ABC News - Reports of UFO sightings in California

[LahTera]

I read this article this morning about Californians reporting orange-colored lights in the skies. Well, I saw one all the way up here in Anchorage, Alaska on New Year's Eve myself. I was watching fireworks going off in the neighborhood and saw this orange light ascending slowly, fully expecting it to blow up into an array of sparkles. Instead, it just kept floating upwards. Had it been floating downward, I would have thought it was a flare. But it went upward and then began moving south. My husband and I watched it and had to move from our living room window and open the front door to continue to watch its course. At that point, I asked him for the camera. It was very dark outside, however, and my camera isn't the greatest at video-taping in the dark, so all I got was a couple of video glimpses with no comparisons.

Regardless, I've filed a report with MUFON and hope they can clue me into what it might actually be.

Anyone else seeing orange glowing lights lately? ;)

Almost forgot the link: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/01/reports-of-ufo-sightings-across-california/

[Milneman]

Saw a bunch of them last night as a matter of fact.

[LahTera]

I would upload my silly little video, but I don't know how! lol ;)

[WhiteFeather]

I would upload my silly little video, but I don't know how! lol ;)

You can upload it to a YouTube account if you or a friend have one.

[LahTera]

I do have it uploaded on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152151533013117&set=vb.632368116&type=3&theater

[Milneman]

Congratulations LahTera! You've just stepped into a pretty exclusive club! :) Brilliant!

[GreenGuy]

I have photos, unfortunately only a few at night, and no video. I have seen a few high-up UFOs up here in the Valley east of San Fransisco, but nothing like what was almost commonplace down south. Northern San Diego County, where I used to live, is a hot spot. I spend a lot of time outside at night, searching the sky with binoculars or my telescope. I'd say to anyone that they're up there if you just look for them.

I actually think they're a lot more common than many of us realize. I think the reason we don't notice them more is that they move at bullet-speed. At night, they don't actually require navigation lights since they can easily avoid most anything in their path, so they simply move past too rapidly for us to see. At least, this is what I gather from photos I've taken where they show up blurred in the background but were never noticed while taking the pictures.

[jagman]

George Norry had a guest on last night his name is escaping me at the moment.
but he is the guy who documents all the UFO sightings. What he said really
disturbed me. He said that there is mass sightings going on all over North AM
He said he has never seen so many reports in such a short period of time.
He also went on to say that he was Alarmed.

[Octavusprime]

I saw one on new years, unfortunately it turned out to be a sky lantern. Followed it around my neighborhood for 5 minutes before I realized. But in the past I've also seen a floating orange light above one of the fair grounds in California. Watched it a few times hover for 15+ minutes then just disappear.

[Cidersomerset]

UFO sightings reported Tuesday night across California 12-31-13 ---Not Fireworks!

BKfSAM6zliU

Published on 2 Jan 2014


http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sect...

[jagman]

The Guy's name is Peter Davenport from the National UFO Reporting Center
Here is the interview it starts at the 7 minute mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZCHVnDc4w8

[GreenGuy]

I saw one on new years, unfortunately it turned out to be a sky lantern. Followed it around my neighborhood for 5 minutes before I realized. But in the past I've also seen a floating orange light above one of the fair grounds in California. Watched it a few times hover for 15+ minutes then just disappear.

When I first moved to my present location, I saw red and blue flashing lights in the sky doing some crazy maneuvers. Got all excited the first time I saw them - took pictures and video, and dragged my wife outside to see them. Eventually I learned that there's a model airplane club that meets half a mile away, at the edge of a few empty acres that was at one time graded for a housing development. They have both fixed-wing and helicopter models, some of them quite large, tricked out with flashing LEDS in different colors. I've seen some real UFOs too, but nothing as exciting as the first time I saw the blinking RC helicopters.

[bogeyman]

It is interesting that the FAA stated they have no UFO reports, that's a lie in itself. I'm sure the military is monitoring the situation or even the cause of it.

[ghostrider]

watch to the west around sunset , there is usually three of them , you can't miss them , they will seem to freeze in the sky ... sometime around 515 to 520 , if you live in north america ... one will seem to fall straight down and freeze , they are orange looking with strange double tails ... for the last year , they have neen around ...happy hunting

[Sidney]

I saw that EXACT same thing above my next door neighbors house the night before last, so Wednsday night. I saw it above the tree line, then it dipped below , danced around for a few minutes, I tried to get footage of it but by the time I got my camera going it was gone. But it was exactly that same orange sphere.

[Nick Matkin]

Can we assume:

1) Orange lights that just seem to drift and don't do any spectacular manoeuvres - particularly when seen around times of celebration - are probably just Chinese lanterns.

and

2) Short orange streaks (http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/ctv-news-at-5/weather-blog/what-was-that-light-in-the-sky-last-night-1.1010307) (sometimes close double streaks) seen in the late evening or early morning sun that move slowly are just short jet aircraft contrails.

I know some of us want them to be space ships, inter-dimensional craft or spirits, and some of them may be. Nevertheless, sometimes there are more likely explanations to consider first.

Nick

[Sidney]

Can we assume:

1) Orange lights that just seem to drift and don't do any spectacular manoeuvres - particularly when seen around times of celebration - are probably just Chinese lanterns.

and

2) Short orange streaks (http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/ctv-news-at-5/weather-blog/what-was-that-light-in-the-sky-last-night-1.1010307) (sometimes close double streaks) seen in the late evening or early morning sun that move slowly are just short jet aircraft contrails.

I know some of us want them to be space ships, inter-dimensional craft or spirits, and some of them may be. Nevertheless, sometimes there are more likely explanations to consider first.

Nick

One should never ASSUME anything. First of all, we had 30 knott winds here that night, if it was a chinese lantern it would have been blowing all over the place, which it was not. Second, this was not evening. It was 11 oclock at night. I have seen the lanterns you describe, and this wasnt it. I have also seen many orb ufos, that are more white in color, this wasn't that either. Who said anything about orange streaks anyway.
Seriously Nick, I get very weary of your debunking efforts. Your motives in my view are fairly transparent.

[LahTera]

In my case, I could believe it was a Chinese Lantern, but if so, it floated gently upward and must've caught a wind current that didn't touch the trees, as they were still. I have seen UFOs twice in the past, and those in the past I have managed to rule out such things based on their wicked movements and lack of "normal" lighting. I saw 2 at the same time in April of 1992 miles away from any civilization, far east of Eagle River, Alaska at about 1AM. I saw 1 with 7 others in broad daylight over Great Falls, Montana in 1975 or 1976? The one in Great Falls was really something to see!

[GreenGuy]

I spend a lot of time sky-watching. When it comes to lights in the sky, my thoughts are a) aircraft; b) satellite reflecting sunlight (shortly after sunset or before dawn); c)satellite iridium flare (up to about 3 hours after sunset or before dawn); d) possible UFO.

a) Aircraft is my default assumption. Sunlight reflecting off a fuselage can look like anything but an airplane. And just because it doesn't look like an aircraft at first, doesn't mean it isn't. Blinking lights after dark can be assumed to be a standard aircraft.

b) Satellites are normally visible to the naked eye or a pair of binoculars for the first hour or ninety minutes after sunset or before dawn. They're high enough to reflect the sun's light from below the horizon, and they'll appear as a steady, small light moving in a straight line. They'll fade from view as they get farther from the light source and as the viewing angle changes.

c) Communications satellites are solar powered and may have large panels extending out from their chassis. These are coated with iridium, and the satellites are in high orbit that can remain in place for many years. The satellites also may revolve in flight, and as the mirrored solar panels reflect the sunlight down toward earth, they can be seen as brilliant flashes of light that will appear to blink in time with the satellite's rotation. Iridium flares can be extremely dramatic. Heavens-Above dot com (http://www.heavens-above.com/) is a good place for tracking these phenomena wherever you may be.

d) Everything I see that I can't eliminate with one of the other categories becomes a possible UFO. Most often it's a small moving object that I've assumed was a satellite. Then it changes direction or does something else a satellite would not do. If it's late at night and you see a light moving overhead that you're sure is not an aircraft, it probably isn't a satellite either. That late, the sun is too far below the horizon to reflect light back to the other side of the planet.

UFOs, whatever they are, don't seem to need navigational lights, so when we actually see them lit up, it's either because they want to be seen, or have a specific reason for having lights on. I also think they are capable of moving at bullet-speed, which is why we simply don't see them even though they are much commoner than most people suppose. This presumes some kind of avoidance system that's beyond anything we have, since they're not crashing into other craft. They seldom show up on radar, which signals cloaking capability, and they are silent, so they must be able to create some kind of field that isolates them from the surrounding atmosphere and gravity. I think they enter and exit our world through dimensional portals rather than long treks between galaxies.

[Nick Matkin]

Can we assume:

1) Orange lights that just seem to drift and don't do any spectacular manoeuvres - particularly when seen around times of celebration - are probably just Chinese lanterns.

and

2) Short orange streaks (http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/ctv-news-at-5/weather-blog/what-was-that-light-in-the-sky-last-night-1.1010307) (sometimes close double streaks) seen in the late evening or early morning sun that move slowly are just short jet aircraft contrails.

I know some of us want them to be space ships, inter-dimensional craft or spirits, and some of them may be. Nevertheless, sometimes there are more likely explanations to consider first.

Nick

One should never ASSUME anything. First of all, we had 30 knott winds here that night, if it was a chinese lantern it would have been blowing all over the place, which it was not. Second, this was not evening. It was 11 oclock at night. I have seen the lanterns you describe, and this wasnt it. I have also seen many orb ufos, that are more white in color, this wasn't that either. Who said anything about orange streaks anyway.
Seriously Nick, I get very weary of your debunking efforts. Your motives in my view are fairly transparent.

We need to assume all sorts of things just to get through a day.

OK, I didn't see what you saw. But there are plenty of mysteries going on around us without assuming every light in the sky must have some mysterious explanation, as GreenGuy in post #19 clearly explains. I'm strongly inclined to think that if any light in the sky (possibly with a tail) does not do sudden stops, nor changes in direction, and is just a point source then it's probably got a rational explanation.

I hope that in what I write I just try to point out to those who read it that there is the possibility/likelihood to be a more prosaic explanation and I simply present the alternatives. Yet I try not to dismiss the possibility that there may be something more exotic going on.

At first I thought your describing me as a debunker was a bit harsh, but then I looked up the definition from The Concise Oxford Dictionary: Debunk: To expose falseness of claim, etc.. Still a bit harsh I think as I'm not able to expose any falseness without data, merely suggesting other explanations to readers who may not be familiar with alternatives.

And as a general rule, exposing false claims is surely something we should all be trying to do - shouldn't we? After all, Project Avalon is a space where the unusual can be discussed, debated, argued over to try to expose the truth, and in the debates sometimes someone points out something I hadn't considered. That's probably why most of us are here...

Don't forget Bill Ryan's strapline for his site: "...where science and spirituality meet". The occasional bit of science won't do any harm I don't think...

Nick

Additional edit on re-reading :


Who said anything about orange streaks anyway?

In #14. Not orange streaks (my paraphrasing) but "...they are orange looking with strange double tails...". I think these are often perceived as something unusual as in my previous photo link to CTV News (http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/ctv-news-at-5/weather-blog/what-was-that-light-in-the-sky-last-night-1.1010307). Some folks may be baffled when they see them if they don't know what they could be.

[Kindred]

I listened to C2C just a day or so ago. It's a shame we have this guy, supposedly 'in the know' about 'ufo's', that puts out the Fear factor. Also, I just came across this item, Again, on 'main-stream' - yahoo to be exact. With 'greys' and everything...

link:http://screen.yahoo.com/ufo-aliens-takes-off-field-220027960.html

Gee... do you think it's Possible 'tptb' are preparing/setting us up for this??? :rolleyes:

A 'great invasion', or perhaps 'disclosure'???

In Unity, Peace and Love

[LahTera]

The sighting in Great Falls was definitely a UFO. Broad daylight, my mother saw the reflection of sunlight on metal and we watched it move from there. It hovered over Black Eagle (the northern part of the city where the smoke stack for the copper mine used to be, and was at the time of the sighting), and then zoomed over the central part of the city in no time. No helicopter, plane, etc., in the mid-70s could move like this thing did.

Many years later, I found documentation that had been declassified that stated UFOs had been chased by Great Falls police from the missile silos in earlier years at the request of Malmstrom A.F.B. (where my own father was stationed for work with missiles). He denies every hearing anything about UFOs, though, and wasn't with us when we saw this one. My mother, neighbors and my best friend saw this one. I was just a 10-year-old kid at the time, but even I knew we didn't have anything like that built! ;)