Stars were moving last night

[Br4nd0n]

I was out having a cigar. Starry night. I remembered a few weeks ago, i saw a "UFO" it went from south to north in the western night sky fairly quickly, it looked as tiny as a star and seemed as far away, but it moved, if you put your arms out, maybe 3 feet across the sky in a straight line in a matter of seconds, faster than you see jets leaving vapor trails in the day time.

And then to my amazement i started counting last night how many i saw just moving in all directions, stars on different paths in the same manner that i described. But i stopped counting after 30 stars and grabbed the wife, she said it was an atmospheric storm. Im open to an explanation

 

[PloverWing]

The Perseids, perhaps? (Perseids - Wikipedia)

 

[JosephZ]

Most likely atmospheric refraction.

 

[JohnEmmett]

open to an explanation

People never look up


I suppose the “aliens” count on that

 

[timothyu]

Thousands of satellites going every which way have ruined sky watching. They don't blink like planes. But if you want to distinguish satellites from other phenomena, satellites don't make right angle turns nor to they skip like a stone on water then settle into a course across the sky. Digital cameras have made it easy to see anomalies using long time exposures because they can record and show erratic or skipping trails across the night sky quite nicely. Gone are the days when the only satellite in the night sky was Telstar. Little did we know what 65 years would add.

 

[childeye 2]

I've seen such things in midday. It was probably over twenty years ago. I saw three or four come from the east and another two or three come from the west, and they met right above me and just stopped and were stationary for about five seconds. Then they all sped away south together.

 

[Br4nd0n]

I didnt see any manuevers, so i would rule out the "traditional UFO's." But at the same time, i dont believe i would settle on satellites either, just based on the sheer quantity, ive seen so many things moving in the sky in such a short amount of time. Thanks for all your thoughts.

 

[timothyu]

There are approx. 5000 living and dead satellites surrounding Earth. Some appear stationary because they move at the same pace at the Earth's rotation, while others appear to move around the planet, many in opposing directions. Erratic patterns or change of direction are the only sure sign of an unknown entity. Keep your eyes out for the occasional red or blue 'explosions' .

 

[Br4nd0n]

There are approx. 5000 living and dead satellites surrounding Earth. Some appear stationary because they move at the same pace at the Earth's rotation, while others appear to move around the planet, many in opposing directions. Erratic patterns or change of direction are the only sure sign of an unknown entity. Keep your eyes out for the occasional red or blue 'explosions' .

So i may have to settle on satellite. But i did a crude map of the direction and time i saw them tonight in an hour, youre looking at an average of one every 2 minutes. Along with 3 shooting stars. Doesnt that seem like a high frequency?

 

[PloverWing]

Again, we're nearing the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower, so that's the first explanation that comes to my mind. Did they look like meteors, or did they look distinctly different? Were they mostly occurring near the constellation Perseus, or were they in other parts of the sky too? Your diagram shows you facing north, which is roughly the right direction for Perseus.

 

[Br4nd0n]

Again, we're nearing the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower, so that's the first explanation that comes to my mind. Did they look like meteors, or did they look distinctly different? Were they mostly occurring near the constellation Perseus, or were they in other parts of the sky too? Your diagram shows you facing north, which is roughly the right direction for Perseus.

It very well could be. That paper roughly is the entire sky that i could see while laying down with my head to the north. The shooting shooting stars i saw were classic, very fast streaks of light. All the other ones traversed the entire sky. So i dont know where that specific constellation you are refering to is, but i am in western canada. And they seemed to be all over the sky

 

[PloverWing]

It very well could be. That paper roughly is the entire sky that i could see while laying down with my head to the north. The shooting shooting stars i saw were classic, very fast streaks of light. All the other ones traversed the entire sky. So i dont know where that specific constellation you are refering to is, but i am in western canada. And they seemed to be all over the sky

Perseus isn't super-easy to spot, but it's near Cassiopeia, which is a big bright W shape in the northern sky. If you're in a remote enough place to see the Milky Way (I'm not), the Milky Way runs through Cassiopeia and Perseus. Cassiopeia is one of the constellations that never sets in northern latitudes, so it should be visible where you are unless it's hidden by trees or buildings.

It's hard to say without seeing the light-streaks, but the ones that traversed the entire sky might just be meteors so large that they took a long time to burn up in the atmosphere.

 

[timewerx]

I was out having a cigar. Starry night. I remembered a few weeks ago, i saw a "UFO" it went from south to north in the western night sky fairly quickly, it looked as tiny as a star and seemed as far away, but it moved, if you put your arms out, maybe 3 feet across the sky in a straight line in a matter of seconds, faster than you see jets leaving vapor trails in the day time.

And then to my amazement i started counting last night how many i saw just moving in all directions, stars on different paths in the same manner that i described. But i stopped counting after 30 stars and grabbed the wife, she said it was an atmospheric storm. Im open to an explanation

- A bit faster than jet making contrails
- Moving in a straight line
- tracing different paths but all moving in straight line

My guess would be low earth orbit satellites. International Space Station, Tiangong space station, spent rocket parts, any manned spacecraft up there, a handful of spy satellites (from US, Russian, China, etc), mapping satellites, and scientific satellites. Any of the last two are can also potentially be spy satellites in disguise.

So there's quite a handful of them out there, and if you're watching the sky more than 1 1/2 hours you may have seen the same satellite more than once.

If what you saw is moving ridiculously fast, the light doesn't last more than few seconds, it will often be a meteorite.

Now, if what you saw is also making unimaginably high G force, extremely abrupt maneuvers like accelerating to high speed instantly and stopping / turning "in a dime" very literally speaking. Then it becomes likely you're actually seeing a "UFO" or in more modern terms a "UAP" (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena).

UAP's will almost always try to maneuver in an extremely abrupt fashion. Presumably to confuse radar, targeting computers and possibly evade particle beam / direct-energy weapons. Fully solid Electronically variable refractive index optics might keep them on target lock long enough for the direct energy weapon to bring them down. I don't think they exist yet because there's not been a need to effectively shoot down UAPs but I wouldn't be surprised if agencies like DARPA is already working on it. They'd provide little advantage in conventional warfare except possibly being lighter, smaller, and with less or no moving parts. Existing tracking systems are fully adequate in conventional warfare since we have yet to field any weapons that can maneuver like UAPs.