Unidentified flying planet?

[Mighty_Emperor]

Unidentified flying planet?

By Matt Whetstone, Staff Writer

CADILLAC - Donna Billett of Harrietta saw the backyard and field behind her house light up like she had never before - considering it was nearly midnight and it was pitch black outside.

"I was so shocked when I saw it out the bathroom window I just stood there in awe for five minutes," Billett said when the object appeared Sunday.

The moon was not responsible for the unexplained light, even though it shone brightly in the clear sky. Instead, Billett saw another bright object in the northwest sky.

Billett's son Allan McIlvain quickly came out of the house and recorded the object for about 30 minutes before it finally left their sight. He said it moved at a very fast pace.



The object bounced and weaved as McIlvain attempted to film it, zooming in and out. Neither had an explanation at the time.

"I thought it was lightning at first," Billett said. "It was like flipping on a light switch - the whole sky was bright."

McIlvain said he has a different explanation.

"I think it was a spaceship," he said.

Both believed the object to be pulsing, reflecting light toward the ground.

David Batch, professor at the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University, said the object may have been the planet Venus.

"Venus is probably the most mistaken object for a UFO," Batch said. "It really attracts people's attention right now because it is so bright."

Batch said there is an old story that former president Jimmy Carter once reported Venus as a UFO in his younger days.

Like the object seen in Harrietta, Batch said Venus is capable of changing shapes and colors during the night and is capable of leaving the sight of viewers depending on weather conditions.

In a camera, Batch said it would tend to be overexposed making it appear to look different.

Batch did rule out the possibility of a comet sightings because it would be nearly impossible to get video footage as it would be too faint.

http://www.cadillacnews.com/articles/2004/05/06/news/news05.txt

 

[Anonymous]

Jimmy Carter did not report Venus as a UFO. He saw something in the sky which he could not explain and this was in turn dismissed as Venus. Carter has said several times he knows exactly what Venus looks like and where it is in the sky and what he saw was most certainly not Venus.

 

[TulipTree]

Being from Michigan myself, I find the Venus explanation completely unfair. Spring and fall are prime star-gazing times here because in summer, exessive humidity hides the stars and winter is just too miserably cold for sky-watching. Many of us find ourselves gazing out the windows in wonder or stopping on outdoor errands just to look at the stars and the brightness of the not-so distant planets when they are visible. Like Venus.

I've never seen Venus bob and weave. It also doesn't light up the yard on a dark night, instead, the surrounding darkness is what makes Venus so spectacular. Venus also moves rather slowly, relatively speaking. It takes longer than 30 minutes for it to set if you spot it around midnight in Michigan this time of year.

 

[Anonymous]

If you videotape Venus using zoom with an ordinary hand held video camera it will certainly bob and weave;
the 'expert' concerned, David Batch, was quite right to say that this object 'may' have been Venus, but he did not say that it definitely was.

He was also right to rule out a comet; there has been a comet in the evening sky recently, but it would not be possible to videotape it.

 

[TulipTree]

If you videotape Venus using zoom with an ordinary hand held video camera it will certainly bob and weave;
the 'expert' concerned, David Batch, was quite right to say that this object 'may' have been Venus, but he did not say that it definitely was.

I see your point about the camera if he was only looking at the finished product or assuming that losing the object from his site meant that it actually moved. If that was the case, maybe it was his first time using the camera or his first time using the zoom feature.

As far as David Batch being "quite right to say that the object 'may' have been Venus, I disagree. I think that people, especially the outdoor obsessed like us red-necked Michigan folk, are too often dismissed as knowing nothing about the night sky. Venus doesn't dazzle us with a one night appearance and then go away for another year. I've kept my bedroom curtains open for weeks now so that I can watch it as I go to sleep. It is bright, but not...

"I thought it was lightning at first," Billett said. "It was like flipping on a light switch - the whole sky was bright."....Both believed the object to be pulsing, reflecting light toward the ground

I could understand someone from the city on their first country outing mistaking Venus for a UFO but not someone who actually lives in Cadillac, Michigan.

 

[TulipTree]

I'm sorry Eburacum45, I wasn't trying to say that these folks actually saw a space craft piloted by extra-terrestials. I was just offended by the off hand way it's assumed that the uneducated are unfamiliar or unaware of their own environments.

It reminded me of the way Fort used to describe the way learned folk would discount sightings of meteors. If the farmer saw the meteor fall from the sky and land in his field, and pointed to the stone in it's little crater saying "here it is", these professors and guardians of knowledge would tell the farmer that the rock had been in the farmer's field all along. Silly farmer!

I don't know what those folks in Cadillac saw, it would be great to know because it could have a very natural, terrestrial origin, something to fill us with wonder or at least make us say "cool". I just really doubt that it was Venus.

 

[Anonymous]

I've never seen Venus bob and weave.

I may have. It was bobbing around all over the place. All I know is that it was not a plane and it was not a helicopter. It looked like a star that was jumping like a flea in a frying pan. As to what it was, well, I am open to suggestions. It could have been an experimental military aircraft. It could have been an alien spacecraft. And, yes, it could have been Venus appearing to dance owing to atmospheric conditions.

Don't be too hard on those who suggest that a UFO is a mirage of Venus. They may yet turn out to be right.

 

[scotmedia]

On 15/5/04, WilliamHartnell wrote:

"...It was bobbing around all over the place. All I know
is that it was not a plane and it was not a helicopter.
It looked like a star that was jumping like a flea in a
frying pan. As to what it was, well, I am open to
suggestions. It could have been an experimental military
aircraft. It could have been an alien spacecraft. And,
yes, it could have been Venus appearing to dance owing to
atmospheric conditions.

Don't be too hard on those who suggest that a UFO is a
mirage of Venus. They may yet turn out to be right".


Recommended references from two inherently informed
acquaintances:

http://members.aol.com/TPrinty/UFOstars.html

and...

http://www.debunker.com/texts/carter_ufo.html


James Easton.

 

[Anonymous]

Many thanks for the websites, James, Most interesting, and mostly correct, I think.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

UFO merely an Unfounded Flint (Twp.) Object

GENESEE COUNTY
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
By Elizabeth Shaw
[email protected], 810.766.6311

GENESEE COUNTY -- They are not alone.

Several callers responded to a tongue-in-cheek story in Saturday's Flint Journal seeking possible explanations for a UFO videotaped by the Gene Carwile family shortly before 10:30 p.m. in the northwestern sky above their Flint Township home.

Similar sightings were reported by Larry Montgomery and Sandy Hasman of Grand Blanc, and Flint residents Helen McCray and Ralph Fisk.

Experts dismissed two likely explanations. National Weather Service meteorologist David Koehler said it was too late for a weather balloon, while Longway Planetarium specialist Richard Walker said Comet Neat reached its closest Earth approach on May 7 and has been just barely visible to the naked eye.

The best bet? Venus.

"Right now Venus is very high in the northwestern sky shortly after dark and gets gradually lower in the sky as the night progresses," said Walker. Atmospheric disturbance makes it appear to twinkle in different colors, especially red, as Carwile noted.

"In over 40 years of looking at the night sky, I've never seen anything yet I couldn't explain -- except once," said Walker.

http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-21/108489412520780.xml

 

[TulipTree]

How can people confuse stars as IFOs? According to Hendry, amateur astronomer Gert Herb describes the problem as "sky shock", "...adults of a civilized society can take stars for granted for years until they finally take the time to see just what is possible in the heavens" (Hendry 30). Hendry provides many examples of how people reported these stars as UFOs:

Included among these shapes are: discs and discs with domes ("Like two plates put together"-case 332; "elongated, as big as a distant plane"-case 377; "dome on top and bottom" - for one and a half hours in case 332), domes, a "plate with a hole in the center," vertically oriented small triangles, ovals, a football ...even "teacups," "Mexican somberos," and "bananas as large as the moon, shrinking back down toa star." People have seen "spikes," beams," "appendages," and sparkles shooting out in all directions from bright stars. (Hendry 28)

Mistaking a star for a banana as large as a moon? I just really feel like I'm missing something here from my own experiences sky watching. "Sky Shock" certainly has a lot to answer for.

I'm sorry, but I feel like a real skeptic here. Until I actually see a planet doing any of these things, I'm going to have to stick with my original assumption that tossing a Venus label onto this sighting is a little condescending for the folks involved.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Durban 'UFO' was actually Venus, says prof

July 05 2004 at 10:12AM

By Bhavna Sookha


A professor from the University of KwaZulu-Natal has quashed reports that there were sightings of an unidentified flying object in Phoenix last week.

Arthur Hughes, professor of physics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, who viewed the video footage, said the object on film was not an unidentified flying object.

"It couldn't have been a fireball as they don't usually last that long. It also could not have been a satellite as they pass over quite quickly. Satellites go around the earth in 90 minutes," he said.

When questioned about whether the university had received any other calls about unusual sightings last Sunday, Hughes said that he had received no other calls.

"I have also heard of no other reports of unusual sightings for that period.

"It was the planet Venus. Venus is visible in the early parts of the morning," he said.

But the woman who saw the object, Roshnie Naidu, says that she knows what she saw and it was definitely not Venus.

"Initially I was very sceptical about UFOs and alien sightings but after I experienced what I experienced for hours on Sunday morning, I am more open-minded," she said.

Naidu's husband, Shrirama, who also saw the huge light, said they had expected people to be sceptical when they discussed what they had seen with each other.

"We expected this reaction. But we both could not have been mistaken," he said.

http://iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_id=vn20040705101241233C924171

 

[Xeyes]

Mistaking a star for a banana as large as a moon? I just really feel like I'm missing something here from my own experiences sky watching. "Sky Shock" certainly has a lot to answer for.

I'm sorry, but I feel like a real skeptic here. Until I actually see a planet doing any of these things, I'm going to have to stick with my original assumption that tossing a Venus label onto this sighting is a little condescending for the folks involved.

Yes got to agree there. It is incredible that "proffessors" etc actually accuse people (including those who have lives depending on them able to interpret things correctly, like pilots) of confusing what they see with Venus or Jupiter or the Moon. Its just so insulting. As soon as a sighting is diagnosed as such you just know there talking Crap and probably not listening or being in the least scientific.

 

[Anonymous]

Are there any good pictures of these planets that appear as UFO's?? There seems to be a lot of people saying that Venus has a part to play, why didn't they back up there arguments with photographic proof? I personally don't believe you could mix up a planet for a ufo ?

I want pictorial proof!!!

 

[Anonymous]

I remember when Mars was at opposition it was mistaken for a UFO many times, sometimes on this board;
another experience of this sort was when my colleague phoned me in the middle of the night saying he could see a 'cigar-shaped' object in the night sky; when I looked I could see it too, a shadowy cigar-shaped optical illusion joining the planets Mars and Jupiter together which were in conjunction a couple of degrees apart at the time.

One indicator of a misidentified planet is when you ask the witness 'how bright was it compared to the planet (Venus. Mars or Jupiter) or the star Sirius which should have been nearby in the sky?'
and the witness replies 'I didn't see any planet, just this light in the sky'...

not completely conclusive, but generally a good indication of the true state of affairs.