OMG I saw a UFO!!11

[Pilot7893]

OK so I was watching the IMAX film "Destiny in space", when during the footage of Endeavour releasing hubble after repairing it, I saw a white dot moving across the sky!It appeared to be moving the same speed as a sattelite from the ground, so it must ahve been orbiting the Earth, but it was going a different direction. My dad says it's just a sattelite or sumfin, but I dunno...

 

[DaveS]

Could just have been ice from the orbiter or a small item that had been released from the orbiter's payload bay. Things constantly come of the orbiter and other spacecraft, like paint flakes, ice small bolts, screws etc.

 

[toodoo213]

must of been another satellite

 

[Coolhand]

lol. yeah these things are usually put down to ice or debris.

There are tons of these things on youtube and so on, you even see them 'manuvering' but thats caused by the shuttle using it's thrusters, moving the ship and its camera, not the object changing course.

 

[Pilot7893]

Yeah, but at least I was the first to spot it

 

[pete.dakota]

It's almost certainly something that has come off of the Orbiter/Hubble launch restraints during release from the payload bay. With no atmosphere for scale, a bolt travelling at 0.5 feet/s 10 meters away from the camera can look like a star careering through the universe at the 0.1c a thousand light years away.

 

[SlyCoopersButt]

One of the most famous recordings of a so called UFO near a shuttle was a perfect example of how ice particles explain many of these things. Because it was blown away just after the thrusters fired. I was shaking my head an awful lot when I saw a UFO hunters episode called the Nasa files. All that I saw on that episode had a logical and natural explanation one way or another. Especially how someone proved there was an optical illusion at play in the tether video.

 

[Deke]

Theeeeeerrrrreeee heeeeeeeeerrrreeee.

 

[ryan]

I was watching some footage on YouTube about the ISS and they looked out a window and you could the bottom of a Soyuz, and someone called out it was a UFO, then some one said it was part of the Space Shuttle. ha ha

 

[Coolhand]

One of the most famous recordings of a so called UFO near a shuttle was a perfect example of how ice particles explain many of these things. Because it was blown away just after the thrusters fired. I was shaking my head an awful lot when I saw a UFO hunters episode called the Nasa files. All that I saw on that episode had a logical and natural explanation one way or another. Especially how someone proved there was an optical illusion at play in the tether video.

yeah, that tether video is so obviously not several miles wide alien spaceships (in an entire friggen' armada!) its not even funny... yet it's nearly always quoted as solid proof of ET's. I mean you can actually see them drastically change size and shape when the camera changes focus, doesn't take much knowledge of how focus works to see the effect at play.

If anyone isn't familiar with it, essentially the objects are small and close to the camera, at the start of the footage the focal point is also close to the camera so the objects are small and sharp-ish. as the camera changes focus to the tether, which is many miles away, the objects close to the camera become de-focussed and as a result they become big, soft blurry shapes. because they're so blurred they actually seem to be behind the tether, which is very brightly lit and bleeds 'over' -or more accurately perhaps, 'through' - the out of focus objects. if you don't see the complete video with the focussing part it's easier to be fooled i guess so UFO hacks edit this out of their videos, clearly indicating that they know whats going on, what they're really looking at and are presenting an edited version for their own ends.

 

[Bullethead]

I saw something a few years ago that I thought for a while was a UFO, but it turned out to be purely terrestrial .

If you're on I-10 just west of Las Cruces, New Mexico, look south and many miles away you'll see this big silver thing hanging in the sky about 30^ above the horizon. It'll be about the width of your pinky nail when your arm's out straight, and it's shaped like a disk when seen from that angle below. This thing is therefore huge, because it's obviously miles further away than the isolated small mountains a few miles south of I-10.

When I first saw this, I thought it was a UFO. I knew of nothing else it could be. But when I came back through that area a week later, there it was again. So much for it being a UFO, but I was still curious as to what it was. So I did some digging (obviously it must be a known feature of the area) and it turns out it's part of the border securty. It's a tethered balloon that's flattened into an airfoil shape, and it's full of sensors to spot illegal aliens along the Mexican border. I'd never heard of this type of balloon before.

But at least I wasn't the only one fooled by this thing. Many UFO websites have reports of it. Those folks all seem to take it on faith that it's a flying saucer without bothering to check out other explanations. I guess most of them only drove by there once, so it never occurred to them that the locals, who see it every day, would know what it is .

 

[V8Li]

I've seen a white dot last night moving fast, took it about 10 minutes to cross the sky. It was moving from south-east to north-west, more like SSE to NNW (high inclination); I do have two balconies facing N and S so I was able to track it. It was about 9:30 PM, maybe 10 but it was just after sunset. Could it be that wahtever was in orbit was shining? It was not a plane since I wasn't able to see any nav lights. Do you know of anything passing Central Europe last night?

 

[Bullethead]

It was about 9:30 PM, maybe 10 but it was just after sunset. Could it be that wahtever was in orbit was shining? It was not a plane since I wasn't able to see any nav lights. Do you know of anything passing Central Europe last night?

I'd say it was probably a LEO satellite but I couldn't tell you which one. Very often, though, you can see one just after sundown as you describe. The satellites are still in sunlight but sky behind them is dark, so they show up quite well. They look like big bright stars moving across the sky.

A month or so ago, I saw both the ISS and the shuttle go overhead that way. This was just after the shuttle undocked for the trip home, so it looked like they were flying in formation.

 

[V8Li]

They look like big bright stars moving across the sky.

Yea, you're right, it did look exactly like a planet or some very bright star, in fact it's so much light where I live that only the brightest "spots" can be seen. That other bright spot was to the East and not moving and for a second I thought that those were UFOs, one moving and one stationary. I looked to the West and saw some light from the Sun and occured that it's something in orbit.

 

[SlyCoopersButt]

10 minutes sounds like a long time. If it was so close to sunset I wouldn't be surprised if it was super high altitude research jet or something like that. A LEO Satelite couldn't possibly be visible that long I'm sure. Commercial jets for example that have shiny surfaces can be really bright when catching the sun right.

 

[Quick_Nick]

I've seen a white dot last night moving fast, took it about 10 minutes to cross the sky. It was moving from south-east to north-west, more like SSE to NNW (high inclination); I do have two balconies facing N and S so I was able to track it. It was about 9:30 PM, maybe 10 but it was just after sunset. Could it be that wahtever was in orbit was shining? It was not a plane since I wasn't able to see any nav lights. Do you know of anything passing Central Europe last night?

Your description fits well with a bright satellite.
If you meant July 19, it was surely the ISS as shown here.
Assuming you are new to watching satellites, the ISS can get even brighter than this.(Also assuming that the indicated magnitude is correct; it depends on accuracy of coordinates)
Check around the other days too(Prev/Next PM) and/or change your coordinates if it wasn't the 19th.

 

[V8Li]

I was watching "A SCANNER DARKLY" on HBO, I was not sure about the date so I just checked the online HBO guide and it was on the 20th. So 20th about 9:30 my time. Sly, you're probably right, it was more like 5-7 minutes, I watched it about 2 minutes on the South-side balcony and about 3 or 4 on the North-side. I just watched it and saw this thread and decided to share my experience -it's a bit off-topic but hell; I didn't time it or things like that. Quick_Nick, you're right about the coordinates and this was my first ever experience, I don't really care if it was ISS or not, it's just cool I was able to see something in orbit with my own eyes. During night or day-time I guess it's impossible to see something, maybe I was just lucky. heavens-above.com helps, thanks !