Anyone seen a UFO?

Don't believe in them myself but did have a strange encounter just the other day!

I was taking an early evening walk in a nearby parkland area and on turning a corner saw a silver ball stationary in the air about I would reckon about four or five lamp posts up in the air (I've no idea how tall a lamp post is but that's how I sort of measured the height in my mind).

I just assumed it was a balloon but it didn't have any ribbon or anything attached to it and appeared to be spherical rather than balloon shaped if you know what I mean. It also appeared to be stationary in the air!

Anyway it grabbed my attention and I watched as I walked along and it didn't appear to move at all.

After a few minutes (I was walking along a straight path) I figured that it probably was drifting slowly on the wind on a parallel course to me and that most probably was why it seem stationary to me.

The thing that was most puzzling me though was why the 'ball' was keeping the same height? If it was a helium balloon why wasn't it rising?

Then it eventually did start to slowly rise for a minute or two then quite suddenly dropped back down again! A little bit like when you are on a plane and it suddenly falls (but not as dramatically though) - if you've experienced such a thing happening.

The ball gently started to rise again and gradually started to move higher and in front of me from my left moving towards my centre as I was walking (It had been on my left all the time so far)

The path I was on cut back on itself for a short distance (only about 30 seconds to walk it though) and when I looked back again for the 'ball' it had gone!!!

Now in all probability it was still up there somewhere but I simply couldn't see it and it was just a balloon being effected by air pressure changes and a slight breeze.

It kept me amused for a good five or six minutes if not more and I've never seen anything like it before.

As it was an 'object' I couldn't 'identify' and was 'flying' (of sorts) in the air, then I'm claiming it as my first UFO!

Anybody else had a similar experience?

Yes. I remember discussing this with Breadman.
I used to be an amateur astronomer, and before each nightly session with my telescope, I'd allow half an hour for my eyes to become accustomed to the conditions, just sitting back and looking at the sky.
One night, as I did this, two stars appeared to move from one part of the sky to another at incredible speed. This continued for a good five minutes, one second here, one second there.
I then became aware of at least six other 'stars' moving in a similar way, but of a slightly brighter nature. For the next twenty minutes I watched in awe as these things  performed what can only be described as a geometric dance, taking in most of the night sky visible to me.
They then suddenly coalesced into one bright mass, and vanished.
I never saw them again.
I was 18 at the time, and I've never forgotten it. I've no idea what they were, but nothing man made could move in such a way.
I'd die happy if I could see them again.

I've not seen one but there must be other life out there somewhere in the universe?

Norpig wrote:I've not seen one but there must be other life out there somewhere in the universe?

Absolutely. It's arrogant of us to presume that of all the billions of planets out there we are the only life form. I have no doubt in 500 years we'll have the ability to visit other worlds, so it stands to reason that another alien world come and have a look at us.

I'm convinced something alien went down at Roswell. The US army originally said it was an alien craft before quickly changing their minds and suggesting it was a weather balloon.

We have been visited many times.

Norpig wrote:I've not seen one but there must be other life out there somewhere in the universe?

You'd think so would you but "Where is everybody" then?  - which is the famous Fermi Paradox.

Put simply if other life exists out there as you would thing with the galaxy (let alone the universe) being so big, and space travel exists then why have we seen nothing to confirmed evidence of it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (better known as SETI) has been going on from the early 1980's and has yet to find anything!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_for_extraterrestrial_intelligence


If you read Brian Cox's books of his TV programmes you will start to discover the multitude of incredible coincidences/chances it has taken for intelligent life (well we half the planet seems it wants to blast us out of existence at the moment and the other half want to destroy the worlds environment - so I use the word 'intelligent' loosely) for it to develop here, so maybe the chance of life (or at least "life as we know it, Jim") is infinitesimal - maybe even non existent?

Maye we really are alone and simply an aberration of science?

That's what I believe fwiw.

EDIT - Just to qualify a bit of what I've said above - I'm talking about 'intelligent' life capable of developing space travel and not simple life such as microbiological stuff.

I'm with Nat on this one Sluffy, there must be other life somewhere else out there.

There must be millions of planets out there that we aren't even aware of yet so to think there is only life on one small planet in one galaxy doesn't add up to me.

As for aliens already visiting us, they are already here, how else do you explain Wigan? 

Believe what you want sluffy, but as 99.99999999% of the universe is unknown the odds are there is intelligent life out there. There could be millions of different alien races out there, but just too far away for them to know we exist and vice versa.

Brian Cox hasn't even been to the moon.

boltonbonce wrote:Yes. I remember discussing this with Breadman. One night, as I did this, two stars appeared to move from one part of the sky to another at incredible speed. This continued for a good five minutes, one second here, one second there.
I then became aware of at least six other 'stars' moving in a similar way, but of a slightly brighter nature. For the next twenty minutes I watched in awe as these things  performed what can only be described as a geometric dance, taking in most of the night sky visible to me.
They then suddenly coalesced into one bright mass, and vanished.

Were you drinking Breadman's home brew again?

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Were you drinking Breadman's home brew again?

that or LSD

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Were you drinking Breadman's home brew again?

Certainly not.
But nothing man made performed those acrobatics that night. The truth is out there, as they say.

Well you've all got to believe what you want, all I know is people such as Fermi and Cox and plenty other reputable scientists haven't figured out why up to now at least we seem to be alone in the galaxy when statistically we shouldn't be?

There's a famous equation, known as the Drake Equation that sets out scientifically the probability of other intelligent life existing in our galaxy (The Milky Way).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

One of the part of the equation is 'how long does an intelligent civilisation last for'?  It could be that at one time or other there was another intelligent civilisation on another planet and it ended up destroying itself - a bit like we might do if there is a nuclear war, or we fail to save the planets environment - and this happened before our time.

Who knows?

My view is that it really is a freak of nature that we exist and that the odds are very long on that happening again somewhere else.  

That's not to say the other forms of 'life' don't exits, maybe they do - maybe here on Earth right now with us(!) but we simply can't detect it!

If you think I've lost the plot a little bit then maybe the 'life' is something like a Neutrino that doesn't interact with matter (we exist as matter) so in theory at least it is possible as such - not that I'm saying it does.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino

All the life we know of has sprung from energy - we are comprised of matter.  We interact by matter - we physically 'do' things but out thoughts aren't matter - you can't see or touch thoughts - they are 'energy' electrical impulses in your brain.  Maybe one day we can communicate and exist without the 'matter' bits we need now?  Maybe that's how other intelligence have evolved - we can't 'see' them, they can't 'see' us.

Who knows, I certainly don't but I'm pretty certain nobody is going to be rocking up here in a spaceship in my lifetime, if at all.

I remember one scientist saying that we're looking in the wrong place. We should be looking under the sea...

boltonbonce wrote:Yes. I remember discussing this with Breadman.
I used to be an amateur astronomer, and before each nightly session with my telescope, I'd allow half an hour for my eyes to become accustomed to the conditions, just sitting back and looking at the sky.
One night, as I did this, two stars appeared to move from one part of the sky to another at incredible speed. This continued for a good five minutes, one second here, one second there.
I then became aware of at least six other 'stars' moving in a similar way, but of a slightly brighter nature. For the next twenty minutes I watched in awe as these things  performed what can only be described as a geometric dance, taking in most of the night sky visible to me.
They then suddenly coalesced into one bright mass, and vanished.
I never saw them again.
I was 18 at the time, and I've never forgotten it. I've no idea what they were, but nothing man made could move in such a way.
I'd die happy if I could see them again.

I had a fairly similar experience to that Bonce many years ago when I was younger. I was on my way back to Rotherham from my parents house in Swinton, probably around 8pm. It was just getting dark and as I was coming over the Pennines I noticed a number, probably four or five, star sized lights in the sky. They were still then suddenly moved in various directions but incredibly fast. I watched them for around 10 minutes or so and just couldn’t explain what I was seeing and how fast and far they moved. Suddenly they just vanished. We still talk about it today but I have no idea what they could have been. It wasn’t cloudy, the sky was clear so I can’t see it having been light reflections, although I’m sure an expert might claim it as that or similar. I do though agree with your last post and the US marine video that maybe we should be looking below the waves rather than in the sky.

On the one hand, it's a miracle humans exist as the exact circumstances for life - which we are busy f****** up - are unfeasably unlikely - and yet we exist for now. On the other, the vastness of the universe means it's very unlikely our species will survive long enough to find another humanoid species - not that doing so would necessarily be in our interest.
However UFOs have been reported for donkey's years - so if they're real, why are they apparently secretive about it? Is it the old "non-interference" Star Trek thing i.e. they consider us underdeveloped fancy monkeys on a rock?

Whitesince63 wrote:
I had a fairly similar experience to that Bonce many years ago when I was younger. I was on my way back to Rotherham from my parents house in Swinton, probably around 8pm. It was just getting dark and as I was coming over the Pennines I noticed a number, probably four or five, star sized lights in the sky. They were still then suddenly moved in various directions but incredibly fast. I watched them for around 10 minutes or so and just couldn’t explain what I was seeing and how fast and far they moved. Suddenly they just vanished. We still talk about it today but I have no idea what they could have been. It wasn’t cloudy, the sky was clear so I can’t see it having been light reflections, although I’m sure an expert might claim it as that or similar. I do though agree with your last post and the US marine video that maybe we should be looking below the waves rather than in the sky.

This stuff always gets my juices flowing. Sadly, there are so many fake sightings, it's hard to tell the wheat from the chaff.
Your sighting seems very similar to my own. Mine occurred around 2am, and the complete silence only added to the eery atmosphere.
Hope I live long enough to see them reveal themselves. For good, or ill.

boltonbonce wrote:Hope I live long enough to see them reveal themselves. For good, or ill.

Me too. I'm pretty sure I'll be one of the first ones they contact.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

Me too. I'm pretty sure I'll be one of the first ones they contact.

Not if they've been to Specsavers.