I was on community security patrol about 10:00 pm., checking out some of the popular teen party areas in the woods near the river. I drove down a path to about 50 feet from the end, where there is about a ten foot drop-off to the water. Looking over the water to the northeast, I could see a fairly bright light, about as bright as Jupiter. With the airport a few miles behind me, I figured it was an incoming plane. It was at a low altitude, about 20 degrees.
I stayed awhile because it was nice and peaceful. I noticed that the light didn't change. After awhile, it was clear that it was not moving, so I thought it might be a helicopter past the other side of the river. There were no towers in that direction. It remained fixed. Even though this part of the sky is fairly bright because of Baltimore being nearby, I started to wonder whether it might be a supernova. I was a pretty serious amateur astronomer and got excited about that. I knew it couldn't be a planet.
2007-11-08 12:37:23 · 6 answers · asked by Brant 7 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
So I got ready to go to do some calling around and something incredible happened. It moved! So I knew it had to be in the atmosphere. But it moved a couple degrees to the north and immediately back to the south, then north a little less and south again, ending up where it started. It only took about five seconds for the whole excursion. I stared and stared. A couple minutes later it did it again. If this object was even only a couple miles away, this would mean it was moving at an incredible speed and reversing direction, almost on a dime. I listened closely and there was no sound of an engine. Only the occasional sound of a motorboat going by in the river.
I got out of my van and continued to watch in amazement. Then I heard something coming from that direction as a breeze swept by and the thing moved a little bit again, one way, then back. It was a hollow clinking sound. It sounded very familiar. I walked to the underbrush by the edge of the drop-off. The mystery was solved.
2007-11-08 12:38:35 · update #1
Since I am skeptical and science minded, I did not immediately assume some ET thing, but I know many people would have. And they would have run home to get others to come outside and look, but once I got home, it was no longer visible. Believers would have considered this a good UFO sighting. But I stayed until I could figure it out. Can you figure out what it was? I think I gave all the necessary information.
2007-11-08 12:40:14 · update #2
Yes, it was an answer and I thought it would make a fun question.
2007-11-08 13:35:46 · update #3
Geoff, I've read many of your posts in this forum and find most of them to be very good, but this one is terrific. That is EXACTLY what it was, right down to the boat wakes, the dropoff blocking my view, and the clinking sound! Philip Klass would have been proud of you. BTW, I finally decided to send him this story a couple years ago because I thought he might enjoy it, but I was saddened to learn he had died just a couple weeks earlier.
2007-11-08 13:42:18 · update #4
It sounds like an anchor light on the mast of a sailboat anchored in the water, the boat itself out of sight behind the drop-off.. It would move to one side and back as the wash from a passing boat hit it. The clinking would be the sound of the halyards on the mast.
2007-11-08 12:57:50 · answer #1 · answered by GeoffG 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
"Believers would have considered this a good UFO sighting"?
That's a bit of a generalisation if you don't me saying. You didn't identify an structure to your "UFO" or a metallic structure, nor did it appear to perturb its environment in any way. Furthermore, you had no radar returns to back up your sighting to confirm that it was an airborne object, and most importantly you were alone. And it was dark.
2007-11-09 03:36:13 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Before you identified it, it was a UFO by definition. It might have been a super nova or even an ordinary nova. After you identified it, it was no longer a UFO, instead it became an IFO. I give up.
2007-11-08 21:32:53 · answer #3 · answered by Renaissance Man 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Wasn't this an answer for some other question?? Why did you decide to make it a question? lol.
Well, my theory is that it is a type of helicopter or something that is investigating that area.
Or maybe a satellitle but that doesn't make any sense!
What was it?
2007-11-08 20:41:44 · answer #4 · answered by AD 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Mork returning from Ork. lol
2007-11-09 00:50:59 · answer #5 · answered by spacery 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
omg, i know the answer. It was ALF landing from planet Melmac. Wasn't it?
2007-11-08 20:47:11 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋