It's a bird, it's a plane...

[Chris Peterson]

So I got a call yesterday from somebody who knows I'm the local astronomer. He lives about 20 miles away, and said that there was a bright light in the sky, like a supernova, that he'd been watching for a while and it didn't seem to be moving. This was about 3 in the afternoon. I went outside and looked in the direction he was seeing it- to the south, between the fine crescent Moon and the Sun, and sure enough, I could see it from here, too. Very bright, and appearing slightly extended. So I opened my observatory and had a look with the telescope. And this is what I saw (and shot through the eyepiece with a cheap camera):

It was moving a bit, but very slowly. It stayed between the Moon and the Sun for over an hour. It bears a striking resemblance to a Project Loon balloon launched by Google for studying rural Internet access options. Not that I've heard of any tests around here. But what I saw is consistent with a 15 meter diameter object 50 or 60 km away (and 30 km high).

Click to view full size image

[geckzilla]

Haha, wow. A good photo of a UFO-ish object. The notion that it could be aliens was never even possible. The Project Loon balloon is slightly different from the one you photographed. The ribs are more numerous, making the interval between them smaller.

[Chris Peterson]

Haha, wow. A good photo of a UFO-ish object. The notion that it could be aliens was never even possible. The Project Loon balloon is slightly different from the one you photographed. The ribs are more numerous, making the interval between them smaller.

Yes, I noticed the different number of ribs. But I didn't find any other images that were even close.

Anyway, that it's not aliens is pretty clear. When I first saw it, I was more excited about the prospect of a daytime supernova than a flying saucer. Alas, the real explanation for most potentially extraordinary things is usually quite ordinary.

[geckzilla]

Yeah, it's just really funny because if it were a slightly worse picture and you weren't you, then people would instantly jump to aliens.

I did find one photo on the Project Loon G+ page of another balloon encased in a sheath. Even if it's not the same balloon, it's evidence that Google uses more than one model.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Q2Y6 ... no/00N.jpg

[Nitpicker]

The different number of ribs could merely be because the indoor photo was taken from a much closer distance. I say if it looks like a Loon balloon and it floats like a Loon balloon, it's a Loon balloon.

[BDanielMayfield]

What, you mean that the google geeks with spy-eyes everywhere aren't aliens???

[geckzilla]

The different number of ribs could merely be because the indoor photo was taken from a much closer distance. I say if it looks like a Loon balloon and it floats like a Loon balloon, it's a Loon balloon.

I'm incredulous. The floor model and the one in Chris's photo are clearly two different designs. Here is another shot of a Loon balloon not up close. It's not an aerial shot but no camera trick short of a relativistic photo is going to let us see more ribs around the side than we can see normally.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-uZeX ... no/009.jpg

[Chris Peterson]

The different number of ribs could merely be because the indoor photo was taken from a much closer distance. I say if it looks like a Loon balloon and it floats like a Loon balloon, it's a Loon balloon.

I'm incredulous. The floor model and the one in Chris's photo are clearly two different designs. Here is another shot of a Loon balloon not up close. It's not an aerial shot but no camera trick short of a relativistic photo is going to let us see more ribs around the side than we can see normally.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-uZeX ... no/009.jpg

I'm with Nit on this one. An image of the balloon from inside the same hanger could easily knock two or three segments off each side. The image you posted of a launch appears to show a rib count more in line with my image.

And that image does not show an obviously different design. All high altitude balloons when launched look like long droopy things that are barely inflated, and are only completely pressurized at altitude. Most weather balloons expand to spherical, while the Loon balloons seem to expand to a more oblate sphere.

[geckzilla]

Fie on you both.

[Nitpicker]

Rather quick to judge today, geck.

[Doum]

You will see more of them

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/scien ... .html?_r=0#

[MargaritaMc]

I hadn't heard of the Loon Project so I looked up their Google+ page

In which I read this post:

Project Loon
8 months ago
Interested in trying your hand at building your own high-altitude balloon? From April 18 - 21, Loon balloons may have some company in the stratosphere: The Global Space Balloon Challenge is an international project to encourage teams from all over the world to build and launch their own high altitude balloons in order to promote the spirit of hardware hacking and international STEM collaboration. Check out the details on their website -- and we hope to see you at 60,000 ft!

Which linked to:

GSBC Launch Photos Gallery #3 :Near Space Ballooning - Colorado, USA

Sherlock Margarita

[Beyond]

Good sleuthing, Sherlockarita McHolmes.

[Ann]

Thanks for the link, Margarita, very interesting! But I don't think the Loon balloons really resemble the oblate, ribbed object in Chris's image.

But whatever the strange object is, one thing is certain. It was made by humans. After all, what is most likely, that humans made it, using our centuries-old knowledge of how to send balloons into the atmosphere, or that aliens travelled here across the light-years, either in that flimsy thing or in a substantial ship, after which they released that object into our atmosphere? Only if you desperately want to believe that we are being visited by aliens can you believe in the latter.

Ann