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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

Our local Lidl has a pound of Paraguayan maté tea for 1.15 euro! This must be some weird quirk of supply channels. I bet no one here knows what it is.
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Trevp666 said:
Okay so last night, about 10pm I had nipped out into the back garden for a cigarette.
Now I usually like to 'sky watch' when I'm outside in the dark, and living between Luton, Stansted and Heathrow airports I'm very familiar with all the various aircraft, and at the different heights they fly, and how long they take to pass overhead.
I also have seen the ISS and the other space station (the chinese one) multiple times, so I am very familiar with how they look in the night sky, and how long they take to pass over (usually anywhere between about 30 seconds and a couple of minutes, depending on whereabouts and how high they are for reflecting sunlight).
I always have a good look for any meteor showers - currently we are just coming to the end of the Perseids.
(Meteors are extremely hard to spot, lasting only fractions of a second each. Quite literally you can blink and miss one.)
I often can spot a satellite too, once my eyes have adjusted to the light levels, I can pick out a bright spot moving lazily across the sky. They take about the same amount of time as the ISS to cross the sky.
I have also seen 'shooting stars' before - (small bolides?) which take a couple of seconds to streak through the atmosphere, brightening as they go then vanishing as they either reach the ground somewhere or disintegrate.

But last night was different.
I was stood there, looking up like I usually do, when I became aware of a fast moving light which appeared to be the same as a satellite (a small point of light with a constant brightness), but much, much faster.
I estimate that it took about 8 to 10 seconds to travel horizon to horizon. Much too fast to be an aircraft, or satellite. Much too slow (and long-lived) to be a meteorite.
So I am genuinely puzzled.
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It is puzzling, and genuinely terrifying when you see these strange things up close.
Not that your sighting is absolutely a UFO, but these things move so quickly that they are definitely not airplanes, and certainly not helicopters.
Did you hear any noise or see any smoke?
 
uair01 said:
Our local Lidl has a pound of Paraguayan maté tea for 1.15 euro! This must be some weird quirk of supply channels. I bet no one here knows what it is.
View attachment 58199View attachment 58200
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That is an amazingly low price for something that has been transported from one side of the planet to the other.
A Brazilian guy I worked with in London used to drink it from a huge silver mug, through a big silver straw. It looked like he was drinking from some kind of druggie apparatus.
 
Mythopoeika said:
That is an amazingly low price for something that has been transported from one side of the planet to the other.
A Brazilian guy I worked with in London used to drink it from a huge silver mug, through a big silver straw. It looked like he was drinking from some kind of druggie apparatus.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that is the way to drink it. Incredibly bitter. Not many will switch from their PG Tips to mate.
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
It is puzzling, and genuinely terrifying when you see these strange things up close.
Not that your sighting is absolutely a UFO, but these things move so quickly that they are definitely not airplanes, and certainly not helicopters.
Did you hear any noise or see any smoke?
Click to expand...
Nope. I considered myself fortunate to have noticed it at all, as it was that fleeting - I just happened to be looking exactly at that spot which it first appeared in, to then be able to follow it's path across the entire sky, thinking to myself something like "Blimey - that's moving fast!"
In fact I am trying to come up with a new classification, something along the lines of ..."Super Quick, Unidentified, Evening Light, Crossing Horizon to Horizon"

However, that does have the rather cumbersome, and possibly distasteful, acronym of 'SQUELCHH'.
 
Trevp666 said:
Nope. I considered myself fortunate to have noticed it at all, as it was that fleeting - I just happened to be looking exactly at that spot which it first appeared in, to then be able to follow it's path across the entire sky, thinking to myself something like "Blimey - that's moving fast!"
In fact I am trying to come up with a new classification, something along the lines of ..."Super Quick, Unidentified, Evening Light, Crossing Horizon to Horizon"

However, that does have the rather cumbersome, and possibly distasteful, acronym of 'SQUELCHH'.
Click to expand...
How about a RAQUEL ? (Really Astonishingly Quick Unidentified Evening Light).
 
Mythopoeika said:
That is an amazingly low price for something that has been transported from one side of the planet to the other.
A Brazilian guy I worked with in London used to drink it from a huge silver mug, through a big silver straw. It looked like he was drinking from some kind of druggie apparatus.
Click to expand...
Yes I've had it too. It's usually shared with other people.
 
Trevp666 said:
Okay so last night, about 10pm I had nipped out into the back garden for a cigarette.
Now I usually like to 'sky watch' when I'm outside in the dark, and living between Luton, Stansted and Heathrow airports I'm very familiar with all the various aircraft, and at the different heights they fly, and how long they take to pass overhead.
I also have seen the ISS and the other space station (the chinese one) multiple times, so I am very familiar with how they look in the night sky, and how long they take to pass over (usually anywhere between about 30 seconds and a couple of minutes, depending on whereabouts and how high they are for reflecting sunlight).
I always have a good look for any meteor showers - currently we are just coming to the end of the Perseids.
(Meteors are extremely hard to spot, lasting only fractions of a second each. Quite literally you can blink and miss one.)
I often can spot a satellite too, once my eyes have adjusted to the light levels, I can pick out a bright spot moving lazily across the sky. They take about the same amount of time as the ISS to cross the sky.
I have also seen 'shooting stars' before - (small bolides?) which take a couple of seconds to streak through the atmosphere, brightening as they go then vanishing as they either reach the ground somewhere or disintegrate.

But last night was different.
I was stood there, looking up like I usually do, when I became aware of a fast moving light which appeared to be the same as a satellite (a small point of light with a constant brightness), but much, much faster.
I estimate that it took about 8 to 10 seconds to travel horizon to horizon. Much too fast to be an aircraft, or satellite. Much too slow (and long-lived) to be a meteorite.
So I am genuinely puzzled.
Click to expand...
Could it have been a light shining from on the ground into the sky? I'm thinking from an airport or motorway? Say like a light from a works crew vehicle?
 
Floyd1 said:
Could it have been a light shining from on the ground into the sky? I'm thinking from an airport or motorway? Say like a light from a works crew vehicle?
Click to expand...
No.
Waaaay too small, the same size as when you spot a satellite, like, a single pixel if you like, only just about noticeable, and it went behind what few bits of cloud were around.
Plus it went from horizon to horizon - A light shining up from the ground would not do that...too many things in the way.
 
Trevp666 said:
Nope. I considered myself fortunate to have noticed it at all, as it was that fleeting - I just happened to be looking exactly at that spot which it first appeared in, to then be able to follow it's path across the entire sky, thinking to myself something like "Blimey - that's moving fast!"
In fact I am trying to come up with a new classification, something along the lines of ..."Super Quick, Unidentified, Evening Light, Crossing Horizon to Horizon"

However, that does have the rather cumbersome, and possibly distasteful, acronym of 'SQUELCHH'.
Click to expand...
Perhaps you saw a UFO?
A few months ago we were outside on the porch at night and saw a light go flying in an arc off in the distance high up in the sky, could have been anything, but it was so quick.
I think there is much activity going on in our skies, more than we think!
 
Supposedly, this is the voice of an American astronaut on March 13, 1989:
"Houston this is Discovery, we still have the Alien spacecraft under observance."

Heard this on tv, but didn't catch who it was who made that statement, and all other statements were cut off after that.
Perhaps someone knows the story on this?
Maybe it is not what it seems, just rather strange.
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
Perhaps you saw a UFO?
Click to expand...
Well I couldn't identify it, it was definitely flying (if not through our atmosphere then close to it), and for it to be there it had to be an object.
I didn't imagine it.
Maybe the terminology UAP might be more appropriate? I dunno. It certainly makes me wonder what it was. I guess it could have been some kind of slow moving meteorite which sort of 'fixed' itself to the upper atmosphere somehow and skeetered along at high speed, much like when you see a hydrofoil get up on its plane?
TBH there is nothing that I can think of that adequately fits the characteristics that I witnessed.
 
A friend of mine owned her own business and got up at 4:00 am every morning.
She was having coffee in the kitchen, it was dark outside, but a light across the road attracted her attention. She saw a large disc-shaped object lit up in orange hovering very low between two houses across the road from her.
It stayed for about an hour, until the sun started to come up, then it simply took off.
 
Trevp666 said:
Well I couldn't identify it, it was definitely flying (if not through our atmosphere then close to it), and for it to be there it had to be an object.
I didn't imagine it.
Maybe the terminology UAP might be more appropriate? I dunno. It certainly makes me wonder what it was. I guess it could have been some kind of slow moving meteorite which sort of 'fixed' itself to the upper atmosphere somehow and skeetered along at high speed, much like when you see a hydrofoil get up on its plane?
TBH there is nothing that I can think of that adequately fits the characteristics that I witnessed.
Click to expand...
Probably a meteorite, as you said.
I think it's when it changes directions that it's something mysterious! :)
 
Trevp666 said:
Okay so last night, about 10pm I had nipped out into the back garden for a cigarette.
Now I usually like to 'sky watch' when I'm outside in the dark, and living between Luton, Stansted and Heathrow airports I'm very familiar with all the various aircraft, and at the different heights they fly, and how long they take to pass overhead.
I also have seen the ISS and the other space station (the chinese one) multiple times, so I am very familiar with how they look in the night sky, and how long they take to pass over (usually anywhere between about 30 seconds and a couple of minutes, depending on whereabouts and how high they are for reflecting sunlight).
I always have a good look for any meteor showers - currently we are just coming to the end of the Perseids.
(Meteors are extremely hard to spot, lasting only fractions of a second each. Quite literally you can blink and miss one.)
I often can spot a satellite too, once my eyes have adjusted to the light levels, I can pick out a bright spot moving lazily across the sky. They take about the same amount of time as the ISS to cross the sky.
I have also seen 'shooting stars' before - (small bolides?) which take a couple of seconds to streak through the atmosphere, brightening as they go then vanishing as they either reach the ground somewhere or disintegrate.

But last night was different.
I was stood there, looking up like I usually do, when I became aware of a fast moving light which appeared to be the same as a satellite (a small point of light with a constant brightness), but much, much faster.
I estimate that it took about 8 to 10 seconds to travel horizon to horizon. Much too fast to be an aircraft, or satellite. Much too slow (and long-lived) to be a meteorite.
So I am genuinely puzzled.
Click to expand...
Is it possible that your assumed perspective was off and this was something way closer than you thought? a drone or a bird that lit itself up?
 
I was sitting in the living room earlier today and heard a crackling or rustling, followed by the doorbell ringing. My chair is near the window and I was able to glance up and see the gate. It was closed and there was no sign of anybody outside. It's a centre terrace house so there was no possibility they could have gone round the side of the property.
The bell is plugged in to a wall socket near me and has always sounded normally without any preliminary noises.
 
Erinaceus said:
I was sitting in the living room earlier today and heard a crackling or rustling, followed by the doorbell ringing. My chair is near the window and I was able to glance up and see the gate. It was closed and there was no sign of anybody outside. It's a centre terrace house so there was no possibility they could have gone round the side of the property.
The bell is plugged in to a wall socket near me and has always sounded normally without any preliminary noises.
Click to expand...

Has the recent weather/humidity change caused a contact to close?

Is a battery in the circuit somewhere dying?

maximus otter
 
Erinaceus said:
I was sitting in the living room earlier today and heard a crackling or rustling, followed by the doorbell ringing. My chair is near the window and I was able to glance up and see the gate. It was closed and there was no sign of anybody outside. It's a centre terrace house so there was no possibility they could have gone round the side of the property.
The bell is plugged in to a wall socket near me and has always sounded normally without any preliminary noises.
Click to expand...
Is there any vegetation (ivy, or bushes) close to the doorbell, that would allow a squirrel or a rat to knock against it? The noise of an animal in the vegetation may explain the rustling noise.
 
I don't eat breakfast cereal these days (used to years ago) so my 4 red cereal bowls got moved to a less frequented kitchen cupboard some time ago.
I just had cause to get something else from that cupboard and discovered that I only have 3 red cereal bowls now.
I haven't broken one. Or 'repurposed' one for a different use elsewhere. Or otherwise removed one for any reason.
I live alone and have done for some 4 years now, and I haven't had any visitors (or at least not any visitors that would go in my kitchen cupboards for any reason)
So I'm mystified.
 
Trevp666 said:
I don't eat breakfast cereal these days (used to years ago) so my 4 red cereal bowls got moved to a less frequented kitchen cupboard some time ago.
I just had cause to get something else from that cupboard and discovered that I only have 3 red cereal bowls now.
I haven't broken one. Or 'repurposed' one for a different use elsewhere. Or otherwise removed one for any reason.
I live alone and have done for some 4 years now, and I haven't had any visitors (or at least not any visitors that would go in my kitchen cupboards for any reason)
So I'm mystified.
Click to expand...
Did you use one for something else? Plant pot, keys, leftovers?
 
maximus otter said:
Has the recent weather/humidity change caused a contact to close?

Is a battery in the circuit somewhere dying?
Click to expand...

SimonBurchell said:
Is there any vegetation (ivy, or bushes) close to the doorbell, that would allow a squirrel or a rat to knock against it? The noise of an animal in the vegetation may explain the rustling noise.
Click to expand...
The bell push is sheltered by the porch and there's no vegetation near it. It's a simple wireless connection with a fairly new battery and lacks a microphone to convey sounds to the bell indoors.
I did wonder whether the crackling sound was a harbinger of some foul fiend but none have manifested so far.
 
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