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2K views 16 replies 6 participants last post by  hewee 
#1 ·
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/sharing_dreams/sky.html

Yesterday I noticed it in the sky, (higher than when I started taking pictures) and thought it was a weird looking cloud (vertical?)

So, I took a picture of it, then noticed it was slowly dropping.

It doesn't show in the pictures, but there seemed to be something very shiny (metallic) flashing in the sun, on the end that was towards the ground.

I've never seen an airplane crashing (except in movies, etc) but that's what it reminded me of.

It was falling VERY slowy, kind of drifting down, but it might seem like that if it was far away.

It was in the west (where the sun goes down) so from here, that might be northen New York direction.

I was standing on my front porch, with a large yard, sloping down to the road. The trees in the picture are on the opposite side of the road (you can see the phone/electric, etc wires running by) To give an idea of the size.

It could have been something small and close (though it was falling so slow I don't think so) or something bigger but far away.

After it went in back of the trees it sort of "hung" there, and I stopped watching for a few mins looked back and it was gone. Maybe it was the smoke that just stayed there for some reason.

I had the digital camera on ZOOM (2X) it probably wouldn't have shown otherwise. But it's not a lot of zoom like a 35mm telephoto.

I tried making it larger in PSP but can't see anything but the white "jet stream".

Anyone hear anything on the news that might explain it?

I've been showing it around and my daughter suggested "alien space craft" and someone else "a shooting star" (it was 3-4 in the afternoon).

I thought of a flare of some kind, but seems like it was coming from very high. I didn't see anything flash before I saw it coming down.

I know there's a lot of people from all over the world read on here, and someone might have an idea.

Maybe we'll never know (LOL)

~ Carrie
 
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#2 ·
Hello Carrie!

A "shooting star" is a poor and misinformed name for a meteor; it is not a star at all. A star is a huge "sun", hundreds of thousands or even millions of miles in diameter and many trillions of miles away. A meteor is merely a rock, or space "junk". The vast majority are the size of a pea or even smaller and flame into bright visibilty when they enter Earth's atmosphere and burn up. If they are large enough they survive, hit the ground (KA-BOOM!) and make a smoking crater (or flatten somebody's Chevy). A meteor that survives the journey and is found on Earth is a "meteorite". That one appeared to travel slow because it was probably skimming the atmosphere and in the same direction in which the Earth rotates.

I'd put my money on meteor, not aliens!
:D
 
#3 ·
Maybe Hale Bop has returned and it is the end of the world again. Time to ressurect the Heaven's Gate cult, get some cool velvet robes, Nike running shoes and take the big dirt nap.

PS. It could also be some sort of space junk re-entering the earths atmosphere and burning up.
 
#4 ·
Good call rockin...

...but just in case I'm heading to my cave with a truck load of canned goods and bottled water!:eek:
 
#5 ·
you really think it could be a meteor?

Can they be seen in the daytime?

I wonder if anyone else saw it, or noticed it.

If it wasn't going DOWN I'd have just thought it was a jet (with a short "jetstream")

We aren't on a jet- path, though, and rarely see one going over. Or maybe they are so high here they aren't seen or heard.

I didn't think it was aliens, either. If it was there were crash landing.

~ Carrie
 
#7 ·
Can they be seen in the daytime?
Yes, they can incandense to be much brighter than Venus or the full moon. A large percentage of UFO reports can be attributed to meteors. But if you suddenly see: geometrically perfect circles in your feilds, mutilated bovines, inexplicable power outages or unaccountable gaps in your time line then begin to worry.
 
#8 ·
I would agree with Rockin' esp because you say it moved slowly. Most meteors are quite fast, except for "fireballs" (rare) and space junk (man-made, too)

Look here, starchild

http://www.heavens-above.com/countries.asp

to see if there was a satelite or Iridium flare in your area at the time....though I can't say that the ones I've seen look like your photo.
 
#9 ·
Oh, BTW

What you saw may not have actually been going "down", if it was high in the atmoshpere. It's a perspective thing.

If it had a fairly flat and near tangent trajectory with respect to our atmosphere, it would appear just be heading west. It's just where you were and where it was that made it appear to be going "down."

Lookin again, the photo does look alot like a jet contrail.

So don't worry unless you experience any of Jim's symptoms;)
 
#10 ·
What sysmptoms RT? Unexplained loss of time, small bump on the back of his neck or the flashbacks where he is in a room with bright lights and little men probing him? Oh yea....he does drink quite a bit of wine which would explain all of the above...:D
 
#11 ·
Oh yea....he does drink quite a bit of wine which would explain all of the above...
Hey! I resemble that remark! I'm not and think as you drunk I am!
:eek:
 
#13 ·
Yes, I can see how it could have been going "over" and look like going down, because of the horizon and angle. Which might account for how it seems to be going so slow. Hardly moving at all. It appeared to be just dropping at a very slow, even speed. Then it kind of "hung" behind the trees and disappeared.

I checked the link RT gave and there was an Iridium flare (never heard of this!) Jan 18th in the afternoon. It said 5:57. I'm not sure what time I took the pictures, I thought it was around 4. It was still light out.

But, going by the chart it showed- which way is north, and where *I* would be in reference to it, it would be to the left (W) of me. Which would have been where this was to me, if I was facing north.

Interesting link, to save and look at.

A lot going on "over our heads".

Maybe this is how ants feel about "us"? :)

Also, what a massive website that is! Imagine putting it together and updating it?

~ Carrie
 
#14 ·
LOL Jim, just make sure you don't brain your damage! :)

Yea, Carrie, seems like it would be quite an undertaking...the location database alone seems to cover almost everywhere on earth ( you can even specify your longitude and latitude if your neighborhood isn't listed in the database)...and then to keep up with all that stuff whizzing by all the time...!!!

Iridium Flares are communication satellites that have 3 main antennae that are highly polished, so reflect sunlight very well - thus giving the "flare". I have seen about 5-6 when I've gotten my bearings correctly. There are about 80 of them in orbit, functional or not.

They don't last long and can be of varying brightness, sometimes they don't show at all. But some of them are bright enough to be seen in daylight (though I haven't had the pleasure). But they sure don't look like your pics.

The coolest thing is see a nice bright flyby of the Intenational Space Station, check the schedule (it's very accurate), anything with a magnitude (brightness) of less than 0 is going to be great on a clear evening, the lesser the number the brighter it'll be. Even cooler when you know that the Space Shuttle may be docked with as it passes over.

Don't break out the telescope though, it scoots along at a pretty good clip!

But it doesn't look like your pics either, there's no asociated "contrail."
 
#15 ·
I looked up sites about Iridium Flares, too. They look too shiny and like the "wide"part is in the middle of the "streak".

I also looked up meteorites and it showed them at night, more narrow (shooting star) streaks.

I do think what I took pictures of probably was going "around" the earth and not straight down, the way it looked.

My first thought when I saw it was "what an odd cloud". Whoever sees a narrow cloud, in a vertical position?

Then I realized it was moving, sort of "dropping" by the looks and guessed it was an airplane crashing (thus the metal, slightly shiny (tiny) tip, that was on the right side (pointing down).

Something so far away it looked tiny.

It could have been a jet- and going "around" and not down as it looked?

But, I've seen jets, and the stream is more long and narrow.

Atmospheric conditions might make it look otherwise, though.

I've shown the pictures to others and some have said I should send them to "the news".

But, it it was really something, seems like someone else would have seen it, too.

I only got the 3 pictures because I had to wait for the digital camera to recover after each shot.

Maybe someday I'll find out, maybe it will just end up as another of "life's mysteries".

I wonder if there's an astronomy, or such board I could put them on?

~ Carrie
 
#17 ·
Hey lucky I was in a job for rhett for the Mill and I had my video camera with my when I was by you place Carrie.

I still don't know what it was we seen but I did not see this before I loaded it on my PC and adjust the image of each frame.

Something did happen and look I have the proof.

I redid it all as a small .gif so you and others can see just what really happen. :)
 

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