Posted on 11/22/2008 9:03:13 AM PST by JoeProBono
The Austin Planetarium is now investigating some strange sights in the sky - caught on tape. An astronomy expert is calling them unidentified flying objects - UFOs.
Some men who live in a Central Austin apartment building say they've seen bizarre things in the sky for months, but lately it's been more frequent. The men recorded their sightings on home video. Experts from the Austin Planetarium visited the apartment building area Friday night to see if they could also spot the objects
(Excerpt) Read more at keyetv.com ...
Retro: Stephenville, Texas:
“Dozens in Texas Town Report Seeing UFO
In this Texas farming community where nightfall usually brings clear, starry skies, residents are abuzz over reported sightings of what many believe is a UFO.
Several dozen people in Stephenville, Texas — including a pilot, county constable and business owners — insist they have seen a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast. Some reported seeing fighter jets chasing it.
“People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it’s the end of times,” said Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot who said the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide. “It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts.”
While federal officials insist there’s a logical explanation, locals swear that it was larger, quieter, faster and lower to the ground than an airplane. They also said the object’s lights changed configuration, unlike those of a plane. People in several towns who reported seeing it over several weeks have offered similar descriptions of the object.
Machinist Ricky Sorrells said friends made fun of him when he told them he saw a flat, metallic object hovering about 300 feet over a pasture behind his Dublin home. But he decided to come forward after reading similar accounts in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune.
“You hear about big bass or big buck in the area, but this is a different deal,” Sorrells said. “It feels good to hear that other people saw something, because that means I’m not crazy.”
Sorrells said he has seen the object several times. He said he watched it through his rifle’s telescopic lens and described it as very large and without seams, nuts or bolts.
Maj. Karl Lewis, a spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth, said no F-16s or other aircraft from his base were in the area the night of Jan. 8, when most people reported the sighting.
Lewis said the object may have been an illusion caused by two commercial airplanes. Lights from the aircraft would seem unusually bright and may appear orange from the setting sun.
“I’m 90 percent sure this was an airliner,” Lewis said. “With the sun’s angle, it can play tricks on you.”
Hypothetically, Lewis said, an object of the reported size traveling through the atmosphere would leave a catastrophic “sound signature or footprint.”
“An aircraft traveling that fast and at that low altitude would leave an approximate path of four miles wide of damage,” Lewis said. “Low and fast like what was described, would leave a path similar to that of a tornado - it’s a pressure differentiation.”
Another point, he said, was something that fast and low to the ground would create thermal heat, which would create a vapor trail and none was reported.
Lewis said he knows of a plane traveling at mach one speed at an altitude of 5,000 feet, which caused a cinderblock house to collapse, so he doesn’t believe what witnesses spotted was actually a craft of any kind.
Officials at the region’s two Air Force bases — Dyess in Abilene and Sheppard in Wichita Falls — also said none of their aircraft were in the area last week. The Air Force no longer investigates UFOs.
One man has offered a reward for a photograph or videotape of the mysterious object.
Erath County Constable Lee Roy Gaitan said that he first saw red glowing lights and then white flashing lights moving fast, but that even with binoculars could not see the object to which the lights were attached.
“I didn’t see a flying saucer and I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t an airplane, and I’ve never seen anything like it,” Gaitan said. “I think it must be some kind of military craft — at least I hope it was.”
Source: MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22656172/?gt1=10755
You believe in flying saucers too? LOL
Trash-bags with candles and a little pot and you’ve got UFO-mania. After all it is Austin it San Francisco of Texas.
THANKS.
GREAT ARTICLE.
Blessings,
Heading to pottery shortly.
I believe that was a Twilight Zone episode.
I think so too : )
I’m fascinated w/ the subject.
Please put me on the ping list.
Oh no, Rick Rolled again.
: ) I believe! I have seen it with my own two eyes!
They’re sky lanterns. Lots of fun, and look just like UFOs.
See links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kongming_lantern
http://www.theskylantern.com/info/Sky_Lantern.html
Those Kanamits are a dangerous species, they are not to be trusted....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.