Ufo in Italy

[ashtray]

Hi,

now I'm going to tell you how I got involved in the whole topic. It was about 3 years ago when my brother and I went to Italy for vacation to my family down to Calabria (the bottom part of the boot).
On one day my brother, some friends/family and I went to the beach (we had a beach house). The evening came and after dinner I decided to crash directly at the beach. The others stayed at the house. I got my stuff and went to the beach. It was almost midnight and I had a wonderful clear night sky for my own. I was laying down there and listened to the rough see while watching the stars. Every once in a while a shooting star came across. At a later point I recognized a distant moving light at the sky. It moved very fast. It showed now signs of being a plane or something similar (no blinking lights). Since the distance was pretty large and the object moved really fast I observed it for a minute or so. After two minutes of moving (from right to left) in this pace the object took a hard right angle and shot out of sight. I could not believe my eyes. The remaining night I watched the sky hoping the object appears again...no luck. Since then I never experienced something like that. Man I would give my left big toe if I could see such thing again...

 

[Randall]

Hi,

now I'm going to tell you how I got involved in the whole topic. It was about 3 years ago when my brother and I went to Italy for vacation to my family down to Calabria (the bottom part of the boot).
On one day my brother, some friends/family and I went to the beach (we had a beach house). The evening came and after dinner I decided to crash directly at the beach. The others stayed at the house. I got my stuff and went to the beach. It was almost midnight and I had a wonderful clear night sky for my own. I was laying down there and listened to the rough see while watching the stars. Every once in a while a shooting star came across. At a later point I recognized a distant moving light at the sky. It moved very fast. It showed now signs of being a plane or something similar (no blinking lights). Since the distance was pretty large and the object moved really fast I observed it for a minute or so. After two minutes of moving (from right to left) in this pace the object took a hard right angle and shot out of sight. I could not believe my eyes. The remaining night I watched the sky hoping the object appears again...no luck. Since then I never experienced something like that. Man I would give my left big toe if I could see such thing again...

Interesting story. Here's what the skeptics would say. On a clear night, a light in the sky may be something small and near or large and far. It's not easy to tell, especially if the light is small. Stars are billions of miles away. However a light at just the right brightness and size can be much closer, within a few meters, and still look like it is as far away as a star. Therefore rather than some craft at some great distance it could have been something small and nearer. There are fireflies in Italy and they can make sudden maneuvers like what you saw. So unless there was some factor to indicate with some certainty that the light was actually at a great distance, then you cannot be sure it wasn't something natural like a firefly.

 

[Polterwurst]

But would a firefly move in a straight line that long? I'm assuming it was flyig in a straight line, or ashtray wouldn't have mentioned the plane comparison. I guess any erratic movement during these estimated 2 minutes might have given it away as a glow bug.

Do they even glow for minutes at a time? As far as I know, they blink on and off periodically. And although right angles might not be a problem, I don't see how they should "shoot out of sight".

@ashtray: were there any trees or bushes a hypothetical firefly could have seemed to disappear behind?

As for planes, I think they might seem to be one single light source if their landing lights are on and overshine the flashing position lights (I'm no expert, though, anyone who is, correct me if I'm wrong). A star-like object moving in a straight line in the night sky is probably going to be a satellite, though. But those two possibilities don't explain the right angle turn, of course.

Welcome to the forum, btw. And don't think @ufology is trying to debunk your sighting (we're not going good cop, bad cop on you), I think he often plays the devil's advocate because he thinks we should exhaust all mundane explanations first. As do I. Like Sherlock Holmes, you know. Before turning to the improbable, make sure you've eliminated the impossible, that kind of thing.

 

[Randall]

But would a firefly move in a straight line that long? I'm assuming it was flyig in a straight line, or ashtray wouldn't have mentioned the plane comparison. I guess any erratic movement during these estimated 2 minutes might have given it away as a glow bug.

Do they even glow for minutes at a time? As far as I know, they blink on and off periodically. And although right angles might not be a problem, I don't see how they should "shoot out of sight".

@ashtray: were there any trees or bushes a hypothetical firefly could have seemed to disappear behind?

As for planes, I think they might seem to be one single light source if their landing lights are on and overshine the flashing position lights (I'm no expert, though, anyone who is, correct me if I'm wrong). A star-like object moving in a straight line in the night sky is probably going to be a satellite, though. But those two possibilities don't explain the right angle turn, of course.

Welcome to the forum, btw. And don't think @ufology is trying to debunk your sighting (we're not going good cop, bad cop on you), I think he often plays the devil's advocate because he thinks we should exhaust all mundane explanations first. As do I. Like Sherlock Holmes, you know. Before turning to the improbable, make sure you've eliminated the impossible, that kind of thing.

Right. I've also seen birds flying overhead at night in a perfectly straight line, with the city lights reflecting their white undersides. They can fly very high and suddenly turn too. I'm not saying what Ash saw was either a bird or a firefly. I'm just pointing out alternative explanations and asking, if they don't fit, why not? How can we rule them out? If the reason is vague, we can't be so sure about the object being something alien. On the other hand, if the reason is really clear and definitive, then objects that make sudden high speed, high angle turns aren't all that normal these days, although the F-35 with it's vectored thrust can do some rather impressive maneuvers that at a long distance might seem out of the ordinary.

 

[ashtray]

Well, I was standing about 2 meters from the sea. No trees in the near surroundings, just plain sand and stones and water of course.

Whatever, maybe it was a weather balloon or swamp gas.

 

[Polterwurst]

Or maybe one of these guys

Problem being, these things are too easy to fake. It makes you wonder why anyone would even bother. But they are probably not glowworms, if the footage is taken with scopes, I guess.

Btw., I may have seen one, too. My 'UFO' sighting/My first post! | Page 3 | The Paracast Community Forums
But, as gets repeated here again and again, a faraway pinpoint of light may have all kinds of explanations.