nPosted on December 17, 2017
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Key Points
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| Ball lightning |
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nThere are loads of things to see in the sky. The moon and sun, airplanes and helicopters, birds and insects, stars and planets, clouds and lightning are all pretty normal…But there are many more unusual things, at times, such as meteorites or “falling stars”, weather balloons and drones, noctilucent and mammatus clouds, St. Elmo’s Fire and ball lightning, green flash and sun dogs, mirages and other optical illusions.
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| Noctilucent clouds |
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| Mammatus clouds |
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| St. Elmos’ Fire |
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| Green flash |
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nBoth normal sky stuff and unusual phenomena can be confusing to viewers. We can become confused with how far away something really is, and therefore how big it is. We can misunderstand lights jiggling from moving air currents, thinking that they are actually lights on moving vehicles. We can mistake a swarm of creatures for a single large object, and we can assume that a bunch of water droplets or reflecting and refracting lights are actually solid objects.
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nSo – the upshot of all this confusion is, some people are sure – maybe even definitely-for-sure – that they’ve seen a flying saucer, or a UFO (unidentified flying object), or whatever you want to call a spaceship from another planet…when they’ve really seen something else altogether.
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nUFO folks ask, what else could these things possibly be?
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nCheck out the answers below.
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Starting in the 1940s, people began to report flying saucers. And in 1952, the United States military took notice and opened a study called Project Blue Book to figure out if the UFOs were a threat, and to analyze the data about UFOs in a scientific way. The Air Force was in charge of the project, and they studied thousands of reports.
Starting in the 1940s, people began to report flying saucers. And in 1952, the United States military took notice and opened a study called Project Blue Book to figure out if the UFOs were a threat, and to analyze the data about UFOs in a scientific way. The Air Force was in charge of the project, and they studied thousands of reports.n
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nBy this date in 1969, the Air Force declared the project closed, with the final report saying that:
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n* No UFO has ever been reported that indicates a threat to national security.
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n* No UFO has ever been reported that represents some sort of technology more advanced than our own.
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n* No UFO has ever been reported that could be categorized as an extraterrestrial vehicle.
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nAnswers to “What else could these things possibly be?”
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n1. a lenticular cloud
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n2. a helium-filled inflatable purchased from eBay
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n3. an enormous flock of birds
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n4. a moon of Saturn
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nAlso on this date:
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Anniversary of the first Saturnalia Festival
Anniversary of the first Saturnalia Festival n
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nBhutan’s National Day
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nAnniversary of the publishing of A Christmas Carol
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nAnniversary of the discovery of an Aztec calendar stone
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nSecond night of Las Posadas
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nAnniversary of first successful airplane flight
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nMathematician and physicist Emilie du Chatelet’s birthday
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Anniversary of NYC’s First One-Way Street
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Night 6 of Hanukkah
Night 6 of Hanukkahn
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nPlan ahead:
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Check out my Pinterest pages on:
Check out my Pinterest pages on:
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nHistorical anniversaries in December
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nAnd here are my Pinterest boards for:
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nJanuary birthdays
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