I saw a UFO tonight.

[HenryC]

I did tonight what I often do on clear nights. I go out and lie stretched out on my driveway and look straight up at the stars.  This time I had my new 10x50 monocular.  The Cygnus Milky Way was directly overhead, a patch of sky rich in stars.

I live in the city, and light pollution really ruins the view.  It doesn't help that there are streetlights all around my house, either; but my car and a few strategic shrubs cast a shadow on one little spot where I can park myself and just look up.  Tonight, even the Milky Way was totally washed out, but occasionally I could see flocks of birds flying south.  They look like they are probably ibises, but its hard to tell for sure.  They fly high up, and are illuminated by the lights of the city below.  They are in groups of a dozen or so, sailing a couple of wingspans apart with a lazy beat.  I often wonder what it must be  like for them up there, in the cool and dark, with the city lights spread below.  What do they think, what do they feel?  They must be aware of their fellows flying along with them, perhaps they even call out to each other to reassure each other and help maintain formation.
The lead bird takes point, the others are scattered behind in a rough 'V', riding his slipstream.  Man, we live on a beautiful planet...

Directly above me I see a bright star where there is no star.  I can see it's not a plane, but there is no star in the empty place where it is.  Suddenly, it gets brighter.  That's no star, it continues to flare, brighter and brighter, brighter than nearby Deneb and Vega and Altair, the Summer Triangle of first magnitude stars that marks the path of the Milky Way.  Then just as suddenly, it begins to dim.  The whole flare-up just lasts a few seconds.  I manage to catch it in the field of view of the monocular and I get a good look at it.  It continues to dim as I watch it.

I can see now that it is moving, slowly creeping amongst the stars, travelling NE along the Milky Way.  It is an earth satellite in a polar orbit, the speed is unmistakeable.  It is now so dim I know if I lose track of it in the glass I will lose it.  It is getting much dimmer now, as its path takes it deeper into the earth's shadow.  For a brief moment, the setting sun reflected off a shiny surface and it flashed at me.  It is high up, it can still see the sun up there, over the curve of the horizon, even if it is dark here for me.  Like the birds, it has its own mysterious mission.  It is going somewhere, for a reason.

Satellites are very common in the hours after sunset, and even flashers like this one are not particularly unusual.  Sometimes you even get a "tumbler", one that flashes on and off as it tumbles throrough space, out of control.  Eventually, as their orbit carries them towards the east, they vanish altogether in the earth's shadow.

Do I know this for sure?  Of course not.  I know its not an aircraft, I see no navigation lights, but I don't know for certain its a satellite.  For all I know, its an alien spacecraft!   But I doubt it.  The satellite theory works just as good.  And we don't need UFOs.  We already live on a beautiful planet.

[chas5131]

The astronomers at Kitt Peak helped a group I joined see a satellite like that.   There is a website that helps in spotting those.  I do not recall the name or the URL.

[skip1930]

Sure is a lot of space junque floating around up there. I see satellites a lot and once in a while maybe a Lockheed expiremental air craft being put though it's paces...in the book Skunk Works the F117 stealth bomber flying at 220 knots flew Burbank to Cincinnati night after night and targeted the same apartment window for weeks and not one report of any unidentified air craft. As it should be.

skip.