ProphetofOccam
Paranormal Adept
If no one remembers, I live in Lakewood, Ohio. It's an urban-esque, western suburb of Cleveland, on Lake Erie. I have a couple of dogs that I take out to the backyard every few hours, as one with dogs is wont to do. When I do that at night, I habitually look for passing satellites. I occasionally see them drifting along, barely visible as little fast moving star-specks.
Due to this, I'm often staring at the sky when I take the dogs out, so I occasionally see weird, but explainable things. Last night, I saw something weird that was a little harder to classify.
I barely know how to accurately describe it. I watched it for probably a full two to three seconds as it made its way from the southwestern corner of the sky to the north-central part of the sky and on behind trees, yet still can barely think of how to explain it. Before I try to do that, though, I should describe the sky.
The skies in October, near the lake, are pretty interesting. You get a lot of large, towering cloud structures interspersed with vast stretches of crystal clear sky. This is due to the low temperatures keeping most of the air dry and cold, yet the lake hasn't fully cooled from the summer, so it's still producing vapor for cloud development, which is assisted by continual warm fronts from the west. Last night was a pretty picturesque example of this idea. That means that while there were large cloud structures in the southwest and northeast, the rest of the night sky was sparkly and crystal clear. This is somewhat important information.
The time was anywhere between 8:45pm and 9:30pm. I had been looking up for several minutes when I noticed something moving next to one of the southwest clouds. I don't remember seeing it in front of the cloud structure, which made me think it may have come from behind it. It was so faint that I could barely make it out.
My brain's instinctual reaction to the form was that I was looking at a search light cross the sky, probably due to one of the clubs/taverns having some kind of party/special they were advertising. After about a second, though, I realized that it was crossing apart of the sky with no cloud cover -- not even a haze; it's crystal clear in the cloudless spaces. That should give you some idea of what the form looked like. It looked very similar to a light crossing bumpy clouds, except it was reddish (also kind of purplish in parts, against the dark blue, night sky).
It didn't look solid, though there seemed to be a central area where the "light," or whatever, was more dense and more reddish. It was vaguely shaped like a semi-circle; for those in the right age range, think a vague shape of one of Mario's fireballs from the original game. It appeared to flicker irregularly, perhaps, which gave it that "search light across clouds" look. That is, irregularly both in interval and in area dispersal.
The central area was very vaguely rice shaped, but still too faint and seemingly transparent to properly decipher. Also, I'm not sure how much damage the time between last night and this afternoon has done to my memory, which adds to the vagueness.
After a second and a halfish, I thought I was watching some kind of weird meteorite entry, as I see a lot of those, but it never tailed and it never got any brighter than it was in the parts that would flicker the "brightest." It traveled a straight, unaltered trajectory and disappeared behind the trees across the street. I half expected to hear a large bang after a few minutes, but nothing happened.
It was so faint that I would describe it as watching a reflection of a red object travel across a glass coffee table in a dark room. If I had needed glasses, I'd have never seen it. I'm not goofy enough to attempt to guess an altitude, distance or speed of an object I could barely perceive, but it only took it about two and a half or three seconds to move from (maybe) behind the cloud formation, just above the house line, to the opposite side of the sky, beyond the trees, also just above the house line. It takes the average commercial plane, at a (that plane looks the size of my thumbnail) height about ten to twelve seconds to make the same journey.
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport isn't far from my house, so I do see a great deal of commercial air travel. Additionally, there is the Lakefront Airport which hosts a lot of personal and smaller air travel vehicles.
Details:
The form was silent.
The form was reddish, purplish.
The form flickered irregularly in dispersal and interval.
The form traveled the distance of the sky in two to three seconds.
The form APPEARED to be transparent, like a reflection in a window.
The central part of the form APPEARED to be vaguely rice shaped.
The general shape of the form was vaguely semi-circular.
The form was very difficult to see clearly.
The form was perceptually the size of a thumbnail, from my perspective to its location in the sky. I have no guess as to its actual height, so no guess as to its actual size. It was probably "half the size of the moon," if that means anything to you.
The time was 8:45pm to 9:30pm.
The sky was a mix of large cloud structures in the southwest and northeast with crystal clear stretches of sparkling, blue-black, night sky. (typical Ohio, October weather)
My location is Lakewood, Ohio.
After thought, mundane possibilities:
1. A starling, sparrow, swallow or owl was flying across the sky, just high enough to make them difficult to see against the night sky. I have a street lamp right next to my backyard. If it were at just the right height, the light from the lamp would hit the bottom of the bird, creating the "flickering" illusion as it flapped its wings. This might also explain the "rice" shape of the central portion and why most of the form appeared to be transparent (the wings becoming visible and invisible as the bird flapped them, with the light effect acting as a strobe).
As with most places, we have many sparrows, starlings, and swallows in the area. A flock of sparrows alternatively lives in my backyard bushes, as well as other bushes in the neighborhood. As for owls, I live walking distance from one of the largest sections of the Cleveland Metropark natural reserve, which is between Rocky River and Lakewood.
I don't 100% remember whether I saw the form come out from behind the clouds in the southwest. I just feel like I did, which isn't enough for me.
2. A very quiet plane was flying at a low enough height to take two to three seconds to traverse the distance of the sky and had no lights or gear turned on, leaving the bottom to reflect back the lights of the cityscape.
3. Large spotlights CAN cast a light phenomenon against cloudless skies and can travel the distance the form seemed to travel, I just don't know enough about spotlights to know this.
4. It was a really weird meteorite.
Due to this, I'm often staring at the sky when I take the dogs out, so I occasionally see weird, but explainable things. Last night, I saw something weird that was a little harder to classify.
I barely know how to accurately describe it. I watched it for probably a full two to three seconds as it made its way from the southwestern corner of the sky to the north-central part of the sky and on behind trees, yet still can barely think of how to explain it. Before I try to do that, though, I should describe the sky.
The skies in October, near the lake, are pretty interesting. You get a lot of large, towering cloud structures interspersed with vast stretches of crystal clear sky. This is due to the low temperatures keeping most of the air dry and cold, yet the lake hasn't fully cooled from the summer, so it's still producing vapor for cloud development, which is assisted by continual warm fronts from the west. Last night was a pretty picturesque example of this idea. That means that while there were large cloud structures in the southwest and northeast, the rest of the night sky was sparkly and crystal clear. This is somewhat important information.
The time was anywhere between 8:45pm and 9:30pm. I had been looking up for several minutes when I noticed something moving next to one of the southwest clouds. I don't remember seeing it in front of the cloud structure, which made me think it may have come from behind it. It was so faint that I could barely make it out.
My brain's instinctual reaction to the form was that I was looking at a search light cross the sky, probably due to one of the clubs/taverns having some kind of party/special they were advertising. After about a second, though, I realized that it was crossing apart of the sky with no cloud cover -- not even a haze; it's crystal clear in the cloudless spaces. That should give you some idea of what the form looked like. It looked very similar to a light crossing bumpy clouds, except it was reddish (also kind of purplish in parts, against the dark blue, night sky).
It didn't look solid, though there seemed to be a central area where the "light," or whatever, was more dense and more reddish. It was vaguely shaped like a semi-circle; for those in the right age range, think a vague shape of one of Mario's fireballs from the original game. It appeared to flicker irregularly, perhaps, which gave it that "search light across clouds" look. That is, irregularly both in interval and in area dispersal.
The central area was very vaguely rice shaped, but still too faint and seemingly transparent to properly decipher. Also, I'm not sure how much damage the time between last night and this afternoon has done to my memory, which adds to the vagueness.
After a second and a halfish, I thought I was watching some kind of weird meteorite entry, as I see a lot of those, but it never tailed and it never got any brighter than it was in the parts that would flicker the "brightest." It traveled a straight, unaltered trajectory and disappeared behind the trees across the street. I half expected to hear a large bang after a few minutes, but nothing happened.
It was so faint that I would describe it as watching a reflection of a red object travel across a glass coffee table in a dark room. If I had needed glasses, I'd have never seen it. I'm not goofy enough to attempt to guess an altitude, distance or speed of an object I could barely perceive, but it only took it about two and a half or three seconds to move from (maybe) behind the cloud formation, just above the house line, to the opposite side of the sky, beyond the trees, also just above the house line. It takes the average commercial plane, at a (that plane looks the size of my thumbnail) height about ten to twelve seconds to make the same journey.
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport isn't far from my house, so I do see a great deal of commercial air travel. Additionally, there is the Lakefront Airport which hosts a lot of personal and smaller air travel vehicles.
Details:
The form was silent.
The form was reddish, purplish.
The form flickered irregularly in dispersal and interval.
The form traveled the distance of the sky in two to three seconds.
The form APPEARED to be transparent, like a reflection in a window.
The central part of the form APPEARED to be vaguely rice shaped.
The general shape of the form was vaguely semi-circular.
The form was very difficult to see clearly.
The form was perceptually the size of a thumbnail, from my perspective to its location in the sky. I have no guess as to its actual height, so no guess as to its actual size. It was probably "half the size of the moon," if that means anything to you.
The time was 8:45pm to 9:30pm.
The sky was a mix of large cloud structures in the southwest and northeast with crystal clear stretches of sparkling, blue-black, night sky. (typical Ohio, October weather)
My location is Lakewood, Ohio.
After thought, mundane possibilities:
1. A starling, sparrow, swallow or owl was flying across the sky, just high enough to make them difficult to see against the night sky. I have a street lamp right next to my backyard. If it were at just the right height, the light from the lamp would hit the bottom of the bird, creating the "flickering" illusion as it flapped its wings. This might also explain the "rice" shape of the central portion and why most of the form appeared to be transparent (the wings becoming visible and invisible as the bird flapped them, with the light effect acting as a strobe).
As with most places, we have many sparrows, starlings, and swallows in the area. A flock of sparrows alternatively lives in my backyard bushes, as well as other bushes in the neighborhood. As for owls, I live walking distance from one of the largest sections of the Cleveland Metropark natural reserve, which is between Rocky River and Lakewood.
I don't 100% remember whether I saw the form come out from behind the clouds in the southwest. I just feel like I did, which isn't enough for me.
2. A very quiet plane was flying at a low enough height to take two to three seconds to traverse the distance of the sky and had no lights or gear turned on, leaving the bottom to reflect back the lights of the cityscape.
3. Large spotlights CAN cast a light phenomenon against cloudless skies and can travel the distance the form seemed to travel, I just don't know enough about spotlights to know this.
4. It was a really weird meteorite.
Last edited:
