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.