There are so many unusual fascinating wonders–on Earth and in the heavens above–that treat us to majestic visual surrealism from time to time. From meteors and bolides skipping across the Earth’s atmosphere like stones skimming the water of a lake, to the magnificent colored light shows produced by natural illuminations like the Aurora Borealis, natural light-shows produced in a variety of ways account for a vast majority of the wonders that take place in the hours between evening and sunrise. Take for instance the unique celestial display that occurred this past Wednesday night, creating a beautiful trail of colored lights in the night sky. In spite of its apparent cosmic appearance, the given explanation for this colorful apparition was, as described by Rick Stokes, news editor for The Anomalist, “a pisser”.
Indeed, though the luminescent trail in the sky may have looked like a mysterious celestial event, in reality it was only urine (may the parades of many a hearty stargazer be hereby peed upon). The strange glow, appearing in the night of Wednesday September 9th, was actually created “when astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery dumped the waste out into space,” reported Space.com recently. Though the circumstances for the event that created this cluster of phosphorescent pee weren’t all that common, there are a variety of other effects produced by natural phenomenon that are quite natural–even commonplace–and yet often appear to be something more anomalous.
Having studied UFOs for years, there are often things I see in films and photographs that leave me asking, “what the heck is it?” However, the vast majority of the time, the kinds of things some sky watchers have pointed out and called “unknowns” appeared to be little more to me than easily-recognizable natural phenomenon. For instance, earlier this summer I was in Burnsville, North Carolina, with about a half hour’s drive back to my home in Asheville, when I looked up and happened to catch a satellite passing directly overhead as I was getting into my car. My company and I stopped to watch the object, and growing slightly brighter in intensity as it moved steadily above us, the satellite created a single, bluish flash of light as it caught sun’s light, reflecting it brightly for an instant as it tumbled slowly through the heavens, then disappeared. Without having to say so myself, everyone with me (none of them particularly interested in UFOs or aerial phenomenon) acknowledged the object as a satellite, and we went on our merry way.
Incidentally, back in Asheville, several individuals had gathered for a UFO sky-watch, and within minutes of seeing the object myself, I began getting phone calls and text messages alerting me of a UFO some of the witnesses had seen. Fortunately, one of the folks who happened to catch a glimpse of the object was Mobius, a good friend and fellow researcher with the L. E. M. U. R. Paranormal Investigation team, with whom I have shared many investigations over the years. Mobius described what he saw, and though fleeting, his description seemed to match what I had witnessed a short time earlier in another town! Similar to my own impressions, Mobius too felt that the object had most likely been a satellite, due to the speed at which it moved, in addition to the lack of “course correction” the object displayed.
Granted, with our experience in night-time sky watching, the appearance of the satellite hadn’t been anything particularly unusual to our eyes. Still, it was interesting to hear the various interpretations others had given; ranging from the complacent acceptance that my company expressed, to the astonishment that some of the UFO watchers had shown in hoping that they had seen a true “unknown”.
As obvious as the appearance and behavior of satellites may seem, there have been many occasions where I have been shown videos of UFOs where the
by 