UFO Sighting - Italy

Ben

Ben

The Living Force
FOTCM Member
I've just returned from Abruzzo, Italy where I saw (what is at this point) an unidentified flying object, possibly forum members may have some suggestions as to what it may have been.

Me, my sister, Dad and Stepmum were looking at what I initially perceived to be an abnormally bright star. Before long I considered how unusual it was that this was not the pole star and yet was by far the brightest object in the sky and so I decided it warranted further attention.

After watching the 'object' for some time I determined that:

1. It was entirely stationary, no movement whatsoever
2. It appeared to be 'twinkling', like a star but more pronounced and faster
3. It occasionally took on an orange tinge before returning to 'star colour'
4. It appeared to be a lot closer than I originally thought, but this was very difficult to determine
5. It produced no discernible sound

I'm quite interested in this because it would be my first sighting of a UFO, it was also so strange that just before I saw it my Dad was looking for the Big Dipper (so I decided to search for Cassiopaea!) and then he said: "Cassiopaea, that's one that just popped in to my head". I thought that was a bit strange, I spend a lot of the holiday discussing information from the site with him but I never got round to mentioning the C's.

Any ideas?
 
I am sorry for the cliché, but could it be Venus? What time did you see it?
Take a look at todays http://www.spaceweather.com/
scroll down a little and read about morning star.
Those days it appears brighter then polar star.
 
Ben said:
Before long I considered how unusual it was that this was not the pole star and yet was by far the brightest object in the sky and so I decided it warranted further attention.
Click to expand...
The pole star is not the brightest star in the night sky. Far from it actually.

Ben said:
After watching the 'object' for some time I determined that:

1. It was entirely stationary, no movement whatsoever
2. It appeared to be 'twinkling', like a star but more pronounced and faster
3. It occasionally took on an orange tinge before returning to 'star colour'
4. It appeared to be a lot closer than I originally thought, but this was very difficult to determine
5. It produced no discernible sound
Click to expand...
Objectively, you are describing a star. Stars do come in many colors, orange, green, etc. and depending on the atmosphere will twinkle to some degree, perhaps modulating colors.

The real test is to go out and see if you see the same object in the same vicinity on another night. Perhaps it was a planet in which case it will have moved, but they tend not to twinkle. Perhaps it was Vega, a very bright star in the constellation Lyra.
 
Keit said:
I am sorry for the cliché, but could it be Venus? What time did you see it?
Take a look at todays http://www.spaceweather.com/
scroll down a little and read about morning star.
Those days it appears brighter then polar star.
Click to expand...
I saw that 'star' every morning this week, and it was bright. I thought it might have been Venus. I usually see it around 6am just before the sun comes up. It seems to be near constellation Orion.

Edit: I just looked at the sky map. It might have been constellation Gemini near Venus that I was looking at.
 
That's interesting. The moving object I was seeing was stationed right below/above Orions belt. Can't remember. I have not seen it moving since. It moved in jagged lines and from so far up, it was moving fast. Don't know if it's still there or if it's a star. It has a slight orange cast to it, but its not bright, its very small and does not blink.

Tarri
 
Rick said:
The real test is to go out and see if you see the same object in the same vicinity on another night. Perhaps it was a planet in which case it will have moved, but they tend not to twinkle. Perhaps it was Vega, a very bright star in the constellation Lyra.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately that is not possible now that I'm in England, and I don't remember which day it was or which time (other than that it was about 11pm).

A star seems most likely, the thing which dissuades me most from that explanation is that it APPEARED to be much closer, like in the Earth's atmosphere, but I don't know how difficult that is to judge. I should also emphasise how bright and large it appeared.
 
My advice is to download and install Stellarium and then run
it and be sure to set you local time and your location and then
in the morning where you see the "star", set your viewing location
to east or whereever it appears (N,S,W,E) and you should see the
planets, consellation, stars etc. and there you might know what it
is that you are looking at!

Cheers!
 
Ben, you might also check if any large asteroid was passing by close to Earth in time you saw this bright object. When close to our planet those ones can be brightest objects at the sky and "twinkle" as well.

These sites may help:

Info: www.spaceweather.com
Java orbit simulation: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db?name=2007%20GU1
 
Ben said:
1. It was entirely stationary, no movement whatsoever
2. It appeared to be 'twinkling', like a star but more pronounced and faster
3. It occasionally took on an orange tinge before returning to 'star colour'
4. It appeared to be a lot closer than I originally thought, but this was very difficult to determine
5. It produced no discernible sound
Click to expand...
I saw exactly the same thing years ago in Croatia I was totally convinced it was UFO, in the same time I could see strange light looming from behind nearby mountain. The only difference from Ben's account was that my "UFO" was twinkling with rays of orange and green light. It was very fascinating but it soon transpired my "UFO" was actually planet Mars, while aliens landing on top of the mountain was actually moon rising.


Few days ago I saw the same thing very low on the horizon over the sea,
I didn't even look twice :)
 
A similar thing once happened to some friends of mine in Sardinia. They called me quite scared, and it seemed that no Venus was around, and the light was stationary and not moving an "inch" in more than 3-4 hours during that night.

Ben, were you facing the seaside? East, South...? The Adriatic sea is full of this kind of phenomenons.

If there was no moon in the sky there, it was roughly after September the 3rd. Cassiopeia is at NE in the summer.

Anyway... a clear sky brings very bright stars ;-)
 
If you wish to eliminate bright magnitude stars or planets from potential sightings, log in to heavens-above.com www.heavens-above.com

This allows you to enter your location and receive a site specific sky chart for any hour or date, or that moment. It also has satellite, sun, moon and comet data. Good site and its free.
 
Hi, Ben.

I saw similar object this summer on 11th of august on island of Krk (Croatia) some time around 22:00h. My wife asked me if this can be an airplane? I was driving, so I stop the car to see this object by my own. It was not an airplane, for sure! It was bright orange, stationary, low on horizon object, just below lowest stars, but more brighter then any star, at first it twinkled and few seconds later it faded out, then in and out again and that was it. As far as I know no Mars, Venus or Moon can fade out and in and out again! We ware all so excited so we forgot to make any pictures of this phenomenon. :-( But it was not over yet! Next day I was making barbecue. It was my 35. birthday. Around 20:30 my younger daughter (4 y. old) asked me: "dad what's this" pointing with her little finger right above us. I look up and saw two white objects flying from NW to SE over us, side by side, soundless. One was bigger and brighter then the other. Again I was without reliable recording equipment so I took only one poor shot with my cellphone. :-( But my father in law managed to grab his binoculars just to say " ... well it's not airplane nor satellite guys...". I frequently look up to the sky, especially after I became familiar with C's and related subjects and so far I didn't have any UFO sightings, until now! Next night I had some kind of vision with my ayes closed, but I'm preparing description of this experience for later.
Regards.
 
I've found this on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rx-5QsNJhQ

And this is very similar to objects that I saw and describe above.
 
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