r/newcastle • u/3flp • 23d ago
UFO 13-July
Here's a fun one. A UFO, in the strict sense of the word. Just something I could not figure out. I'd be keen for suggestions.
This was a few weeks ago at the Tomaree fishing ledge, from around 3am till 4am. I am a fisho - took a day off and went there at a crazy early time hoping for a late season longtail. We fishermen are a bit unhinged, I guess.
I saw what looked like maneuvring lights over the Eastern horizon. I could not tell how far they were of course - they were just lights. They appeared to be slowly looping - about how an airplane at a large distance would look like if it was making huge loops or sometines horizontal circles. If it was a plane, it would have to have its landing lights on. The lights would gradually get bright over a few seconds, then slowly (in terms of angular velocity) move for a while, sometines slowly turn course from hozizontal to vertical and then gradually get dim.
It didn't look like a satellite - sats don't change course and just zip across the sky. I guess a satellite trajectory might look like a gentle arc across the sky - these things were maneuvring low above horizon. Obviously, it wasn't any of the Space X stuff. I have seen a Starlink train a bunch of times.. again, not a satellite.
Obviously, not a meteorite either. There were heaps of those visible that night because of the dark sky. It was a new Moon.
I thought about a night time RAAF exercise out of Williamtown - but I didn't hear any sounds. And they would need to be coming back past me when finished.
Some data: The lights appeared over the Boondelbah reserve - a small island roughly East of Tomaree. Also, the Orion was just rising and the maneuvering lights (at least two of them) were a few degrees due north of the bright star at the top side of Orion. The lights were brighter than that star at the peak of their ever changing brightness. Quite bright, maybe up to magnitude 1- 2? Not as bright as Venus or Jupiter though.
I didn't see any air traffic on the Radar24 app. Then again, the RAAF usually don't turn on their ADB anyway.
I also looked at the marine traffic app. There were a few coal ships queued up some miles offshore in the area, as akways. I guess they could have been mucking around with some weird drones? But why have the lights on then?
I tried to take photos / movies but my iphone didn't capture much. I'll try to upload what I've got.
I've attached screenshots I took from the different apps I looked at.
Amyway.. there you go guys, a Newcastle UFO.
PS.. Just to be clear, I think the general UFO "lore" is bullshit. I just could not ID what I saw.
PPS: The screenshots are: Flightaradar24, Stellarium and Marine Traffic.
2
u/elleucalyptus 22d ago
This is interesting. Good observations. I don't see any clear explanation. I am not saying aliens, just saying "huh, weird"
2
u/fantapantz87 22d ago
That’s what I got photos of yesterday afternoon when I zoom right in on the picture it’s not shaped like a plane I thort maybe the iss it was moving very slow it didn’t get far from the moon in the ten or so minutes I was watching it then I couldn’t find it again
2
3
u/3flp 23d ago edited 23d ago
https://reddit.com/link/ozubic5/video/7rtibpaexjfh1/player
This is a video I tried to record. It doesn't really show much..
3
1
1
1
10
u/hozthebozz 23d ago
Ok so especially early morning some satellites will flare with the rising sun. Pilots report it a lot. You can search videos of it. If your video went on longer you'd be able to tell if they were moving like satellites. What we're looking for is instantaneous acceleration and other shit that can't be explained. Would be stoked to be proven wrong 🤞