Darting objects in night sky

auzworld

Just came in from the back yard in walkintown area... and saw another object ( thats twice I saw these ) ... very faint but defo able to keep track of its unusual movements ..... its like a faint star but moves across the sky ... then stops .. then shoots off in another direction ... then stops ... then does a circular movement and stops ... then move across the sky .... at various speeds... some movements are very quick in acceleration ... very quick !!
the last time i posted people were saying its a shooting star or very high alt helicopters ... no way .... its not too hard to spot unusual movement in the sky these days .... anyone see anything like this .... Its not a plane for sure....

monkeysnapper

When you say twice when was last time or are you saying twice tonight

auzworld

Well .... It would have been a few months ago ... I saw a similar object... just like a faint star that did similar movements... changing direction and speeding up ... this time the object had more erratic movements .... after the first one... anytime I would be out for a smoke Id scan the sky and keep an eye on stars looking for movement .... I'd really only spend the 4-5 mins doing this then come in ... but on a good night you can see the sky very well....

monkeysnapper

I have some astro binoculars and I've been taking them out while walking dogs this last couple of weeks as sky is crystal. But didnt see anything . Sounds to me by your post your very suspicious about what's going on in the sky

auzworld

I suppose I'm lucky to have seen the first one and its made me more aware / alert ... the first one stopped its movements after a while and sat there for a few mins looking like a star. I got bored / sore neck :P and came in that time.. .... but did cover a good portion of the sky while i was observing it.....

I just took rough reference of stars in the sky tonight and scanned each star briefly for movement / position and moved on ...I picked up this one moving slightly at first.... then acceleration in a straight line and stopped.... then started again .... I was surprised to see it do two tight circular movements at a very quick and tight rate. .... I kept track of it as it moved from a 45 degree angle view to nearly roughfully above me ... but during this period it would stop .. change direction for a short perios at speed sometimes.. .. then move again... moving past stars as a reference of its speed .. this was not as bright as the first one but its defo interesting and unusual thing to witness. It moved into cloud cover and i lost it after that ... but there was no cloulds in sky when I was tracking it at the time

taytothief

A group of us went camping when we were in our early teens and saw something similar to you op. What looked like stars moving at a quick pace all night long. I've seen it since then over the years on a couple of occasions, but I've since been convinced that they're merely boring satellites.

That's my spiel.

ps200306

Satellites move in straight tracks across the sky, so it wasn't that.

Two other possibilities -- if there is any cloud movement around, stars and planets at night time often seem to be "flying" relative to the clouds, although this woudn't explain erratic, darting movement.

Much more likely explanation -- if you were only out for 4 or 5 mins to have a smoke, that is not nearly enough time for your eyes to become properly dark adjusted. You are having new objects continually appear in your view as your eyes become adjusted. Initially you are only barely/subliminally aware of them. The darting motion is the motion of your own eyeballs as you scan the sky ... have seen it many times myself. The reason why they eventually settle down is become they come properly into view and you are now aware of their position.

Even after dark adjustment, you can see darting lights as your eyes move about. Your peripheral vision is more acute than the centre of your vision so you will see things out of the corner of your eye that you cannot see when you look straight on. Again, these will move about relative to your eyeballs when you look around. People watching meteor showers will often initially see numerous imagined meteors this way, until they've seen enough of them to get used to what the real thing looks like.

auzworld

I agree with your explanation on how things can appear to seem to move as your eyes dart from one point to another and adjust and focus on the same point in the sky ... thats true ....and and good point ... but have to say this was not the case.

Not to sound crazy... but I caught two tonight ... and they were doing circular paths around a stationary star...then seemly racing away from each other then coming together again... they are not as bright as regular stars and I use a fixed star to track their position in the sky relative to it as they were very close to one.... so they would go past the star then come back on themselves moving past the same star...

One had a bmx bike and a long finger.... <<<Ok had to throw that joke in ...could not resist

TheChizler

Would there happen to be a light source around when you see them? Or trees in the viscinity?

auzworld

No ... My back yard is quite void of light ... I do get a clear view of the sky ... No trees at all ....

ps200306

auzworld wrote: »

I agree with your explanation on how things can appear to seem to move as your eyes dart from one point to another and adjust and focus on the same point in the sky ... thats true ....and and good point ... but have to say this was not the case.

Not to sound crazy... but I caught two tonight ... and they were doing circular paths around a stationary star...then seemly racing away from each other then coming together again... they are not as bright as regular stars and I use a fixed star to track their position in the sky relative to it as they were very close to one.... so they would go past the star then come back on themselves moving past the same star...

One had a bmx bike and a long finger.... <<<Ok had to throw that joke in ...could not resist

Any idea how tight a turn they were taking around the stationary star? i.e. what angular width was the radius of turn ... perhaps in terms of the width of the moon (there was a crescent up this evening) or the distance between two stars that you recognise?

Have you averted your gaze to check you can still see them out of the corner of your eye? Do you wear any sort of corrective lenses?

Did the one on the bmx have a towel over their head?

monkeysnapper

Are you using anything to zoom in on what you are seeing

auzworld

ps200306 >> The turn around the star was just smaller the moon in size ..... sharp enough .... but was doing a clockwise move...
I'd be able to look away and find them again due based on the patch of sky i was looking at due to their movement ... I'd need to concentrate on that patch but would find them again ... I got very good eyesight and don't wear corrective lenses ...
regarding averting my gaze ... I would focus on the stationary star and see movement from these things at the corner of my eye ..
Nope .. it was not a towel .. .I think one of them was holding a phone

monkeysnapper > no i'm not using anything ... will dig out a a pair of bio's and try to steady them on something stationary if i can...

davej

Could it have been someone else using a laser to point at stars?

eg something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sSEvmws8zs


davej

zenno

There is a possibility that what you are seeing are tests of taranis or other new drone tests.

http://www.baesystems.com/article/BAES_057647/taranis-passes-the-test?_afrLoop=4411107202893000&_afrWindowMode=0&_afrWindowId=null&baeSessionId=1S5KQ0KXfS1K7w9NhGQ46LdmWmQyLJnWksj2zTNb11Yg74Z4vcD2!791695071

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-01/14/taranis-drone

riskybusiness

Thats madness, could be drone tests...

riskybusiness

zenno wrote: »

There is a possibility that what you are seeing are tests of taranis or other new drone tests.

http://www.baesystems.com/article/BAES_057647/taranis-passes-the-test?_afrLoop=4411107202893000&_afrWindowMode=0&_afrWindowId=null&baeSessionId=1S5KQ0KXfS1K7w9NhGQ46LdmWmQyLJnWksj2zTNb11Yg74Z4vcD2!791695071

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-01/14/taranis-drone

whoops x2

ps200306

Quite unlikely to be a UK military drone test:

a) would be in British military airspace, not Irish civilian airspace

b) probably wouldn't be flying around with lights on

c) it's usually easy to spot an airplane - red, green and white lights wink off and on as fuselage and wings obscure the lights from different angles.

d) even military planes can't make manoeuvres that could be described as "darting"

e) you can generally hear jet planes even at 30,000 feet -- would have to be very stealthy indeed

f) chances of seeing not just one, but multiple test drones multiple nights in a row seem pretty slim

ps200306

Are the lights point-like or fuzzy? Do they look like stars? Do they dart about as if projected onto the sky/clouds (someone else mentioned laser pointers).

auzworld

Its a sharp point ... just like a star ( faint) ... they don't dart wildly . like shoot across the sky .. but sometimes increase speed at an good rate. ... most time at the same speed .. not to fast

Ok ... to give you an idea ....
at 6 to 17 seconds a star moves close to the top left of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJRKfCDfadc
Well fade this to a distant star ... accellerate it by 1.5 times this speed of video object ... and make it stop and start and go in different directions in straight lines ... and a odd time make it do a circle motion ... ... then your probably looking at what i saw !!

I remember the first time i saw one it was moving about then stopped for a good 2 mins and sat there looking like a star ... then decide to move for 2-3 mins ... then stopped I remember keeping my eye on it and it waited .. i nearly lost my concentration but was glad to catch it move again ..... it moved back again and then stopped and stayed there till i got fed up and came in ....

ps200306

How many times/how often have you seen these? I have to admit I'm pretty stumped.

ZeRoY

Chinese lanterns? They are extremely prone to erratic and sudden movement as they are very light and catch the wind very easily ... They can also appear to stop if there direction changes to the one you are looking at! Finally they can stay in the sky for quite a long time and reach good altitudes...

ps200306

ZeRoY wrote: »

Chinese lanterns? They are extremely prone to erratic and sudden movement as they are very light and catch the wind very easily ... They can also appear to stop if there direction changes to the one you are looking at! Finally they can stay in the sky for quite a long time and reach good altitudes...

But ... two of them doing circular motions and then heading off opposite directions? ... doesn't sound wind driven.

ZeRoY

ps200306 wrote: »

But ... two of them doing circular motions and then heading off opposite directions? ... doesn't sound wind driven.

Im just trying to be realistic here, what else could it be?

ps200306

ZeRoY wrote: »

Im just trying to be realistic here, what else could it be?

That's what we're trying to get to the bottom of.

taytothief

Oh I give up. It's aliens. We should all just accept that now.

ps200306

taytothief wrote: »

Oh I give up. It's aliens. We should all just accept that now.

What evidence are you basing that on? Seems pretty unlikely.

al28283

Bats

taytothief

al28283 wrote: »

Bats

Bats with headlamps.

al28283

taytothief wrote: »

Bats with headlamps.

Bats reflecting light

taytothief

al28283 wrote: »

Bats reflecting light

Bats wearing mirrors you mean? I'm fairly confident bats can't hover in one spot. He'd probably hear them too.

al28283

Bats can hover, not for minutes at a time but the can hover. They also very hard to hear unless you're very close

Maudi

auzworld wrote: »

ps200306 >> The turn around the star was just smaller the moon in size ..... sharp enough .... but was doing a clockwise move...
I'd be able to look away and find them again due based on the patch of sky i was looking at due to their movement ... I'd need to concentrate on that patch but would find them again ... I got very good eyesight and don't wear corrective lenses ...
regarding averting my gaze ... I would focus on the stationary star and see movement from these things at the corner of my eye ..
Nope .. it was not a towel .. .I think one of them was holding a phone

monkeysnapper > no i'm not using anything ... will dig out a a pair of bio's and try to steady them on something stationary if i can...

hi..i dont smoke but f its clear i would be out for a look every hour or so..ive seen lots of (i presume to be )space junk going across the sky.small star size moving fairly slowly...ive spotted the i.s.s a few times..im gona keep an eye out for your tingys ..if im looking north what position on the clock should i be looking.so to speak.

Jesus Nut

I think I have seen the same thing you have OP.

I have no clue as to what it is.

I am a Pilot and twice while flying at night I have seen this type of thing in the sky and asked Shannon Radar to confirm if there was other traffic in my area and I got a No.

Last year, at about 2am I was at Birmingham airport on the ramp. It was a clear night and I spotted the same thing and a couple of other crew and workers on the airport ramp seen 2 things aswell. They stop. Then dart off fast or move slow. We called the airport tower at the time to see if they had anything odd on radar but they didnt.

We put it down to mabey the RAF testing some sort of new aircraft not disclosed to the public yet or mabey the yanks.

ZeRoY

An airplane coming directly towards your direction can be funny sight too....

nervous_twitch

I've also seen something very similar (but have kept schtum until now for fear of sounding like a loon.) Initially I thought it was a satellite, as it was travelling through the sky in that same way, but then it just stopped - remained completely stationary for about 20 seconds - before darting across the sky at a completely different angle, with incredible speed. Its movements were strictly linear though, no circles.

It was definitely an object outside of our atmosphere (ie not a chinese lantern ) and looked pretty much identical to how a satellite might, just with this bizarre, impossible trajectory. I'm fairly rational though so I assume it was just an optical illusion or something. Maybe a satellite, a star and a meteoroid conspiring to confuse me. Or maybe it was the twelve beers I had. Kidding. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled while the skies are clear.

auzworld

The first time I saw one..... I though I was looking at some metor ... but when it stopped .. I was like Wtf ?? ... then changed direction ... was like WTF ??? Well .. I glad I'm not the only person that see these things .... as you mentioned defo outside of our atmosphere .... I believe this is true ... !!

al28283

nervous_twitch wrote: »

It was definitely an object outside of our atmosphere

How can you tell it's outside of our atmosphere? I'm certain that's impossible to tell with the naked eye

nervous_twitch

al28283 wrote: »

How can you tell it's outside of our atmosphere? I'm certain that's impossible to tell with the naked eye

Perhaps you're right. I think my semantics are wrong. I just meant it didn't appear to be of the troposphere; too far out to be a bat or a bird or a plane. It looked no different from a satellite or star. But like I said, optics aren't always reliable so I don't know.

MMAGirl

no idea what it was. I saw the exact same thing last week.

Ive seen plenty of meteors, satellites, space station, chinese lanterns and so on.
It was definitely none of those. Wasnt my imagination because my husband saw it too.

ps200306

nervous_twitch wrote: »

Perhaps you're right. I think my semantics are wrong. I just meant it didn't appear to be of the troposphere; too far out to be a bat or a bird or a plane. It looked no different from a satellite or star. But like I said, optics aren't always reliable so I don't know.

But a star may be a billion times wider than a satellite. So something that looks like a star or satellite could just as easily be a torch from half a mile away or a bat in a tinfoil suit. Depth perception is notoriously non-existent at night.

A plane at 30,000 ft is probably doing 700 miles per hour. Something that looks similar but is "darting" about is super unlikely to be at that distance -- it would have to be not only doing the same or greater speed but also undergoing pretty impossible accelerations. For a satellite you could multiply that by a factor of at least 25.

On that basis I'd say we're looking at something a lot closer to home.

ps200306

Would the people who have seen this be willing to say what region of the country they've seen it in? I do most of my sky watching in Wexford and have never seen it there.

ps200306

Also - what time of night? How long after sunset? What angular altitude -- e.g. close to the horizon or the zenith or somewhere in between? Was it near any constellations or planets that you recognised? Was there any moon?

auzworld

Well I live in west dublin ( walkinstown area ) .... So the area of sky would be a bit more west .. about more half way from horizon and it travelled to near vertical of my location... 2-3 nights ago i witnessed it on a clear night without a moon .... there would have been small patches of cloud in areas but largely clear.... will try to give you more detail when i get another clear night as tonight is cloudy ... would have been 9pm -10 pm at the time.

ps200306

On these cold nights ... has anyone considered the possibility of sparks from a neighbour's chimney? It would certainly have the right sort of erratic movement. You might poohpah the idea of not being able to tell the difference between something ten yards away and ten light years away, but at night it's completely impossible. I remember seeing a large fire on the ground from a plane once -- it was only when it was still visible half an hour later I realised it was either the biggest fire ever... or a light on the end of the wing.

Motopepe

dont forget eye floaters!

ps200306

Motopepe wrote: »

dont forget eye floaters!

I wouldn't think they'd produce luminous effects -- they don't for me anyway.

nervous_twitch

ps200306 wrote: »

But a star may be a billion times wider than a satellite. So something that looks like a star or satellite could just as easily be a torch from half a mile away or a bat in a tinfoil suit. Depth perception is notoriously non-existent at night.

A plane at 30,000 ft is probably doing 700 miles per hour. Something that looks similar but is "darting" about is super unlikely to be at that distance -- it would have to be not only doing the same or greater speed but also undergoing pretty impossible accelerations. For a satellite you could multiply that by a factor of at least 25.

On that basis I'd say we're looking at something a lot closer to home.

I'm not an idiot. Whatever I saw I can't explain - even if it was indeed a plane, it was still undergoing pretty impossible accelerations. I've no doubt there's a reasonable explanation for whatever it was, I just havent worked out what that might be. Those who say bats, or lanterns or floaters (all of which, as a regular stargazer, I have seen) really don't have a clear idea of what I'm referring to. It wasn't on the horizon. It was up. The faintest pin of blue light, which - when stationary - sat amongst the stars like any other. The kind of thing you'd only see if you were specifically looking at the night sky.

I knew I shouldnt have said anything, because people immediately assume you're heralding the arrival of aliens. I know that it was either a natural phenomenon or something that my own vision misunderstood (though with all these similar reports I do wonder), but for someone to say it was just a plane or chimney sparks is insulting tbh.

nervous_twitch

Also, I'm in South Dublin. Can't remember if the moon was out or not. About one or two am. Much closer to zenith than horizon. I'd taken out the telescope to look at Vega and Deneb.

ps200306

nervous_twitch wrote: »

I'm not an idiot. Whatever I saw I can't explain - even if it was indeed a plane, it was still undergoing pretty impossible accelerations. I've no doubt there's a reasonable explanation for whatever it was, I just havent worked out what that might be. Those who say bats, or lanterns or floaters (all of which, as a regular stargazer, I have seen) really don't have a clear idea of what I'm referring to. It wasn't on the horizon. It was up. The faintest pin of blue light, which - when stationary - sat amongst the stars like any other. The kind of thing you'd only see if you were specifically looking at the night sky.

I knew I shouldnt have said anything, because people immediately assume you're heralding the arrival of aliens. I know that it was either a natural phenomenon or something that my own vision misunderstood (though with all these similar reports I do wonder), but for someone to say it was just a plane or chimney sparks is insulting tbh.

n_t, I definitely didn't mean to imply that you were an idiot. I was just interested in your original statement that "It was definitely an object outside of our atmosphere". I take it now that you meant "its appearance was like objects outside our atmosphere but its behaviour makes that unlikely/impossible". I'm not sure why you would consider a suggestion like chimney sparks insulting, bearing in mind that you agree that whatever it was, it was probably not what it appeared to be. In other words, it was star-like in appearance but behaved as only a very nearby object could normally behave, in terms of angular speed and acceleration. I think if someone had said to me that my fire spotted from the air was actually a light on the end of the plane's wing, I would not have been insulted but would have tried to explain why a wing light was not consistent with the appearance and behaviour I was seeing (in which case, as it turns out, I would have been wrong).

maguffin

This isn't exactly the same, but it shows you that some thought it was a UFO, others a 'Drone' and some a 'Planet'.....but everyone saw these lights including the TV presenter....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZc3jM_xxZ4

and...UFO doesn't always mean 'aliens'