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Unexplained phenomena while sailing...

5K views 22 replies 12 participants last post by  guitarguy56 
#1 ·
Here is my story on things we can't explain and those of us that have sailed under the darkest of skies while in the middle of the ocean or even close to shore...

Back in the 80's I was on assignment to AUTEC on Andros Island in the Bahamas... this is the Atlantic Underwater Test and Evaluation Center run by the U.S. Navy... while on a break we went to the Tiki bar by the beach and some of us were just having some drinks and looking out into the sea and sky somewhere around 9 PM... I (and others there) saw what looked like 8-9 stars (the magnitude of the light was the same as stars in the background) flying in all different directions and then all flew to one point of light and traveled some distance together until about the distance of half the view of the sky then dispersed into the same 8-9 lights and shot out of the horizon... now I'm an astronomy buff and know this was not birds, planes, balloons, etc... this was in space at least 20-50 miles up or more... we were blown away by what we saw... nothing can describe what we saw...

I am sure such things or phenomena have been seen by others... what have you seen above or below the water you cannot explain?
 
#2 · (Edited)
I saw small balls of light moving up and down while on Lake Michigan(night.) 100 ft up and down 10ft from the water . Kinda like lights in movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Next: as crossing Gulf of Mexico at night heard sounds like kids yelling, so much so that I yelled back ! I was surprised when no one yelled back. Probably Porpoise or Whales. ---Arrived at night near nuclear power plant and SMOKE was in shape of giant
Chicken. I was sober. Don't drink while underway. & not tired enough to hallucinate.
 
#4 ·
I, too, am an avid amateur astronomer. Once, out in the desert near Palm Springs, I was looking up star hopping to Andromeda when I saw a small, pinpoint light, probably around Magnitude 3 or 4, slowly cruising North to South. Nothing unusual, I'm used to seeing satellites flying overhead. This one was unusual, however, because about half way across the sky, it stopped dead in it's tracks. It then brightened to appoximately Magnitude 1 for about 60 seconds, then receded back to it's original brightness, and then started moving to the South again. I had the distinct impression that during the time it had stopped it was actually descending closer to Earth, hence why it became brighter. To this day I have no idea what it was.
 
#7 ·
Eric... I've seen objects that do change direction and so have the space shuttle cameras... they also recorded objects changing 90 degrees after stopping for an instant.

Glad there is another amateur astronomer on these boards... I have an Orion Astroview 120 refractor (my best refractor) and a Meade LX200... seen some stuff lighting up on the Moon one time but didn't have the camera set up. What's your set up? Star parties, etc.

TimR... suggest you get a VW moon hubcap... works better! :D
 
#12 ·
Did he mean Iridium Flare? Find An Iridium Flare

We saw one at the Winter Star Party in the Keys some years ago. The 'flare' part is very fast & very short, not likely to be mistaken for anything else.

guitarguy56 said:
. . .seen some stuff lighting up on the Moon one time but didn't have the camera set up.
Was it in the Aristarchus region?
 
#9 ·
If you had no memory loss and your bunghole did not hurt for days after seeing these things, it was just a happy show in the sky. A lot of times I pretend not to see things so I don't get into trouble... ;)
But seriously... (well, that is a loaded term)... did you ever experience any psychological phenomena possibly connected with UFO/aliens? Some people say that they can read your mind or communicate through thoughts. A bit like ghosts.
 
#10 ·
I just finished watching something on Youtube pertaining to exactly what you saw. It is believed that these are actually UFOs and this has been confirmed many times by various high level sources. Personally, I've never seen anything approaching that, but I sincerely believe we are NOT alone in the universe.

Gary :cool:
 
#11 ·
I have seen things in the skies over the Pine Barrens of Southern NJ I could never explain.

The strangest was a serious of 5 lights that flashed from right to left, seemingly only a few hundred feet above the trees. As a whole they were traveling to the east and making no noise even though each flash light up the ground like a flashbulb.

Saw them every day for a week (sometimes from directly underneath) and once chased them all the way to Great Bay at the Mouth of the Mullica. (about 10 miles by car) and then they disappeared for a week.

The next time I saw anything, they were obviously man made, probably flares dropped from a plane. They traveled from west to east and the flashes went right to left, but the "lights" were uneven and you could hear the plane.

If they had been UFOs (well, technically they were) the government was doing a good job of covering it up
 
#13 · (Edited)
For laughs look at this raw footage of STS Mission 123... focus on the lower right of the screen...



Region where I saw spots of light was Mare Nectaris... lower right of the Moon during a quarter moon... bright and very clear that night using the refractor... very high resolution hence no camera on the eyepiece.
 
#17 ·
guitarguy56 said:
Region where I saw spots of light was Mare Nectaris... lowerright of theMoon during a quarter moon... bright and very clear that night using the refractor... very high resolution hence no camera on the eyepiece.
Flashes, or extended duration? Stationary?

Meteor Impacts Moon
 
#18 ·
It may have been a small impact flash from some meteor... problem with this is the flashes were on/off for several seconds in the same region observed... this happened for more than one occasion that night... now I know NASA inserted a mirror to get laser measurements, etc... but the location of the mirror is at the Sea of Tranquility... so not there.



As can be seen in this map quite a number of impacts in Mare Nectaris region... who knows?
 
#21 ·
Not sure a gimbaled system would work reliably and be able to resolve the night sky... great idea just not practible on a boat, the complexity, weight, storage, etc... even looking through binoculars at night is rough with rolling waves, etc.

A tripod with motion sensing and adjusting legs may help similar to adjusting shocks on a car, the D/A processing would need to be pretty significant to 'foresee' the next adjustments (rolling waves)... this is the problem the military has with adjusting mirrors for camouflage in real time... processing power while in movement mimicking the background.
 
#22 ·
Here is my story on things we can't explain and those of us that have sailed under the darkest of skies while in the middle of the ocean or even close to shore...

Back in the 80's I was on assignment to AUTEC on Andros Island in the Bahamas... this is the Atlantic Underwater Test and Evaluation Center run by the U.S. Navy... while on a break we went to the Tiki bar by the beach and some of us were just having some drinks and looking out into the sea and sky somewhere around 9 PM... I (and others there) saw what looked like 8-9 stars (the magnitude of the light was the same as stars in the background) flying in all different directions and then all flew to one point of light and traveled some distance together until about the distance of half the view of the sky then dispersed into the same 8-9 lights and shot out of the horizon... now I'm an astronomy buff and know this was not birds, planes, balloons, etc... this was in space at least 20-50 miles up or more... we were blown away by what we saw... nothing can describe what we saw...

I am sure such things or phenomena have been seen by others... what have you seen above or below the water you cannot explain?
Think how much unexplained stuff people have seen near AUTEC "Henry, I'm telling you, I just saw a periscope." :D
 
#23 · (Edited)
True... we did a lot of testing on some far out equipment I can't divulge due to my clearances... they consider AUTEC the Area 51 of the Navy... go figure... I will say it's where our submarines and other advanced underwater naval equipment gets tested for 'signatures', ULF and other neat stuff... if you're into it... I did some torpedo testing... :cool:

I think the locals might see strange stuff but for the most part they know the facility there and perhaps what the Navy is doing there... many work as civilians there as cooks, cleaning services, food delivery, etc... it's a whole city out there self contained.
 
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