UFO over Calgary 8/28/09 - Eyewitness report

[firebug]

Stepping out the back door to catch the bus this morning (6:05 a.m.), I glance up to the east and see my good friend Venus wishing me good morning. Subsequently, whilst traversing the back laneway, a glance to the western sky leaves me puzzled.

There, well above the horizon, is a bright white planet (as stars are not that bright). It was not there yesterday, and as far as I know, there shouldn't be any planets visible at this time.

Luckily SkyVoyager is loaded on my iPhone (thanks CP for letting me know about the free download), so I commence pulling up the sky charts to see if i can figure out what I had missed. Uranus is in the West this morning, but there is no way it is naked eye visible, let alone that stunningly bright.

By this time I have arrived at my stop, and glancing back up to the sky the light is gone... oh wait, there it is, higher than before. Well that is easy then, it is an airplane with its landing lights on.

But hold on a second, planes approaching the airport are usually heading towards the airport by this time, not heading from the west to the east. Plus, this is now approaching the zenith of the sky.

I check my clock (6:09 a.m.), watch the object cross the sky and begin its descent towards the East. Hey, there it goes past Mars (surprisingly still visible). What's this now, after blinking a few times, could it be that this is not one object, but two. I am pretty sure I could see a second dimmer object moving alongside the first.

With the bus arriving, I now get a chance to see if I can figure this out.

First stop, Heavens Above. Enter in my location, and lets see what we can find. Right on the home page is a note about the ISS and how some have reported that it can be seen during the day.

Check the link to get a list of Calgary's visible passes... and there it is: Start 6:05 a.m., alt 10 Western sky, magnitude -3.4 (wow that is bright) End 6:11 a.m.

More importantly to the purpose of this thread, I note that tomorrow at 4:57 a.m. and Sunday at 5:21 a.m. the ISS will make additional passes at -3.4 magnitude over the Calgary skies.

If you can get up that early, it is truly an amazing sight.

As far as the second object goes, I suspect that it was just my imagination or the sun glinting off of a piece of the station in a different way.

[icarus]

So really, it is an IFO then.

[Cowperson]

I live south of the city, in the country, and have seen the ISS many times, some deliberately but a few times accidentally.

Because we live on the side of a hill, we have a long view of it, and can see it becoming visible over the mountains before dying out on the eastern horizon . . . . . although realistically, the passage is only a few minutes long.

Best sightings though have been when it has the space shuttle chasing it . . . . two dots of light travelling 30,000 mph over your head.

Another time the space shuttle was overhead trailing a solar sail experiment . . . .

Some people get a kick out trying to catch flashes of Iridium satellites.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/obser...s/3307166.html

There is a website that will predict where the flashes will occur in your local sky.

Cowperson

[troutman]

That is a great example of how to examine an unusual event.

[Ozy_Flame]

I once had a dream I was looking up at the sky and thought I was seeing a UFO or a meteor.

It ended up just being a squid swimming through the sky.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by troutman

That is a great example of how to examine an unusual event.

I totally agree, the whole time I kept thinking, this guy is really doing his due dilligence. And therein lies the flaw with most conspiracy/ufo dudes. They look up, can't figure out what it is and assume it's an alien spaceship, rather than doing the research and trying determine what it could be.

[alltherage]

Originally Posted by firebug

Stepping out the back door to catch the bus this morning (6:05 a.m.), I glance up to the east and see my good friend Venus wishing me good morning. Subsequently, whilst traversing the back laneway, a glance to the western sky leaves me puzzled.

If your iphone was so readily available, why no pics? I'm always curious to see pics of this kind of thing.