I saw a UFO on Saturday.
Let me explain: it was an object (four of us saw it) so not a product of my fevered imagination (a mass hallucination can not, however, be ruled out at this stage); it was in the sky (therefore ‘flying’, for some value thereof); and I couldn’t tell what it is (yet).
It was possibly slightly east of due north, about thirty to forty degrees off the zenith, and gave the impression of being a long, long way away. The time was 11.35 UTC and we were stood about half a mile north east of Canada Water tube station. It shone brightly — like the sun glinting off a cruising airliner — and my first thought was that it could be an iridium flare but it did not perceptibly move, and did not fade. I then thought it might be a weather balloon. The brightness seemed to vary irregularly, although that was possibly an effect of our eyes trying to focus. We walked about fifty yards to the station and we couldn’t see it any more.
Then yesterday (Sunday) I was walking by Redriff Primary school, about half a mile I guess NE of where we had stood the day before, and looked to the north. There it was again. No flare, then; and probably no weather balloon either. It was 12.30 UTC, and as far as I could tell the object was in the same place.
My other hypothesis, that of geostationary satellite, does not hold because the object was polar rather than equatorial (and could one even see a geostationary from twenty five thousand miles away?).
So. Over to you. What the hell was it?
I think you’ve been under a lot of stress lately. As it says in the Guide to Buddhist Jewish Wisdom:
Your mind is a country of ten thousand fields.
In each field there are ten thousand flowers.
In each flower there are ten thousand petals.
You may need to see a specialist.
One of those “Fathers” pressure group people hang=gliding in a silver spiderman suit?
It could have been a flying pig. If so, you have nothing to worry about, unless it was sneezing. In Spanish.
That’s all right, I don’t speak Spanish.
A helium balloon with a flare attached to it?
Speaking of pigs ….
_http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3392/3345508946_023105009b.jpg_
Woah. What’s with everyone’s HTML this morning?
Ooops, my bad, I’ll try that again:
Hang on – this could be the mother ship, perhaps connected with the alien invasion recently seen in Wiltshire. They are among us.
“You don’t have permission to access /iridium.html on this server.”
‘s very odd, because it gave me the same error… and then I tried again and it didn’t.
http://www.satobs.org/iridium.html right?
It wasn’t us (click) – I mean it wasn’t those imaginary alien invaders Henry is talking about. I must get one of those earthling keyboards with a backspace key. Is it a bit too obvious for it to be Venus?
I thought it would have been too bright for Venus, in the middle of the day.
And Venus is never in the North. Just shows that we can no longer trust the entity that calls itself ‘Brian Clegg’. Its identity has been compromised.
Sorry, Richard [click], didn’t understand that techie UTC time thing. Also read it too quickly to notice direction – but I assumed it wasn’t too bright or you couldn’t think it might be a satellite. Does seem to be reflection off some aerial object. It could still be weather balloons on a regular launch schedule.
Henry Gee – the more you post [click] about us, the sooner we will find you and assimilate you.
Why did you rule out weather balloon? Why wouldn’t a weather balloon be in approximately the same spot at approximately the same time two days in a row? Also, the “same spot” might not even have been as close as you thought. You were looking at it from another angle, and probably looking for your UFO, so anything in approximately the right spot would be filed away as “the same spot”
Mehh…. I take that back.
“As of September 1997, 656 upper air offices worldwide release weather balloons when it is Midnight and when it is Noon in London, England. ”
(from the internet )
That means the first one can’t have been a weather balloon.
I wasn’t looking for it the second time: I just happened to be facing that direction at that time.
Hm, okay. But you still recognized it, and even if it was a couple of (hundred) meters to the left or right you wouldn’t have noticed that.
hahah. I don’t even how how far away it was.
Hm… was there similar cloud cover on both occasions? Could it thus have been something on the ground projecting onto, or reflecting off, the clouds?
Either that or it’s some new flying machine of Richard Branson’s. One or the other.
OK, this is probably dumb, but some used car lots tend to have cheesy tethered objects floating high over their wares — balloons, fake zeppelins, pigs, that sort of thing.
Hang on, could it have actually been a zeppelin? They do sometimes fly in London, with advertisements on the side, and they might have a regular schedule.
And meanwhile, over in San Francisco, there’s been some rather interesting sightings recently:-
Ok, it was either very small or really really high. It was against clear blue sky and as far as I can tell above the clouds. Cruising airliner altitude at least, as far as I can tell.
Which is why I first thought iridium flare; it being that sort of apparent size.
If it was a Zeppelin the marketing person needs shooting as it was impossibly high to see what it was advertising.
Tony Blair’s ego sitting in the stratosphere, recharging on sunlight?
Naw, far too small.
but some used car lots tend to have cheesy tethered objects floating high over their wares — balloons, fake zeppelins, pigs, that sort of thing
Only a fool would use an inflatable pig for advertising most things at the moment. Might work for Tamiflu, hand sanitizer, or surgical masks.
The other evening I glanced out my front window and was convinced that there was a smoldering cigarette butt on my lawn (not inconsequential under drought conditions). I found that it was actually light from the setting sun glinting off a discarded sparkly princess tiara, property of my neighbor’s daughter.
bq. Only a fool would use an inflatable pig
but imagine if three weeks ago you’d ordered 2 gross of pig zeppelins for a huge marketing campaign. You’d be feeling pretty porky round about now.