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coulthamst

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On three occasions over the last five years or so whist idly scanning the night sky with one or other of my telescopes I have witnessed something I can't identify. A "fleet" of about eight - ten objects, travelling at around satellite speed or perhaps slightly faster, pass through the field of view. I would describe the formation of objects as a flattened triangle, (hypoteneuse trailing) and the individual members of the group are of more or less the same shape, but appear to be "winged".

I am not a UFO believer, just interested in finding out what it was that I saw.

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To amplify a little, the group was absolutely geometric, and perhaps better described as a flattened pyramid, not a "vee", whereas the individual members were of "Vee" form, again geometrical, with flat ends to the wings at ninety degrees to them.

And the wings did NOT flap.

I got the impression that this was some sort of satelite or "drone" plane group, but was hoping someone could positively identify the phenomenon.

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just a thought i live by the sea and the other night i was taken photos through my scope when a large flock of terns flew across my fov and this is not the first time this has happend to me do you live by the sea ? and they were very high at least they looked high just a thought.

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we have also seen military aircraft flying in formation late at night but not since the libya conflict has ended? and they looked like shinny objects was thinking ufo the first time until a mate told me iam under a flight path .

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To amplify a little, the group was absolutely geometric, and perhaps better described as a flattened pyramid, not a "vee", whereas the individual members were of "Vee" form, again geometrical, with flat ends to the wings at ninety degrees to them.

And the wings did NOT flap.

I got the impression that this was some sort of satelite or "drone" plane group, but was hoping someone could positively identify the phenomenon.

At altitude very few birds flap their wings and I can think of quite a few birds that have quite artificial looking triangular profiles.

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I need to clarify what I saw. The individual objects were stand-alone pairs of wings, with the leading and trailing edges parallel to each other. The "ends" of the wings were dead straight and along the line of the hypoteneuse. The included angle was of the order of 120 degrees. No bodies or tails. (or heads or beaks....)

The formation itself was also at about 120 degrees , but in rows - which I did not have time to count, as the passage took me by surprise, by the time I had got over my initial "what the..." the event was over.

The general impression was of some sort of early Atari game..... but I was observing at considerably over sixty degrees elevation, and in any case I don't think that such prehistoric consoles would survive in working order!

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  • 3 years later...

I have finally identified what I saw that prompted my original post here several years ago. Having today seen pictures of B2 Spirit bombers, I am convinced thatwhat  I saw a small group (around 8-10) of these planes on three separate occasions.

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I have finally identified what I saw that prompted my original post here several years ago. Having today seen pictures of B2 Spirit bombers, I am convinced thatwhat  I saw a small group (around 8-10) of these planes on three separate occasions.

I believe that there are only 76 operationally active B52s in the world.

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I am finally able to identify what I saw that led to this thread. Today I have seen pictures of America's B2 Spirit aircraft, and am convinced that my sighting was of a small grouping of these planes. They have unmistakeably the shape of the fleet I witnessed, and unless anyone can show me pictures of similarly arranged airborne objects I will consider that I have achieved a satisfactory identification.

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I am finally able to identify what I saw that led to this thread. Today I have seen pictures of America's B2 Spirit aircraft, and am convinced that my sighting was of a small grouping of these planes. They have unmistakeably the shape of the fleet I witnessed, and unless anyone can show me pictures of similarly arranged airborne objects I will consider that I have achieved a satisfactory identification.

Could be, but it's pretty unlikely given the low operational numbers. 

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B2 Spirit, not B52 Zakalwe. Google the pictures and you will see what is so distinctive about these planes, and how it is unlikely to mistake them for anything else that is not man made. Your reponses were so quick I thought I had failed to post my first effort, hence the reworded second post!

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B2 Spirit, not B52 Zakalwe. Google the pictures and you will see what is so distinctive about these planes, and how it is unlikely to mistake them for anything else that is not man made. Your reponses were so quick I thought I had failed to post my first effort, hence the reworded second post!

My apologies. My eyes were seeing "B2" but my mind was seeing B52. :BangHead: :BangHead:

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I am sure that what I saw was man-made. The outline of the objects was all straight lines and clearly defined angles. As an engineer for 38 years whose remit included assessments of shapes and forms  my mind is certain and clear as to the defined shape of the objects I saw. I cannot accept claims that what I saw was a flight of birds. If a similarly shaped mechanical object was put forward as a more likely subject I would happily capitulate, but no way were these living creatures.

By the way, the sightings took place in 2011. I have no knowledge of whether there were then more extant operational B2s, but I understand that upwards of 75 were originally constructed.

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Thanks for the wikipedia link Peter. The view of the underside of the aircraft to be seen on that page is precisely what I witnessed on three separate occasions in 2011. My info on the total number of aircraft built must be faulty.

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Birds flying at night are surprisingly bright against the night sky, especially to a dark-adapted telescopic user.

Occam's razor comes into play here - unless you have specific reasoning against birds at altitude, it's by far the most likely answer.

You cannot easily determine range at night, especially with a single aperture instrument, and the difference in focus distance would be small enough to be ignored. 

You also won't see much in the way of movement of the bird wings when they are cruising - especially at altitude in stable air - there are Youtube videos showing this quite clearly.

Birds fly at about the same speed relative to their body length as planes do, so it's very hard to distinguish between avian and aviation unless you have specific training in this area, which very few have. In other words, a bird cruising at a few thousand feet shows a similar flight and movement profile to an observer as an aircraft at a few tens of kilometres distance.

Given that the behaviour that has been described is more easily satisfied by a flock of birds than a rare multiple flight of rare military aircraft, I'd me more inclined to say it was birds.

Something to note, that was brought out in the recent Russian flights near EU airspace, is that military aircraft performing permitted overflight of Europe are in general supposed to have the nav lights on at night.

A question for the OP - what would it take to persuade you that what you saw was not in fact man-made?

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