General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsUFO: I was on the roof of a friends apartment with 5 other people. We all witnessed this event.
This happend on friday night at a friends birthday party. San Francisco CA two block from the panhandle. Anyone else out there see this??
The first object to appear was a small red balloon sized glowing object that floated about the roofs of the houses 3 or 4 blocks from us. It traveled seeming only under power of the pendulum swinging motion it was making. Every front swing it would move forward and every back swing it would stay still. We all commented on how weird it was, but just assumed it was some party favor run amok from someones back yard.
This lasted maybe for 2 minutes before the light just fizzled and the whole apparatus disappeared from view.
About 15 minutes later. So around 11 or 11-30 I want to say. A HUGE red light, the exact same color of the red bobbing light, came over the hill of Buena Vista Park and moved fairly quickly in an arching motion upwards and over the city till it came to a complete stop over the city. It was quite startling and left everyone dumb-struck for a moment before we all became very excited at the prospect of what we were witnessing.
It hung in the air for about 10 minutes, just sitting. At this time it was about the size of a planet in the sky. One of my friends remarked it looked like it was trying to be Mars.
IT then slowly, very slowly descended about 40 feet in the air. Stopped flickered the way the much smaller light had, then was gone from the night sky.
We discussed the possiblity of it being a helicopter, however the light was one SINGLE bright source, and was not blinking the way flight lights do. Also SILENT no noise what so ever.
We tried to film it with our camera phones but nothing showed up on them.
Also please spare me the 4/20 jokes, this certainly was not because of weed...
I've looked and I've looked for other reports. None in the papers, just wondering if any other SF DUers were looking skyward that night.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)We wish to not have any attention brought to this matter...
You will be compensated for not being able to remember the incident-
DFab420
(2,466 posts)Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)Swede
(33,257 posts)I hear the music, daylight disc
Three men in black said, "Don't report this"
"Ascension," and that's all they said
Sickness now, the hour's dread
All praise
He's found the awful truth, Balthazar
He's found the saucer news
I'm in fairy rings and tower beds
"Don't report this," three men said
Books by the blameless and by the dead
King in yellow, queen in red
All praise
He's found the awful truth, Balthazar
He's found the saucer news
Dead leaves always give up motion
I no longer feel the motion
Where prophecy fails, the falling motion
"Don't report this, agents of fortune"
All praise
He's found the awful truth, Balthazar
He's found the saucer news
itsrobert
(14,157 posts)Up until last week I never heard that term before. Now I have heard it on the radio and in this forum in less than a week. Just odd.
DFab420
(2,466 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)This is the first I've heard of it too.
Xyzse
(8,217 posts)I was told 420 was the designation that police use for a drug bust.
DFab420
(2,466 posts)4/20 is actually one of the original social memes.
Started as a way for kids to secretly discuss plans. Like.."I'll meet you at the statue at 4:20" means "I'll meet you at the statue to smoke pot"
calimary
(81,321 posts)Thanks for posting! I'd say keep a journal about it. There may be some point in which you can register this report with some UFO research organization.
NNN0LHI
(67,190 posts)Especially at parties.
Don
WI_DEM
(33,497 posts)especially on a Friday night in an exciting city like San Francisco which has a rich night life. Has it been reported on the news, radio, newspapers? or other word of mouth?
DFab420
(2,466 posts)reported it.
arikara
(5,562 posts)One time I saw the most vivid double rainbow directly over the parking lot that I was walking through. Everyone else that was out there was looking straight ahead like zombies. There are lots of interesting man-made phenomena in the sky too that we aren't allowed to discuss here. Not as dramatic as your sighting but I'm really not surprised that people didn't see it.
librechik
(30,674 posts)for locals who also saw your UFO--or report it yourself, they have a form to fill in and it's anonymous if you want
librechik
(30,674 posts)lob1
(3,820 posts)Could be Photoshopped.
librechik
(30,674 posts)Sighting Basics
Case Number 37688
Log Number US-04232012-0015
Date Submitted 04/23/2012 01:50 UTC
Date of the Event 04/20/2012 11:30 UTC
Source MUFON
Disposition Unresolved
Summary Red Orb came over hill in SF, Floated above city then flickered and disappear like a candle going out.
Tags disc lights
http://www.ufostalker.com/ufostalker/UFO+Sighting+in+San+Francisco+California+United+States+on+April+20th+2012/37688
site also has what looks like your sighting as a report--
DFab420
(2,466 posts)Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)I've seen some bizarre things myself with no logical explanation. I don't know the answer, just that more things are unexplainable.
Drew Richards
(1,558 posts)OnyxCollie
(9,958 posts)I had an experience similar to the OP's. I found out the objects were Chinese lanterns.
starroute
(12,977 posts)Only the bottom of the fire balloon is visible at night. It appears to follow the curved trajectory seen at the top of the picture at right. If the entire balloon were visible, it would appear similar to the bottom of the picture. The balloon oscillates around its center of mass, rocking back and forth. Very little energy is required to produce this effect.
Why does the balloon oscillate? If the wind changes speed, the lighter top of the balloon can react quicker than the more massive bottom. When the wind speeds up, the top scoots ahead. The lighted disc appears to tilt forward, then move forward. It overshoots the top of the bag, and tilts the other way. It wobbles back and forth until it settles out, or until another disturbance sends it swinging the other way.
Phoonzang
(2,899 posts)I rather liked "high flying seed pods" as an explanation. Too bad that one didn't' stick around.
Ruby the Liberal
(26,219 posts)drokhole
(1,230 posts)http://www.amazon.com/UFOs-Generals-Pilots-Government-Officials/dp/0307717089/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335209439&sr=8-1
The foreword was written by John Podesta, President Clinton's former Chief of Staff.
FSogol
(45,488 posts)Very common this time of year, I mean night.
Speck Tater
(10,618 posts)And I saw a brilliant red like rise up above the trees. I couldn't tell how far away it was because it was dark and there was no way to tell what size it was. The light was peculiar in that it appeared "speckled". Years later I learned that this was a phenomenon common to lasers (when I worked at a company that used a lot of them.) I was going to tell my wife about it, so I turned around to go back into the apartment when I saw a red spot on the wall of the building, about four feet away from me, and about a yard in diameter. In the center of the red spot was the shadow of my head and shoulders. The reason the light was so bright was that it was pointed right straight at me! I turned back to look at it and it zoomed away at high speed.
The next day the newspaper had a brief account of people reporting sightings of bright red spheres in and around the Mountain View area.
swimboy
(7,284 posts)They came from the future to get your humpback whales.
drokhole
(1,230 posts)FailureToCommunicate
(14,014 posts)DCKit
(18,541 posts)We were way out in the country, in the Appalachians, and it was also a red ball of light, but it moved more like a helicopter - up and down, back and forth, often stationary. Given that there was another mountain behind and framing it, I'm thinking it wasn't Mars, either.
It lasted for about twenty minutes before zipping away (really fast) behind a hill that's less than 1/4 mile from where we were standing. First thing I would have thought would be St. Elmo's fire, but the area is totally devoid of electric lines, red isn't often reported, and I've never heard of St. Elmo's fire lasting that long.
I didn't even think of going in the house to get the camera or cell phone, 'cause every time I do that, I miss something good.
I'm still hoping to see a real fireball of a meteor, but I've seen some amazing meteorites, including a yellow one that exploded in a shower of yellow dust right over my head then, last summer, a green one that did the same, right after another green one had just fizzled out.
secondwind
(16,903 posts)a very bizarre bright light moving quickly from side to side, and then over and across, it was not a laser or a light of any kind we were familiar with.
I never forgot that. It had a quirky movement, and VERY fast.
Life Long Dem
(8,582 posts)You say you saw it Friday night though.
http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/npr1335011129-Lights-Off,-Eyes-Open-New-Moon-Darkens-Skies-For-Meteor-Shower.html
check media for boats experiencing difficulty that night.
obxhead
(8,434 posts)I lost contact with my drone at 10:48 PM that night.
Robb
(39,665 posts)...has nothing to do with the eyewitnesses themselves. Or whether or not they're drinking or smoking.
The problem is that in order to know an object's size, distance and speed at all, you need to know one of those values in advance. Otherwise the mind conveniently makes up a value for one of them and calculates the rest on bad data.
For example, when you see a helicopter flying "fast" some distance away (you guess), you're probably on track because you have some idea how big a helicopter is. When you see a swallow darting past, you don't think "that's a supersonic airplane in the distance" because you recognize the bird.
However a "light in the sky" is predictably impossible to gauge -- it could be a bright, distant light, or a much nearer, less bright light, or nearly any size -- in fact so much so that the phenomenon has been used in deceptive warfare since the event of air power.
That said, I of course have even less idea what you might've seen than you do. But thanks to the "fill in the gaps" power of the brain, I'd say it almost certainly was not the size, distance or speed you thought it was.
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts).... be sure you have exhausted any and all sensible explanations before jumping on to highly unlikely ones.
Be rational. I know it's not as much fun, but the results are better.
And beings traveling 100's of 10000's of light years to our planet is way less sensible than swamp gas and meteors.... especially since there were meteor showers near to the event.
Actually..."I don't know" is more sensible than "ALIENS!!!!!"
antigone382
(3,682 posts)I was in Montpelier, Vt this year, where they celebrated First Night by lighting paper lanterns and sending them off into the night sky. Most were white, but some were red or other colors. They glow and float in the air for a long time, then slowly descend as they burn out.
Can't say for sure, but that's what it sounds like to me.