Strange object over Greece

spyraal

spyraal

Jedi Master
Hello everyone,

Looking at the wealth of reports of strange phenomena, it is really not hard to realise that if only part of what we hear-read is actually true, sooner or later by mere mathematical probability, you will get to see something (if you actually try to SEE around you and don't just daydream that is). So, for some time now i keep an eye on the sky for anything strange.

Recently, over my hometown in north Greece i noticed for the first time a light which seemed to glow and change colors even with naked eyes during the night. It appears to be in geo-static position and moves with rest of the sky, slowly rising while the night progresses. Looking like "just a bright star" on the first look, it is there EVERY night, providing the sky is clear enough. I setup my camera (OLYMPUS SP-550 UltaZoom) on a tripod to shoot pictures. The object changes colors so fast that shooting on the tripod even with 1 sec exposure actually over-imposes the one color over the other, thus the object appears to be "just" white or slightly blue. But slowly moving the camera while handheld with a 3-4 sec exposure though, gets you the full range of colors like a time-lapse photogragh. And they are very impressive and "artificial" looking. Also after doing some processing, the objects looks striking similar to the UFO's captured in the famous NASA STS-75 Tether incident. It is like a donut with a small missing slice. I also shot the photo-camera's LCD screen while in full optical and digital zoom with my video camera, and i have a very interesting video of this object which i will post very soon (in YouTube probably). The video i shot also resembles the Tether video ufos very much. In the video, one can see the impressive color changes but also this object shape shifting and becoming semi-transparent gradually, disappearing and back. I have some pictures which i uploaded in Photobucket and here is the link:

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee58/spyraal/UFO_GreeceB.jpg

I hope it works.

The fact that it can be seen EVERY night is very striking to me. It seems it is in orbit whether a low or high one. The radiacal changes in illumination and color of this object make it very strange, and for as far as i can tell it is defiinitely not a star. I though i should present the pictures for everyone to judge for himself.

Take care,
Spyros
 
hmm... certainly doesn't look like a star! i see what you mean about the similarities to the objects photographed on STS-75, yet i believe in those photos the "notch" was not visible. e.g. where you pointed it out in your photos, it looks like part of the object exists in that space. refer to the below photo from STS-75:

sts75nicoltier.jpg


but there are also similarities between this object and the one you photographed, like the concentric rings and the mass at the center of the object.

the alternating colors are pretty wild, i like the method of shaking the camera you used to point that out. could that be an optical effect from the light passing through our atmosphere? i wonder if the STS-75 objects would have shown a similar color gradient if they had been shot in color...

let us know if/when you post that video!
 
If you watch this video of the NASA Tether incident, and pay attention around the 3 minute mark, you'll see the camera momentarily focus and it becomes pretty clear that these supposedly huge discs - with the concentric rings, indentation and hole - simply appear that way because the lens isn't in focus; and these features aren't characteristics of the orbs themselves. What they do reflect - and JohnnyRadar's picture seems to confirm - is the design of a camera lens.
 
If the object were in geostatic or geostationary orbit, it wouldn't cross the sky, it would stand still as the stars went by it. If it does indeed move as the night goes on, then it's either not in static orbit or it isn't orbiting the Earth at all.

I can see a few geostationary satellites from here in Canada, which are quite easy to notice on a clear night if you stare up at the stars, because relative to the "moving" sky, their non-motion is noticeable. They also twinkle and change color, more vividly than the surrounding stars. I always assumed that this was an effect of the sun's rays reflecting off of them and then experiencing bending and refraction through our atmosphere, just like the stars twinkle, but I'm no physicist.

Since you haven't seen this object do any flips or motions, if it is indeed in the same place every day, my guess would be that this is some kind of satellite with a dish or other apparatus set up to face the earth directly, for communications or surveillance, or it could also be a laser for all we know about it.

You might want to try to find out whether its position relative to the stars around it changes in any way, day to day or month to month. This might tell us whether it is in an Earth orbit at all.

If it does move across the sky with the night, anybody in your hemisphere should be able to see it. Is there any way you can describe it's position relative to a constellation, so I can bother my friend with a telescope and see if we can find it as well?
 
Hello,

This object moves like the stars. Meaning that it rises from the east and moves higher in the sky as time passes. Doing the same path every night is something that suggests to me that it is in SOME orbit. My digital camera has a total x100 zoom, including digital. If it was a satellite, then the only part which could create a CLEAR circular reflection would be the satellite's dish. But these are concave and not flat (as far as i know!) and the reflection of a concave surface would be much different i suppose. This objects glows as if someone is reflecting the sun in your eyes using the flat recording side of a CD. Concave objects create a strong reflection hotspot inside them and not on the whole surface at once. Apart from that, i guess a satellite's solar panels would be much bigger and more evident and reflective that the dish. And after all i wonder, is zooming a mere 100 times enough to take an almost full screen shot of a satellite's dish which is a couple of meters wide (or less)? Wouldn't other parts of the satellite produce some reflection also in that case? From where i live, i can see a mountain 4km away. Shooting with x100 zoom, a car's width (about 4m) is a mere 50 pixels in the image. In the images of this object (again with x100 zoom) it is 700 pixels! So if i am not mistaken, if we suppose that this object was hovering only 4Km in the sky it would be about 50m wide. So, what size must an object that is in orbit have in order to be 700 pixels wide when shooting with x100 zoom? Good question. I will check it out... But on first though, i believe it cannot be a satellite.

Also the fact that it does not do any flips or motions is not enough for me to prove that it is a man-made satellite. I suppose having objects rotating the Earth as beacons, transmitters or forming a complex grid (like our GPS satellites) would be something "anyone" could have a use, for his own reasons. Never the less, i will try to pinpoint the exact location of the object in relation to known constellations, so as others can try to locate this strange object. I also thought i should travel out of town one of these nights, and try to estimate the distance of the object by observing it's position while moving to another point of view.

I will upload the video in YouTube later this evening. I will share the link to check it out! Thank you.

Spyros
 
Here is the video i promised. Sorry for the delay but uploading is very slow with my connection. I am curious to hear what you think of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9sfCbc13wo

Take care,
Spyros
 
Interesting...especially the video
The focus would seem to suggest (given you can see stars in the background) that its something nearer than a star....although I'm no camera expert..have you tried zooming out to see if you can bring it into focus?
I'm not sure if what your looking at is out of focus or not....so I did some searching to see what else it could be
....on the principle of out of focus objects I googled the camera and 'orbs'...this is what I found
_http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1008&message=27327897&changemode=1 scroll down to the pictures...
The SP550 seems to create hexagonal objects if they are out of focus...perhaps they get more rounded at distance?

Just an alternative idea....especially given the objects on the tether video seem to form donuts when there out of focus too.

Don't suppose you could take a photo of where it appears in the sky relative to other stars/time of night??
If its a known object you should be able to identify it from its time/location....
 
Hello again,

You are right in your concerns. I have used manual focus, and the pictures i posted were taken while focusing on infinity. Focusing on a closer distance produces a pentagon which is very much like you said. Here a picture of the same object which i consider out of focus since it lacks any detail.

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee58/spyraal/ATIA_nofocus.jpg

I recon it is really hard to be sure that the camera is indeed focused on the object. But of all the possible focus possitions i assume the "correct" one is the one that produces the most detailed and sharp image. In the video, one can see little black spots on the perimeter of the object. Also during the video (>35sec) one can see the object "missing" a part and the image is quite sharp there also. My guess is that these details would be hard to capture in an unfocused object.

The other troubling issue for me is that my pictures are obviously from the visible spectrum, while the video in STS-75 for example is (if i am not wrong) from the infrared spectrum. This contradiction is indeed puzzling. My guess is as good as anybody's here.

Last night was cloudy, but on the first chance i will try to use an astronomical map to provide reference to its possition.

Spyros
 
At least the hexagon will give you a reference for what is and isn't in focus. As a curious experiment if you can see it again, focus until you get the hexagon and wait to see if part of it disappears as in the video.
If it doesn't, I think you can say with a little more confidence that it is in focus. Which would be interesting

Another thought that came to mind, if you want to get to the bottom of this..are there any astronomy clubs near you? If you could borrow the use of a reasonable telescope to view the object it may help.

If not, referencing its position in the sky may help you work out if its a satellite or planet.
 
Hello,

Since there is no astronomy club that i am aware of in my area, i search and found a very interesting gadget called "Planisphere". It actually shows the position of the known stars in sky round the year in a specific time of the day. I used it on the 27th of March, when i shot the pictures and video of the object, at 1:40am. This Planisphere is calibrated for observations from Greece though (latidute of 40 degrees). The weather has been pretty bad these last days, but as soon as the skies clear up i will make further (and more precise i hope) observations. For the time being, in case someone is interested in locating this objects himself, i upload a picture of my Planisphere set on the day and time of my observation.

Here is the link:
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee58/spyraal/Planisphere_4web.jpg

Take care,
Spyros
 
hi,

there are no clubs in place where you live, but there is Internet. did you try searching Greek astronomy related community websites, forums or discussion groups? it's very unlikely that the object you're describing hasn't been noticed by amateur astronomers. and if it hasn't been yet described by anybody else, you can post your observations and ask for comments or some verification.
 
I will try to find a greek astronomy site to query further. It seems like the proper thing to do. Thanks for the suggestion.

Spyros
 
Object (or distortion) you've captured on camera seems to be similar to the one posted here:

_http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=6288
 
It's Vega.
This is no UFO. It is easily identifiable. You had an encounter with star Vega.

Your photograph is typical of a star:
Every star is donut-shaped, when it is out of focus. And you are way out of focus!

Your description of the observation of the object is typical of a star:
1. Stars twinkle, don't they? They twinkle all the time. This is due to atmospheric refraction ("glow and change colors even with naked eyes during the night")
2. Stars are not stationary, but they rise and set. Since your object "moves with rest of the sky", it is a star.
3. Stars CAN be seen EVERY night. Right?
4. In the area of the sky you indicate on the planisphere http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee58/spyraal/Planisphere_4web.jpg, there is a star that clearly outshines all the other stars around it, and you can see that this brightest star, the one that immediately cought your naked eye attention, is actually Vega.

I hope you have no more doubts, after this explanation!
@strofusion
 
It is indeed something that appears to be different from the common perception of a star is.

I made contact with a greek site of amateur astronomers. Unfortunately, none of them lives close to my area so as to observe himself having more experience than i do.
What surprised me, was the rules of this forum. It read (translated): "Posts that promote scientific trivialities and legends such as conspiracies, astrology, UFO-logy etc. are not allowed."
Trying to be as "extrernal considering" as i could, i apologized for my ignorance in astrology and presented my photos and video without any bias towards UFOs. I was "attacked" by some
members who called me "ignorant", "naive" and more or less stupid. Not that i minded or was offended of course, but what surprised me was the lack of open-mindness in a group of people
that are "supposed" to be studing that vast depths of space and the "unknown" out there. Their suggestion (they call it "certainty", but it is their opinion) is that i was shooting the star Vega.
My astronomical chart also confirms that Vega is indeed in the same area of the sky. So, it might have been Vega. This cannot in a satisfactory way explain the disappearing, fading and vidid colors of my video, seen also with a naked eye! But what i make of all this, is that i have to impove my own astronomical knowledge so be more objective, and this is what i will do. I will seize the opportunity. I will keep observing, and if anything new or dramatic happens, i will let you know. Learing is fun!
 
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