Orange Balls?

[NSTG8R]

Might have to do that. Wife's been wanting a telescope for a while now. Maybe I can find one with a built-in camera.

Not sure 7, possibly 8 times in 5 years is "seeing them regularly", but it does seem often enough to keep us and our friends looking.

 

[Jay3wheel]

There may be candidates for drug testing here.

 

[Jeff Porter]

I sh*t you not! It's 7:40pm here and the wife just came in the back door saying, "We've got one!". I had just came in 15 minutes earlier. Okay...I gotta look. This was a superbright white-ish/orange light heading southwest to northeast towards St. Louis (no sound). Got my bad-a$$ binoc's out, and discovered it's actually more like a brilliant blue, changing to red/orange and back...Watched it for about 2 minutes, maybe less. Again, if it was an airplane of any kind, there was two visible to the west, and we live about 20 miles from Chesterfield airport, it would make SOME kind of sound. If it was at 30k feet (which we'd still hear), it would have to be doing like mach 10 to cover that much distance in that amount of time. No formation lights visible through the binoculars, just a blue/red/orange color-changing ball. Yep, I've had two beers since I got home, but two doesn't come close to getting me buzzed (not sure if that's something to brag about).

Get some video of these things, would be great to see what you're seeing. :-)

 

[AriLea]

Okay, THIS is going to sound nutty to some people, and as my "first official post" on this forum, it's going to be waaaay off topic. 'General Discussion' seemed like the right catagory....Okay, has anyone observed bright orange balls flying around? o_O I (and many witnesses with me) have about 7 times in the last 5 years.

1st time: Around mid November 2009, I got home from working a 12, and my wife was watching our grandson who was only a couple of months old. I step out the back onto the patio (back of my house points dead south) to burn a cigarette and have a Budlight and immediately notice a bright, and I mean like 5x Venus bright, orange light about 20 deg above the horizon, south southwest. I've been in aviation since I was 18, and 100% of that military jets. I know FAA rules and regs., and ORANGE is NOT a color allowed on anything flying, anywhere on the planet. It wasn't moving at all, and seemed pretty steady in it's intensity. I watched it for a full 10 minutes, went in the house and told the wife to "check this sh*t out!". Grabbed another cig, and we both watched it for another 5 - 10 minutes. It all the sudden started blinking, and fading in and out for around 15 seconds, then, poof, it was gone. We look at each other, and she was expecting me to tell her what it was....I had no idea.
..]

OK, you got me there! I did see this on Sept 29th at 5am. It was in position of the constellation west of the big dipper. I only saw about 10seconds of it before it faded out. Your description was perfect for that.

Being that it was right in front of a dim star, and didn't move, made me wander about a super nova or something. But that orange color, very strange. It could be consistent with an object reflecting the morning sun from space or high altitude, but still it didn't move. It should have moved at least a little for any craft I can think of.

 

[NSTG8R]

There may be candidates for drug testing here.

I'd fail if you're testing for Nexium, asperin or amitiza (don't ask...not pretty).That's the attitude until you see one. They're so obviously "wrong" in every way (color, movement, no sound) to be flying around, that once you see it, you can't help but to keep your eyes open for another one. Someday you should be so lucky!

 

[outsydthebox]

I think a lot of "sightings" are hoaxes...but not ALL of them. I think the radio controlled (electric) drones have been commercially available for about 5 years now. And they are very quiet. Still, couldn't be closer that 100-150yds or you might hear it. If I was a kid with an $800 r/c "drone", some plastic balls with color changing/ programmable LED lights inside......

 

[AriLea]

Oh, BTW, I did see just about the same thing once during a sunset in the southern sky from top of a cliff east of Sedonna AZ. We watched it dance left and right in the sky for about 20min, then it finally seemed to get bigger, then it dimmed out, turned into a private jet and flew on by. It had been reflecting the sunset.

I was exceptionally disappointed. But no longer in doubt of anything.

 

[NSTG8R]

I think a lot of "sightings" are hoaxes...but not ALL of them. I think the radio controlled (electric) drones have been commercially available for about 5 years now. And they are very quiet. Still, couldn't be closer that 100-150yds or you might hear it. If I was a kid with an $800 r/c "drone", some plastic balls with color changing/ programmable LED lights inside......

Agreed on a lot of the sightings being hoaxes. I saw some show that set up some people in a parking lot to see their reaction to an LED lighted drone. Not one of them guessed it was a drone. Well, if these are hoaxes, they're pretty convincing, and have one hell of a range on their RC transmitter. We've witnessed them go from horizon to horizon, we're definitely not in western Kansas where you can see the curvature of the earth it's so flat, but farther than you standard RC radio will reach (Dad and I used to fly RC gliders out by Boulder, CO). Don't know what to say...Guess I need to get a good camera/lens set up to keep handy.

 

[outsydthebox]

Agreed on a lot of the sightings being hoaxes. I saw some show that set up some people in a parking lot to see their reaction to an LED lighted drone. Not one of them guessed it was a drone. Well, if these are hoaxes, they're pretty convincing, and have one hell of a range on their RC transmitter. We've witnessed them go from horizon to horizon, we're definitely not in western Kansas where you can see the curvature of the earth it's so flat, but farther than you standard RC radio will reach (Dad and I used to fly RC gliders out by Boulder, CO). Don't know what to say...Guess I need to get a good camera/lens set up to keep handy.

Yes to a good camera...night vision, maybe?
I did have a "pilot" friend that told me about a "strange sighting" back in the mid 80's. Out for a ride on his Goldwing with a group. Upstate NY, "pitchblack" night, and pulled over waiting, while someone in the group had bike trouble. He said, at first he thought he was looking at "landing lights" until the light did a 90 degree turn and accelerated super fast and was gone. Several in his group saw it, too.

 

[Karg]

It's the Revenge of the Minute Maid