- Joined
- Aug 22, 2005
- Messages
- 6
Moonlight as in 'earthlight', that is. Someone else must've seen this...
When I was a kid, my parents had a caravan in Co. Down (by a small town called Millisle); big caravan park, quite spread out, right by the coast. One summer (august time, would've been 1980 or 81). Me & my brother (I was 10 or 11, he's 2 years younger) were sitting on swings at the site playground, beautiful summer night, clear skies, warm, lots of stars, about 10pm. No-one else was around; we were city kids (Belfast) & not so used to clear skies, so I was staring up at the 3/4 full moon (at the time I wanted to be an astronomer, too, had a big telescope at home, & by this age I'd raided every public library in North Belfast for books on the subject).
Weirdest thing I have ever seen happened - my entree to things fortean - its the whole reason I'm posting here, essentially.
A dot of light shot out from the right hand side of the moon (as in, from behind the moon, not from its surface) - it was clearly substantially above the moon, there was a very visible gap between the edge of the moon & the object. It zipped, in maybe 1 - 2 seconds from the right of the moon to the left, passing over the dark band of occlusion, incredibly fast. It disappeared behind the moon, (it was bright enough to see against the moon's surface, especially on the dark bit).
Then it shot out from the right hand side again, & went right around a second time.
Now, at that age, I knew full well the moon was big, maybe 3000 or so miles across - I also thought I knew nothing could do what I'd just seen, absolutely nothing, no comets, asteroids, spaceships, nada. I stared up, said "Did you see..." my brother said "yes..."; he'd been looking at the moon too, as it happened. We stayed quiet, staring & staring; nothing happened. After maybe a minute or 2, we legged it full speed across the playground & grassy field to my parents caravan, banging on the door yelling at them to come see, pointing up at the sky. They came out, but of course 'it' was long gone, & my parents acted bemused & drifted back inside the caravan after a minute. Never saw it again, but I was so convinced it was so big, so noticeable, I checked the papers & TV the next day, expecting to hear something, I mean, my god, this must've been visible to near half the planet, even if it was for just a few seconds - WTF?
Now, do the math (this is the interesting bit) - "The Moon's diameter is 2,159 mi (3,475 km) and its circumference is 6,790 mi (10,864 km)" (Science and Technology Desk Reference. Comp. James E. Bobick. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, 1996. p609). This thing traveled 6790 miles in perhaps 2 seconds. Thats 3000 odd miles a second - hello? Thats 1/60th of light speed. In a tight circle, around a minor planet? I'm not aware of anything in creation that size that moves at those speeds, not asteroids, not comets, nothing. Its just not possible (keep repeating that! - I did).
First off, nothing natural can do 1 tight orbit like that at that speed, & certainly not 2 orbits - any physical craft would be squished to jam due to g-forces. Nothing can do that speed. It was, (being clearly visible from the earth, a couple of hundred thousand miles away) bloody massive - what, the size of a city? Bigger? It did not look like a point of light, either, it looked like it had actual dimensions, from that distance. & where the hell did it go when it disappeared behind the moon the last time?
I've heard of earthlights, I've heard of those wan little moonlights sometimes seen through telescopes, I've even come across a couple (19th century) accounts of something similar in terms of brightness & size on/around the moon.
To make it quite clear, I long ago dismissed the idea of some stupendous alien spaceship being responsible; ditto, a moon-based version of earthlights - this thing was too big, too fast, & too weird. What the hell was it?
Also, we cant have been the only people who saw it; this was incredibly dramatic, surely there must be some account of it somewhere else? people, get digging!
I'd ask for ideas on what it was, but I've had a quarter of a century to root out an answer, & I cant even come up with a theory that begins to account for what I saw. I have drawn a complete blank on this one. Anyone have a similar sighting?
When I was a kid, my parents had a caravan in Co. Down (by a small town called Millisle); big caravan park, quite spread out, right by the coast. One summer (august time, would've been 1980 or 81). Me & my brother (I was 10 or 11, he's 2 years younger) were sitting on swings at the site playground, beautiful summer night, clear skies, warm, lots of stars, about 10pm. No-one else was around; we were city kids (Belfast) & not so used to clear skies, so I was staring up at the 3/4 full moon (at the time I wanted to be an astronomer, too, had a big telescope at home, & by this age I'd raided every public library in North Belfast for books on the subject).
Weirdest thing I have ever seen happened - my entree to things fortean - its the whole reason I'm posting here, essentially.
A dot of light shot out from the right hand side of the moon (as in, from behind the moon, not from its surface) - it was clearly substantially above the moon, there was a very visible gap between the edge of the moon & the object. It zipped, in maybe 1 - 2 seconds from the right of the moon to the left, passing over the dark band of occlusion, incredibly fast. It disappeared behind the moon, (it was bright enough to see against the moon's surface, especially on the dark bit).
Then it shot out from the right hand side again, & went right around a second time.
Now, at that age, I knew full well the moon was big, maybe 3000 or so miles across - I also thought I knew nothing could do what I'd just seen, absolutely nothing, no comets, asteroids, spaceships, nada. I stared up, said "Did you see..." my brother said "yes..."; he'd been looking at the moon too, as it happened. We stayed quiet, staring & staring; nothing happened. After maybe a minute or 2, we legged it full speed across the playground & grassy field to my parents caravan, banging on the door yelling at them to come see, pointing up at the sky. They came out, but of course 'it' was long gone, & my parents acted bemused & drifted back inside the caravan after a minute. Never saw it again, but I was so convinced it was so big, so noticeable, I checked the papers & TV the next day, expecting to hear something, I mean, my god, this must've been visible to near half the planet, even if it was for just a few seconds - WTF?
Now, do the math (this is the interesting bit) - "The Moon's diameter is 2,159 mi (3,475 km) and its circumference is 6,790 mi (10,864 km)" (Science and Technology Desk Reference. Comp. James E. Bobick. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, 1996. p609). This thing traveled 6790 miles in perhaps 2 seconds. Thats 3000 odd miles a second - hello? Thats 1/60th of light speed. In a tight circle, around a minor planet? I'm not aware of anything in creation that size that moves at those speeds, not asteroids, not comets, nothing. Its just not possible (keep repeating that! - I did).
First off, nothing natural can do 1 tight orbit like that at that speed, & certainly not 2 orbits - any physical craft would be squished to jam due to g-forces. Nothing can do that speed. It was, (being clearly visible from the earth, a couple of hundred thousand miles away) bloody massive - what, the size of a city? Bigger? It did not look like a point of light, either, it looked like it had actual dimensions, from that distance. & where the hell did it go when it disappeared behind the moon the last time?
I've heard of earthlights, I've heard of those wan little moonlights sometimes seen through telescopes, I've even come across a couple (19th century) accounts of something similar in terms of brightness & size on/around the moon.
To make it quite clear, I long ago dismissed the idea of some stupendous alien spaceship being responsible; ditto, a moon-based version of earthlights - this thing was too big, too fast, & too weird. What the hell was it?
Also, we cant have been the only people who saw it; this was incredibly dramatic, surely there must be some account of it somewhere else? people, get digging!
I'd ask for ideas on what it was, but I've had a quarter of a century to root out an answer, & I cant even come up with a theory that begins to account for what I saw. I have drawn a complete blank on this one. Anyone have a similar sighting?
