BalloonFOs is my new term (I just made it up!) to describe the kind of UFOs people see that are just unresolved bright dots in the sky. This is probably the most common type of UFO seen: something far away, too small to see any actual shape, moving across the sky slowly, flying in formation with other lights, etc. etc.
The latest is a New Years sighting over San Diego. This is pretty interesting footage, but they look like candle balloons to me, an easy-to-make do-it-yourself hot air balloon made out of shopping bags and candles (someone in the comments on that link also said this). In fact that’s my second guess; my first is that this was something involving the Navy, since there is a VERY large naval base right there at Coronado in San Diego. But either way, I’m pretty sure there is a more down-to-Earth answer to sightings like this, without invoking aliens.
January 14th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Swamp gas?
Maybe a streetlight?
January 14th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Oh, come on! They were balloons….spy balloons sent from the future by Dr. Zaius in preparation for the imminent ape invasion!
Sorry. It’s been a long day.
January 14th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
I once was hosting a public star party one night, and these people showed up as we were setting up wanting to know if saw “that UFO over there!” I told him that it looked like a weather balloon to me. He insisted that he used to work for NOAA and that for sure that was NOT a balloon. So, I pointed a telescope at it, and … . It was a beautiful picture of a balloon with the instrument package hanging below it.
January 14th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
New blog entry tag?
January 14th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
We had a similar sighting in Britain last year – they turned out to be Chinese lanterns.
http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1582237.mostviewed.ufo_mystery_solved.php
January 14th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Nowadays kids and pranksters don’t have to build their own candle ballons; they can just buy them off the web: http://www.skylanterns.com/index.php .
Get the 80-piece wedding package, and hoax a mass invasion!
January 14th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
I ALMOST sent you an email about this, until I read the comment about the do-it-yourself hot-air balloon theory. That’s exactly what it appears to be, although I have to admit, my curiosity was really piqued and I spent a great deal of time studying the video, totally stumped (always considering it may have been some sort of intentionally crude FX deal.)
January 14th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
The objects do look like homemade hot air balloons. I have a friend who used to live here near the beach, and he would make huge ones that looked like floating flames from a distance. His construction plan wasn’t too eco-friendly, but they did make an impressive spectacle. I believe his version was made from a clear or white 20-30 gallon trash bag, a coat hangar, and a bundle of tampons soaked in kerosine. If you let them go from the beach at night, the wind usually brings them inland and they would get to a fair height before anyone else could see them. Good times.
In this clip, it’s hard for me to tell if the ballons themselves are giving off light, or if they are just high up enough to catch the light from the sunset while the people below are already in the shadows.
January 14th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Cylons.
January 14th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Any danger of causing fires when these things hit the ground eventually?
January 14th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
I do not understand why you fail to accept that we are being visited or observed by aliens from Zeta Reticuli? It’s been proven.
Back in the early 1980′s, we had a UFO flap here in Squamish, near Vancouver. Numerous people reported orange glowing lights flying silently in front of “The Chief”, a 2,000 foot granite cliff. People were convinced aliens were visiting our little town, and, had set up a base behind The Chief. That was until one of these UFO’s came crashing down in flames, hitting a car and causing hundreds of dollars in damage. It turns out these UFO’s were orange garbage bags attached to wooden cross beams. The UFO propulsion system? Candles.
January 14th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Phil said :
“This is pretty interesting footage, but they look like candle balloons to me, an easy-to-make do-it-yourself hot air balloon made out of shopping bags and candles”
———————
ROTFLMAO .. har-dee-har-har! ;^)
Candle balloons?!
Those “balloons” would have to be about 50 feet across, or have SUPER powered ultra lumen candles in them. Look at the distance and proportion to the house and trees below…
Maybe we should do some science phil… take a candle outside, surround it with plastic bags, and walk about 1000 feet away… then take a crappy digital cam-corder and see how well it shows up, and see how small a bag-ballon appears..
January 14th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Before solar eclipses were explained, there was NO other reasonable explanation other than angry deities, or demons stealing the sun.
Before Aristotle and Eratosthenes, there was NO way Earth was anything but flat.
Before Copernicus, there was NO way we weren’t the center of everything.
In fact, Copernicus helped to illustrate that the extraordinary (not just by definition) is uncommon. Meaning that in any given situation, an ordinary explanation is overwhelmingly more likely. A curious (and intentional?) application of Occam’s razor to perceived celestial motion, and thusly existence.
This furor smacks of so much early solar eclipse sacrificial rites. It’s beyond superficial, it’s eclipsificial. Obviously, those lights are dragon burps because global warming has contaminated the part of the atmosphere that protects them from indigestion. To the henges to make amends!
January 14th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Sorry Phil, but the “word” was already in spanish: “globovni”, as you can read here, in Luis Ruiz Noguez’ blog:
“Para ser honesto no puedo decir que no haya nada nuevo. Es cierto que siguen presentando sus videos de globovnis (globos y pájaros volando a gran altitud), a los que llaman “flotillas de ovnis”.”
http://marcianitosverdes.haaan.com/2007/05/el-sustento-terico-de-maussan/
A convergent neologism, I suppose.
January 15th, 2008 at 12:17 am
Actually, Mike J, I have seen these candle balloons, (read my previous post), and they are quite visible, and can float quite high if enough candles are used. I saw one catch fire and fall to the ground one night.
January 15th, 2008 at 12:54 am
When I was at school in the late ’50s in Cheshire, UK, there was a silvery object seen floating overhead, apparently stationary, for a couple of days. It turned out to be a large weather balloon at a height of 100,000 feet. We school kids were pretty impressed at how big it must have been to be visible at that distance.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:58 am
— made out of shopping bags and candles
Great! That’s exactly what drought stricken areas with plant life drier than ancient bones needs! Wheeeee!
January 15th, 2008 at 2:35 am
Hey, if it’s
-an object
-it’s flying
-you haven’t identified it,
Then it’s a freaking UFO!
Aliens shmaliens.
(another neologism)
January 15th, 2008 at 5:57 am
Oh yeah, well there are REAL UFOs in my hometown:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080114/ap_on_fe_st/odd_ufo_sightings
You know they are real because the Mutual UFO Network is holding a meeting there on the 19th to fill out “sighting forms”. You can read more at the local paper’s website (requires registration):
http://www.empiretribune.com
Best part? One guy estimates that the 1-1.5 mile wide aircraft was about 3500 ft in the air and he says “I estimate it was traveling about 3000 mph!” Good eye man! Let’s see a weather balloon do that!
I’m so proud!
I sincerely hope you see the sarcasm in my post
January 15th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Re: Paul’s comment
Yeah, we didn’t just have one sighting. We had loads! There was one in my home town (Wrexham) as well as one in Stratford-upon-Avon on the same day, and a few other places too. All around the same time as your Watford one (end of July).
Naturally, the media went bonkers over it. Must have been a really slow news day!
January 15th, 2008 at 11:57 am
When I was a kid, my family would make the candle balloons and launch them. We nearly laughed our butts off when the local radio station would get calls about UFOs. Maybe this is a hobby I’ll take up again.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Troy,
You’re from Stephenville?? Who’d have thought there’d be two of us on this page. My parents were just showing me the ET article (no pun intended) last weekend and I was going to post about it here.
I must agree, the eye witnesses for the most part don’t inspire confidence, and serve mostly just to reinforce most people’s perception of folks from rural areas. It would have been nice to have some comments from an astronomy professor from the local Tarleton State University or something.
January 15th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
How about this?
Geese + Duct tape + Battery-powered LED arrays
(or ducks and duck tape and lights…)