A UFO Sighting

[old man emu]

A bit before 5:00 am this morning (5/1/24), I observed an unusual movement in the sky overhead my place. Before you blokes start debunking my observations and my theory derived from those observations, don't forget that I have a background in observation and analysis of those observations.

 

So here's what I saw. I saw a line of about six or eight bright white lights in a line, moving from West to East across the sky, slightly to the south of my place. The lights were evenly spaced along the line, and that spacing did not alter while I observed them. The only light was white, which was relatively as bright as the fixed stars of the Southern Cross. There was no sound coming from their direction. The line did not change direction and I gradually lost sight of them as the line moved towards the eastern sky in the pre-dawn light. The speed of the lights was very much less than meteors, but faster than a commercial aircraft. 

 

There is an international airway route which leads planes to pass to the north of my place.  Planes flying this route are at about 30,000 ft. At night I can see their red and green wingtip lights and white anti-collision lights. The sound of their engines reaches me after the plane has passed. The time between the plane passing and the sound reaching me is much the same for every time I see the planes (30,000 ft divided by the speed of sound in air). Also planes flying the route are going in a northwesterly directions from Sydney. I've tracked them on Flightradar 24 many times. If there are two planes on the same airway, there is a substantial distance separating them.

 

So here are my deductions:

1. The lights were not generated from a commercial aircraft because of direction, speed, lack of noise and absence of anti-collision lights.

2. The white light was much stronger that the white anti-collision lights of commercial aircraft.

3. The lights were not meteors because of their lower speed, ordered spacing, and that they were lost to sight as they entered the light from the Sun which at that time would have been over the Tasman Sea, well to the east.

4. That they were lost to sight as they moved to the east and the Sun, suggests they were at quite an altitude.

 

Conclusion:

I am not inclined to suggest that they were the product of an extraterrestrial technology. I consider that their speed was too fast for normal satellites or space stations, but not fast enough for meteors. Therefore, I can only conclude that they were man made, but by whom and for what purpose I have no idea.

 

 

[nomadpete]

Perhaps you saw a Starlink satellite train?

 

https://starlinkinsider.com/starlink-satellite-train/

[old man emu]

46 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

Perhaps you saw a Starlink satellite train?

 

https://starlinkinsider.com/starlink-satellite-train/

That is what is must have been. I don't know where your picture was taken, because there are a lot more objects in that photo than what I saw. I surmise that since Starlink is not as common in Australia, the number of objects in the train for Australia would be less. 

 

Luckily only recently my sister told me that she was going to Starlink because the Telstra internet connection at her place is woeful. The difference between her connection and mine is amazing. I have no problems, but I am close to the top of a rise from her place and I have a much longer line of sight towards the towers.

 

This is the train that I saw:

Timings with average visibility

(past) 4:49 am, 5 Jan 2025

Starlink-217 (G12-6) (new), DIM (2.2) for 2 mins
Look from WEST to SOUTHEAST (details)
Elevation (from horizon): start: 40°, max: 51°, end: 10°

[spacesailor]

Perhaps a ' string ' white balloons.  High enough to be lit by the sun ..

I have seen similar here in Sydney's west at sunset .

The give-away was the " jiggle ' of the balloons. 

spacesailor

[facthunter]

I think we have the answer.  There's so many satellites up there they blanket the view of the cosmos.. Nev

[nomadpete]

What he really saw was the sun reflected off the trail of empty stubbies, thrown out the window by passing astronauts ....

[facthunter]

Hub caps from a Tesla.  Nev

[nomadpete]

Well, now we have identified the sources of orbital spacetrash.

Can we expect Spacex to put a big blue Simsmetal bin into orbit?

[pmccarthy]

Once the bin is full, do we have a new search for bin laden?

[facthunter]

Obama took that BIN out. Nev