dots of their "V" formation with a little imagination adding the assumed details.

Back in 1988 I was doing some observing with a big Newtonian scope in Northern Arizona outside of the town of Prescott. Don't remember the exact time and date though I initially recorded it because I observed that Ursa Major has an extra star. This was a bit exciting; as there was a chance I was possibly seeing light from a nova somewhere beyond the constellation. However the star began to drift. It seemed to meander through the "bowl" of the dipper and move slowly away from the Big Dipper unlike a satellite, which would move in a straight trajectory across the sky. It then disappeared. A UFO? My explanation was that it was likely an aircraft flying toward me with a light in my direction. The light appeared star-like for a time.

There are other stories, all anecdotal and some much wilder from relatives and friends (including a retired science editor for Encyclopedia Britannica) but I'll save those for later. Anecdotal stories might be fun and entertaining but of little value.

[Tobin Dax]

State of mind: I already said I was in Oregon. What other state would my mind be in when my body is in Oregon?
That's true for me. However, when my body is here is Kentucky, my mind is often in Oregon.


Note to self: At christmas, go to Newburg, look for pot of gold.
Second note: Don't let Mike Alexander beat me to it.

[mugaliens]

Wow thank you so much for all the sarcastic remarks. You can't tell me none of you on this board have never seen anything weird; I've seen it mentioned many times in other threads.

Of course we've seen weird things. Just nothing that couldn't be fully explained by either natural or manmade phenomena.

Leave it to scientific dogma to scare people from speaking their minds.

:shifty:

Some things rarely change.

And some things do.

Although I got a kick out of KaiYeves post.

Why his, while the rest of us are in your proverbial doghouse?

[kleindoofy]

... Leave it to scientific dogma to scare people from speaking their minds. ...

Ok, that's a challenge I can rise to.

Sure, I/we, see things I/we can't readily explain, although somebody surely can.

But, and it's and huge "but," the way some crackpots **automatically** and immediately equate "unexplained" or "unidentified" with psychic phenomena, a "seventh sense," divine will or "aliens" is totally astounding.

(Disclaimer: the following remark is not directed at any member of BAUT, and most certainly not at anybody who posted in this thread.)

As for speaking my mind, ok, here goes: I truly believe that anybody who believes that humans, or even the Earth itself, have or has been or ever will be visited my aliens is not "misgiuded," "gullible," "ill-informed," or whatever politically correct BS one chooses to use for them, I think they are really, really, really, stupid. Incredibly, totally stupid.

Just think about it for a while. Think about the dimensions of space and time that are involved. No, it's not going to happen. Ever.

Those who claim they have been abducted aren't just completely stupid, they're dangerous, potential threats to society, ticking time-bombs of mental-illness.

This opinion of mine is purely personal and is not hampered by any scientific dogma, although I doubt any such thing as a "scientific dogma" exists: that would be a contradition.

[KaiYeves]

Although I got a kick out of KaiYeves post.
Why his, while the rest of us are in your proverbial doghouse?
Hers, and I wasn't trying to be funny, that's just the closest thing to a paranormal experience I've ever had.

[toothdust]

Of course we've seen weird things. Just nothing that couldn't be fully explained by either natural or manmade phenomena.

And some things do.

Why his, while the rest of us are in your proverbial doghouse?

I doubt every person on here has been able to identify everything they have ever seen.

Also, I said some things rarely change, not 'some things never change. In fact I think that all things change, some more often than others.

I was getting a few sarcastic seeming responses. I reread your again and can see where your coming from. Stuff like that happens to me all the time.

The point of starting this thread was to see what kind of sightings the more rational people out there have seen. If I wanted to read every woo account of sightings, I would go to another forum.

Sorry KaiYeves.

[slang]

I don't remember having seen anything defying explanation. I don't like the use of the word 'debunked' for this thread, I think it needlessly suggests that every strange sighting is considered silly or a lie or a claim that needs to be disproved. It sets the "tone" of the thread wrong. "Explained or not" would fit better, I think. (Unless you meant it that way, of course!)

[NEOWatcher]

Age: 42
Location: About 60 miles E of Cleveland/Akron
Activity: Camping
Time: Around 9-10pm, give or take...
Weather: Clear
State of mind: Getting first or second beer for the evening.

Sighting: Didn't know at the time... Iridium flare.

Age: 42
Location: Between Cleveland and Akron
Activity: Outside enjoying the evening
Time: Around 9-10pm, give or take...
Weather: Clear
State of mind: Generally relaxed and getting ready to retire for the day

Sighting: Triangle of about half a dozen blue lights going across the sky.
Conclusion: Blue Angels (or other). It was the day after an airshow.

[mugaliens]

Hers, and I wasn't trying to be funny, that's just the closest thing to a paranormal experience I've ever had.

Oops! Sorry.