What's that in the sky?

[Bill Greenwood]

I came out to the airport about 1 pm to find a group of people looking up to the blue sky, so I asked why and they pointed a white dot there, no doubt, seen by dozens of people from valet to pilots to counter people for over an hour. When seen through binoculars it looks white, some people think a bit metalic, and it is mostly round. The other characteristic is that it doesnt move with the wind, it was stationary. So cant be a balloon, and too low to be a satellite or planet or the moon, It is just below the highest scattered cloud layer which FSS estimates at 18,000 msl. Wind aloft at 18 is 290 at 11 and you can see the scattered layer move just over this. I check with tower and FSS and they hadnt heard of it and had no notam. Hard to tell size wise but another white dot came over and turned out to be a corp jet, and this balloon like thing was a farther away so had some size, perhaps like a medium plane. Not a copter and would be a rare one to hover around 18,000 not moving that long or talking to approach control.
It qualifes as a UFO in the sense that it sure is unidentified, at least to us, and sure is floating in the sky if not flying.
An no alcohol or drugs are invollved.
My off hand guess is that it is something scientific or military, but how do they get a balloon that stays in place that high and doesnt swing on a tether? Maybe a large drone, but for what?
would be nice if someone had some knowledge to give us?

[gbrasch]

where?

[rwanttaja]

where?

Just to the left of that whatchamacallum out thataway.....

Ron "And straight on 'til morning" Wanttaja

[DaleB]

Maybe one of these (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasa-s-scientific-balloon-program-reaches-new-heights)?

[Bill Greenwood]

About 3 miles north east of Aspen airport, sort of toward Ruedi Reservoir, partway toward Leadville and based on the clouds as reported by FSS about 18,000 feet. Its not there today.

Thanks Dale, but this is not real high, nowhere near space and it did not move at all with the wind unlike a balloon. And I havent heard of NASA anywhere near here.
Today I asked the tower controller at Eagle, which is just north of here about it and he was pretty abrupt and not so friendly. Does that mean he knows something confidential or was just busy and thought my question was silly?

[Bill Berson]

Could be an airship (powered balloon). Manned or unmanned.
Could stay in position in up to 80 knot winds if streamlined.

[Bill Greenwood]

Bill, maybe. I dont know of anyone who has a blimp or airship around here and of that size. Its a guess but based on a corp jet that passed the same spot later, this thing was likely the size of medioum corp plane, maybe a Citation or similar, not as high from top to bottom as Goodyear blimp.
And it didnt move at all ,not up down or laterally, nor did the perspective chamge. If someone had an airship they probably would have to let Tower or approach or FSS know? And why would they hover there for an hour and a half or so. Wind was only 11 knots, 290 at 11 but an airship would hover pointing nose into wind. This didnt look like that, didnt really have a nose but if anything it was sort of pointing north.It seemed round sort of like Pillsbury hot biscuit, it didnt seem to be round and flat like a saucer or tube shaped like a fuselage. It was white, bright white but I think that was the sun hitting it, A few people thought it looked metallic but not so much to me.

[rwanttaja]

On the surface of it, it could be sensitive DEA long-term surveillance. That would explain the apparent behavior, the lack of a NOTAM, and the tower guy's reluctance to talk about it.

On the other hand, there's an observational issue: Whether the object was actually below the scattered cloud layer. A solid layer is pretty positive, but a bright object and a scattered layer could play tricks on the brain. Could be a star/planet/high-altitude balloon. The longer-than-assumed range would make the object appear fairly stationary.

Ron Wanttaja

[Bill Greenwood]

We had a really good view as mulitple clouds formations came by for over an hour. Im sure this object was just below the top clouds, other people agreed, and FSS gave the layers as broken at 15,000 and scattered at 18,000 and that looked about right since we had mountains below this at 12,500 or so for comparison Motion could be judged pretty well as there was a car lined up with a tall spruce tree right in line with this dot, and it never varied the whole time, also never varied altitude in relation to the clouds or the angle we looked up at it.
I was indoors when the lower broken clouds came by thick enough to block this and when they passed it was gone. Havent seen it today.

[Dana]

If a balloon was drifting with an 11kt wind at 18,000' it would appear stationary to an observer on the ground unless you observed it for a long time.

[Bill Greenwood]

Dana, : 2 things , We did observe it for a long time, It didnt move a degree. And meanwhile over the almost 2 hour period the scatterd and then broken clouds slowly moved across the sky, passing this still object. It is roughly 2 miles above us and perhaps a mile or two horizontal to the east, not that far.
And 18,000 feet sounds like way up there but we are at 8,000 so not as high as might seem. My consulsoion is if this was a balloon it must have been tethered. Thanks for your suggetions, maybe we will find out sometime.

[Floatsflyer]

Bill, when ET knocks on your door looking for a ride in the Spit, please keep us advised.

[gbrasch]

Several people seeing it and no-one took a picture?

[1600vw]

In the 70's when I was a teenager one Wednesday evening in the summer at 7 pm I saw this white light up in the sky. It was still light outside at this time of year. It went from one horizon to the other. Taking maybe 45 mins to do this. Every Wednesday at 7pm a group of us started gathering to watch this. This went on for a few months. All the way into the fall season and the time change. Then on one Wednesday there was four lights. All coming from each direction, north-south-east-west. These started at the horizon and moved up to right over head. All four lights came together and formed one light. This took maybe 40 mins for these lights to come together. They stayed as one light for what seemed like 30 mins or so. They then broke off into each single light. But this time they where gone in a second. They went from over head to the horizon in a matter of a second. We never saw these lights again after this night. There must have been 30 of us watching this. Everyone was shocked when they became one, then even more shocked when they went out of sight in a second or the blink of an eye. I am still today amazed at what I saw this Wednesday night.

Tony

[Bill Greenwood]

Glen, I'll ask if anyone snapped a cell phone photo. Problem is it was small enough that you might just get a dot, unless you had a tele lens. Think if you took a cell phone photo of a Huey 3 miles away? Wish we had a top camera on a tripod with long lens. Even looking through binoculars it was hard to hold them steady, couldnt find any real detail or markings on this thing. It is a lot smaller than for instance the moon would look on the horizon at night, maybe 1/6 that size? It's a little smaller than if you held a frisbee at arms length, but larger than a dot of a star at night. And it was seen by not just several people but dozens, anyone who walked out when it was there could see it with just their eye, older van driver saw it out the lunchroom window, The valets saw it first since their booth is outside the front door.
I met a controller who was off duty that day but said he saw much the same thing in the last year.

[Cary]

http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=tightropetb&p=close+encounters+theme+song#id=2&vid=5fec1ed7ba195719cf30cd4c3e93f524&action=click

Cary

[rwanttaja]

Oddly enough, I just arrived in Tucson to visit a flying friend. Just about the first thing he said was, "I saw a weird stationary white object in the sky recently..."

It behaved at bit differently from Bill's...short term brightness variations for a bit, then it disappeared. He showed me a cell phone photo. There was indeed a white dot in the sky. Zoomed in, it appeared unsymmetrical, but that's probably a camera artifact.

Ron Wanttaja

[gbrasch]

Oddly enough, I just arrived in Tucson to visit a flying friend. Just about the first thing he said was, "I saw a weird stationary white object in the sky recently..."

It behaved at bit differently from Bill's...short term brightness variations for a bit, then it disappeared. He showed me a cell phone photo. There was indeed a white dot in the sky. Zoomed in, it appeared unsymmetrical, but that's probably a camera artifact.

Ron Wanttaja

Tethered Aerostat in Sierra Vista maybe?

[rwanttaja]

Tethered Aerostat in Sierra Vista maybe?

He's aware of that one, the object he saw was 200 miles away in a different direction.

Ron Wanttaja