OSO - Odd Sky Object

[rstevenson]

I didn't want to use the term UFO, though it obviously is one, in the literal sense, else why would I be asking.

Last Friday night, just a few minutes before midnight, Atlantic Standard Time, I was trying to get a look at Andromeda, but it was its usual hazy blob self. I scanned down and more to the north east and saw what I took at first to be a plane. I'll simply describe what I saw and perhaps someone can tell me what it likely was. ...

It was about the width of my hand above the horizon, very slowly dropping. It was brighter and larger at first, so I assume it was moving away from me. It was almost exactly north-east of my position, and very slowly moving a little towards the east. From beginning to end -- a period of about 3 minutes -- it had moved only about three finger widths eastward and about one finger width lower than when I first saw it. "It" consisted of bright yellowish flashes (no other colours.) I had the impression of a bright rectangular object, perhaps brass coloured, tumbling. The flashes did not seem to be perfectly timed, by which I mean the tumbling (if that's what was happening) was a bit random. They averaged about one flash every second or two. There was no sound.

About 10 seconds before I saw the tumbling thing a meteor shot across my binocular's field of view, coming roughly from the south (over my right shoulder), heading roughly north, north-west. It was the usual quick streak, lasting at most a few seconds. I mention it only because it went straight towards the point from which the tumbling object was coming (if its path was straight), though I saw no obvious connection between the two. (There was a large tree in the way.)

I first thought airplane, but if it was going away from me there would have been little in the way of lights to see, and it was heading out to sea, so descending would not have been a really good idea. Besides, I'd been on the deck for several minutes, so I would have heard it. I then thought about the Iridium satellites and their infamous flares. But they don't tumble, I think, and it was near midnight, so that close to the horizon they wouldn't have been in sunlight anyway.

So I'm stumped. Any ideas?

Rob

[Beyond]

Perhaps a good start for you would be to find out what kind of aircraft uses yellow lights. I know they have green, red and white lights, but have never come across yellow ones for any use in the air.

[Beyond]

I just checked FAA requirements for external lights on planes and there is only one that blinks. The Beacon light. It is reddish orange in color and there are two in the middle of the aircraft. One on top and one under the belly.
So according to what you said you saw....you have aparently seen a real live UFO. Congradulations.

[alter-ego]

Are you on the coastline? Are there any airports along that line of sight?
Have you ever seen aircraft in that vicinity at all, day or night?
One hand width.. you mean 10deg or 20deg elevation?
It sounds like you used binoculars through the whole observation. Can you give an angular size estimate on the rectangular object or light patterns?
Were the lights sharp and clear, or were they fuzzy and bouncing around?
Could the "tumbling" be caused from refraction through air turbulence?
What were the weather conditions in that region of the sky?

My first thought is you saw far away aircraft distorted by the atmosphere giving it a tumbling appearance, but it's apparent size would be small. It could be descending to a different altitude for a specific reason, or, because the descent rate seemed steady and fairly slow (you say ~1 degree per 3 minutes), the aircraft simply appears to be descending because of the earth's curvature. That is not unreasonable depending on the aircraft speed and apparent descent rate (I estimate an approximate descent rate of ~1/4 deg every 3 minutes for an aircraft traveling ~350mph, constant 20,000 feet altitude and ~10mi to 25mi away -- this is slower, but measurable). Having lived ~15 miles from an international airport in line with the runways, I've seen jittery yellowish lights without any other colors visible while planes slowly ascended and descended during took off and landing at night, and I've also seen strange shapes from helicopters at night, but they weren't that far away so I could make out the green/red lights at times.

Lastly I have to ask, were there any reports of a plane crash or any strange sightings??

[rstevenson]

There are two airports in the vicinity, a large commercial airport about 27 km due north, and a military one about 5 km south-east, on the coast. Flight paths for the first never go in the direction I was looking when they're that low; for the latter, who knows? It's quite possible one of their planes was going that way.

At the time I doubted it was a plane because I can't recall ever seeing a flashing yellowish light on a plane. I see many planes in the sky at night and am always able to pick out the two or three colours of their lights. And the lights are quite dependable in their flash rates, whereas the one I saw was, as I said, a bit ragged in its flash rate. Also, plane lights always seem to be point sources, since they're so small at the distances I see them. Whereas the light I saw gave the impression of being rectangular at first, but lost this rectangularity as it got smaller -- another clue which suggested to me it was receding.

For purposes of imagining what I saw, picture a large shiny brass box tumbling and reflecting light. Of course, it coould not have been such a thing, nor was there any reasonable source for a light to reflect off it, but that will help you imagine its appearance.

As for hand widths vs degrees, I'm not experienced with degrees. I just hold my hand out at full arm length and use it or portions of it as a gauge. The relative size of the hand is similar for most average humans. Hence the old adage that the sun is about 15 minutes from setting for every finger width above the horizon.

Weather at the time was clear but a little hazy, winds were near calm. There's been no mention in any news media of any strange sights in the sky, nor of any crashes.

Rob

[alter-ego]

Hi Rob,
I was actually pleased to hear of a nearby military base. After yesterday's post, it occurred to me that if you were looking up the tailpipes of multiple (say two) jet aircraft bobbing around in loose formation, you just might see something similar: yellow lights randomly blinking (either occulted by the air frame(s) or severely distorted by engine turbulence), and the sense of tumbling because the planes are moving above and below each other. That could lead to a pretty strange interpretation when considering it a single aircraft. ....I don't know, just comming up with normal possibilities.

BTW, I may have missed earlier accolades, but if you're the Rob S that created the pixelated APOD's, you did a fantastically great job. Congratulations!

[rstevenson]

Yes, that was me. Thanks.

As you can see, I perceive pixels everywhere.

Rob

[Beyond]

Yes, that was me. Thanks.

As you can see, I perceive pixels everywhere.

Rob

Especially on donuts