Have you ever thought a planet or star was a UFO?

In My Humble Opinion
1

In this thread:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=462363&page=1&pp=50

is a discussion of whether UFOs are just misidentified aircraft or natural phenomena, or if they might actually be Alien spacecraft.

As you might expect, most of the dope comes down squarely on the side of misidentified something or others. As do I.

But I want to ask a related but different question, sparked by this post:

[QUOTE=greatshakes]
I don’t have any opinion either way: however, the debunkers arguments are just as flawed as the adherents, e.g., the Jimmy Carter sighting of whatever. Yeah, Yeah, he saw a configuration of some planets. That is a good story, but it doesn’t satisfy me. I mean, dork President, sure, but let’s be straight: the guy was an engineer…this means a derned lot of physics, which would preclude his making such a careless mistake. And even I, since I was four years old, knew that different light amplitudes in the sky could only be stars or planets. I doubt that Jimmy saw the first wave of interstellar hostilities, but, my money says that it wasn’t a couple of planets in alignment.
[/QUOTE]
I must admit, skeptical of UFO reports as I am, I’ve always had misgivings about saying that something someone saw and perceived as having shape, size and movement greater than a pinpoint of light, was really just Venus.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been temporarily fooled several times by mundane things in the sky. But it’s always been a plane, balloon, birds, etc. But a star or planet? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one and thought that it was anything other than a point of light. Certainly not something with a visible disk or shape.

I will say I’ve spent most of my life in and around the city, so the stars and planets are not the standout beacons they are in the dark countryside. But even there they are just pinpoints of light. Bright pinpoints, to be sure, but just pinpoints.

So how about it? Have any of you ever seen something that seemed much bigger and closer, only to realize it was Venus, Sirius, or some other astronomical body? And what were the circumstances? Or have you heard any first hand accounts of someone else getting caught in the illusion?

2

Not quite, but a year or two back, when Mars was very close, I momentarily mistook it for a light at the airport (I live right by an airport).

3

No, but I’ve done the reverse. A couple of weeks ago, I was admiring Venus. Since I was in a car and was tracking it for a long time, it was clearly not a local object. But after a while I noticed that right next to it was a flashing red light.

I did actually see a UFO a few years ago. Best I can figure is that it was a man-made sattelite.

4

[QUOTE=Quartz]
Not quite, but a year or two back, when Mars was very close, I momentarily mistook it for a light at the airport (I live right by an airport).
[/QUOTE]
I’ve done that. More than once I’ve caught myself thinking the light on one of the TV transmitter antennas to west of town was higher than I remembered. Then I look again and realize it’s a bright star or planet.

5

[Jessie Ventura] The planet Venus is often mistaken for a UFO [/Jessie Ventura]

6

As a amateur astronomer…I should say no.

But there two times where I temperarily thought differently.

7

[QUOTE=Yeticus Rex]
As a amateur astronomer…I should say no.

But there two times where I temperarily thought differently.
[/QUOTE]
Ok, the NOSS satellite thing is cool, I’m going to have to look for those.

But still, you didn’t mistake the extra “stars” for an object with a cross section large enough to see, something airplane sized or larger moving around relatively close. That’s the thing that’s always kind of bugged me: how can I see a pinpoint of light, even a bright one, and think aircraft or spacecraft?

I don’t doubt that it does happen, I’m just interested in finding someone who has experienced it who might talk about why the illusion was effective for them.

8

Never had a good explanation, but as teenage boys, three of us were lying flat on our backs in the back of a boat, staring up at the sky and talking and noticed three really bright stars in a cluster directly above us. (No, there were no drugs or alcohol involved.)
We talked for awhile, and just stared up at the sky at the three bright stars we had never noticed before.
Then suddenly, the three stars split in three different directions! Two zoomed off pretty fast in opposite directions and one went off in yet another direction, but much slower.
Considering those “stars” had been motionless for at least half an hour before suddenly zooming off makes me wonder to this day.