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Just to level set, I am NOT saying that ET's do not exist. But, I have personally seen a UFO or Unexplained blah blah, double speak thing. I live near Seattle,

Just to level set, I am NOT saying that ET's do not exist. But, I have personally seen a UFO or Unexplained blah blah, double speak thing. I live near Seattle, with a beautiful view of Lake Washington facing East and a wonderful view of Mt. Rainier, the location of the first documented UFO sighting. One beautiful sunny summer day, I was sitting out on my deck relaxing and I saw a UFO near Mt. Ranier, a bit south of the mountain. It was very shiny and seemed to be moving at hyper-sonic speeds between a location close to the mountain and then suddenly a location a bit east of Renton. I was thinking, Wow, that is bizarre !. It was silver and oblong shaped and seemed to be appearing in one location and then appearing in another location and then waving back and forth. Then appearing and disappearing. So completely strange. Of course, I immediately ran and got my binoculars, to get a closer look, but it was still a little fuzzy and hard to follow. So I switched to my spotter scope I use for target practice. Still, not definitive. I went to my Bird Watching scope which is the highest power I had. It was difficult to track but eventually, I detected that, the object turned out to be some guy in a paraglider with a very shiny parachute. He was sort of swinging back and forth. There was some sort of weird atmospheric anomaly that seemed to cause the image to move from one place to the other but, it was really one thing. Very interesting, had I not had access to a lot good optics and so forth, I could see someone getting weirded out by it. I saw later that other people had reported it as a UFO. I am not saying that all sightings are bunk. Not at all. I am just saying, that I can see how some things can be mis-interpreted. Very easily. It's very possible some sightings are ET, I do not know, this is just my one experience.

viscanti 5y ago
So flying objects remain unidentified until they're identified?
- corndoge 5y ago
  Yes, convention is to refer to them as unidentified unless they're identified.
- zw123456 5y ago
  Exactly
namlem 5y ago
Wow, so all you need to cause a whole bunch of UFO sightings is a paramotor with a reflective wing? Interesting...
- zw123456 5y ago
  And a big mountain with weird atmospheric anomalies around it. There are a lot of myths about Mt. Tahoma, the Native American name for Mt. Ranier. Probably because of the various atmospheric anomalies, or... who knows :) Just kidding around, I see strange cloud formations and other odd looking things wafting off the top or side of it. I can see where someone could mistake some of those things for something super natural. IMO, Nature is pretty super!
  - Wistar 5y ago
    In my experience, Mt. Rainier is king of the lenticular cloud formations.
    - zw123456 5y ago
      Ya, in fact, I see very interesting formations all the time. One morning while making my coffee I looked out and saw what looked like a perfect flying saucer docked to the peak of the mountain. I snapped a photo and texted it to my BFF. She was cracking up about it. We thought for sure we could get it on that Ancient Aliens program for sure.
- tetris11 5y ago
  Or a bunch of birds floating above football floodlights https://old.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/rqc69n/i_thought_i_was_seeing_dronesfirefliesaliens/ https://old.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/rqc69n/i_thought_...
lend000 5y ago
The sightings like yours (saw a distant light or dot moving in the distance) are typically not the interesting ones, for the reasons you describe. There are just so many unfalsifiable prosaic explanations, and just a dozen or so will account for 95% of accounts from reliable observers. The interesting ones are "close encounters" like the Nimitz incident with multiple observers, where either the observers are making an exceptional effort to lie, or something extraordinary was truly witnessed. Extra point for those including multiple data points like radar tracks, visual recordings, or radiation burns. Also, nit: the "flying saucer" phenomenon was popularized by the Rainier Kenneth Arnold sighting, but it was far from the first recorded sighting [0] [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1561_celestial_phenomenon_over_Nuremberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1561_celestial_phenomenon_over... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter
- zw123456 5y ago
  Yes, I understand your nit picking about the "first" UFO sighting being Mt Rainier, although, I feel like it was pretty clear that wasn't the main point I was making. As for 1561, I am wondering if they had better optics and telescopes maybe it would have revealed what the phenomenon was. Maybe it was an Ancient Alien visitation, or maybe not, we don't know. And probably never will. So, it might be interesting, but it is not proof. Foo Fighters (good band BTW), maybe if they had better radar or other tools maybe they could have detected what it was, maybe not. So, again, interesting but, just that. For now, I remain a skeptic. Believe me, when I saw what looked like a disc, it looked like a lot more than just a dot of light, and a lot of other people thought so too, I was excited. I was hoping it was a visitation of nice aliens coming to save us from ourselves and not predators with a cookbook. But, it turns out it was just a guy in a hang glider with a motor on it. Had I not had a lot of good optical equipment, I might have been convinced I saw a flying saucer. I am a skeptic, but with proper proof of course I can be convinced, I am even hoping for it (I just hope they aren't bearing cookbooks).

viscanti 5y ago

So flying objects remain unidentified until they're identified?

corndoge 5y ago
Yes, convention is to refer to them as unidentified unless they're identified.
zw123456 5y ago
Exactly

namlem 5y ago

Wow, so all you need to cause a whole bunch of UFO sightings is a paramotor with a reflective wing? Interesting...

zw123456 5y ago
And a big mountain with weird atmospheric anomalies around it. There are a lot of myths about Mt. Tahoma, the Native American name for Mt. Ranier. Probably because of the various atmospheric anomalies, or... who knows :) Just kidding around, I see strange cloud formations and other odd looking things wafting off the top or side of it. I can see where someone could mistake some of those things for something super natural. IMO, Nature is pretty super!
- Wistar 5y ago
  In my experience, Mt. Rainier is king of the lenticular cloud formations.
  - zw123456 5y ago
    Ya, in fact, I see very interesting formations all the time. One morning while making my coffee I looked out and saw what looked like a perfect flying saucer docked to the peak of the mountain. I snapped a photo and texted it to my BFF. She was cracking up about it. We thought for sure we could get it on that Ancient Aliens program for sure.
tetris11 5y ago
Or a bunch of birds floating above football floodlights https://old.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/rqc69n/i_thought_i_was_seeing_dronesfirefliesaliens/ https://old.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/rqc69n/i_thought_...

lend000 5y ago

The sightings like yours (saw a distant light or dot moving in the distance) are typically not the interesting ones, for the reasons you describe. There are just so many unfalsifiable prosaic explanations, and just a dozen or so will account for 95% of accounts from reliable observers. The interesting ones are "close encounters" like the Nimitz incident with multiple observers, where either the observers are making an exceptional effort to lie, or something extraordinary was truly witnessed. Extra point for those including multiple data points like radar tracks, visual recordings, or radiation burns. Also, nit: the "flying saucer" phenomenon was popularized by the Rainier Kenneth Arnold sighting, but it was far from the first recorded sighting [0] [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1561_celestial_phenomenon_over_Nuremberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1561_celestial_phenomenon_over... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter

zw123456 5y ago
Yes, I understand your nit picking about the "first" UFO sighting being Mt Rainier, although, I feel like it was pretty clear that wasn't the main point I was making. As for 1561, I am wondering if they had better optics and telescopes maybe it would have revealed what the phenomenon was. Maybe it was an Ancient Alien visitation, or maybe not, we don't know. And probably never will. So, it might be interesting, but it is not proof. Foo Fighters (good band BTW), maybe if they had better radar or other tools maybe they could have detected what it was, maybe not. So, again, interesting but, just that. For now, I remain a skeptic. Believe me, when I saw what looked like a disc, it looked like a lot more than just a dot of light, and a lot of other people thought so too, I was excited. I was hoping it was a visitation of nice aliens coming to save us from ourselves and not predators with a cookbook. But, it turns out it was just a guy in a hang glider with a motor on it. Had I not had a lot of good optical equipment, I might have been convinced I saw a flying saucer. I am a skeptic, but with proper proof of course I can be convinced, I am even hoping for it (I just hope they aren't bearing cookbooks).