(Un)Identified Flying Objects

Day before yesterday, I was working with my system when I got a call from Vivek. The avenger boy seemed to be in a hurry.

Vivek : Go upstairs and look at the sky.
Myself : Where?
Vivek : In the west

As if he is Gandalf telling me “Look into the east” (Vivek has mentioned the same dialogue in one of his posts 😉 )

Myself : Ok. Whats special?
Vivek : Go and watch.

After hanging up the phone, I went to the terrace to watch the night sky. It was a clear sky except for some patches of clouds here and there. “Look into the west”, Vivek had said.

Part of the west sky was hidden behind a building and in the remaining visible sky, there was nothing special. The sky looked normal. I turned around to see the sky in all the directions. When I turned back to west, I noticed a bright star. “Must be Venus”, I thought. But it was moving. I thought I was imagining things and concentrated on the bright object. Yes it was moving and it was flying towards east.

It must be an aeroplane. It had blue and red colour lights flashing now and then. Something weird about the flying object was it made no noise. It was flying silently and it was close enough to trouble my ears. But the thing never made any sound and it was moving at a high speed that made it look like it is going to conquer something.

It was flying towards farther east when it suddenly turned its direction and moved towards the north. It was at that time I realized that I have my mobile with me. I took out my mobile and tried to take a shot. It was still in the east when I tried. The result was worthless. I tried to take a video which was also not good. It flew towards the north and even as it travelled in the distant sky, I saw its light flash for the next two minutes.

I turned east again when another flying object appeared from the east. This must definitely be an aeroplane. It was pretty close and I don’t remember seeing it much as I turned towards the North west to see another flying object. This one was flying too high. The plane below was flying low. In Chennai, one doesn’t normally see Planes flying at high altitudes as the airport is located close to the city. “Must be an aeroplane from the easter part of Asia”,I thought.

I watched both planes fly towards the west. The plane flying at higher altitude was interesting to watch as it emitted light that seemed to rotate around it (atleast I imagined it) and it looked like a flyiing saucer in the distance. Ha ha.

When it went out of sight, I remembered the reason why I came upstairs. There was still nothing special in the sky. “Look into the west”. I thought again. He is in the east of my place. So his western sky could be the sky above me. I looked above and noticed few stars. I saw the Orion constellation. The Orion belt was clearly visible, only this time it wasn’t bright. Planet Venus was missing. The Aphrodite which was seen in the sky for the past two or three months was either hidden behind some building or it is missing.

Nothing much was there and I still wonder why Vivek asked me to go upstairs. I decided to leave the sky in peace and continue the battle with my computer.

A smile on that face

In recent times, I have been fascinated by many astronomical happenings. Thanks to Inc and Vivek who keeps me updated on the wonderful happenings.

The meteor showers :

Though I didn’t witness it, it was a wonderful experience. It happened on the day before my DSP semester exam. It was November 17, 2008 04:00 IST. I woke up due to a series of messages from my friend Inc asking me to wake up. The previous day, he had sent a message (to all of his friends) to watch the sky from 3 am to 6 am – to watch the meteor shower leonids. I read the messages from Inc that he had spotted two meteors already. Just two meteors? I thought. I looked out of the window and saw just a peaceful sky promising a good night sleep. But as my friend insisted me to go upstairs, I woke up my sister and we both headed to the terrace. We both watched the clouds passing by, lot of planes making its journey and even some stars (I remember seeing Regulus (Thanks to the phone call with Inc, who provided me with all the information)) but never did we witness any meteor showers. Inc, determined to watch a few more, waited for an hour more and witnessed altogether five plus meteors.

Sprinkle of Glitters:

It was November 28, 2008 23:30 IST. There was no power in my house for two days due to the heavy rains that showered its blessings (maybe a bit too much blessing turned out to be a curse). I heard that the rains will finally stop that night. I went to the back door and looked up at the east sky to check whether the sky is clear. Something weird struck my eyes. The sky was indeed clear and the clouds had moved away to reveal the moon and the stars, which seemed to me that I saw them ages ago. What was weird was that the stars were extremely bright! It was as if someone had sprinkled silver glitters all over the sky. Towards the eastern horizon, I saw a bright star that was shining blue. I looked above and saw a series of stars and immediately guessed that I was seeing a constellation. It had three stars in the middle with stars stretching diagonally at its edges. They were all bright. I wished I had taken a photo of that night sky. Two days later, I learnt from Inc that what I saw was the constellation Orion, which was the brightest one, and the three stars in the middle was called as the Orion belt.

A smile on that face:

It was December 1, 2008 19:00 IST. Inc had already told me to watch the sky for a glimpse of Venus and Jupiter very close to each other. That evening, I was online and Vivek reminded me to go and look at the sky in the west. When I asked him what it was, he told that there is a smile. I immediately went up and searched for the crescent moon. I found it in the south-west and just above the crescent moon, there were Venus and Jupiter forming two eyes and the entire thing looked like a face with a smile. The clouds had made the planets look dull but seeing the sky smile at you was an amazing sight. The following pic is taken from Vivek’s blog.
UFO sighted!!!

Yes, Unidentified Flying Object!!! I couldn’t believe I saw one. It was December 5,2008. I went and opened the back door of my house and looked at the sky. To my shock, I saw a round shaped white object moving slowly and steadily. It was like a space shuttle and had a typical shape of a UFO. I immediately took my mobile and recorded the movements of the UFO as it went past my house. The lights below the UFO was clearly visible. Did I forget to tell you at what time I saw it? I was some time between 02:00 to 04:00. Ofcourse in my dreams! 😉

A smile on that face

In recent times, I have been fascinated by many astronomical happenings. Thanks to Inc and Vivek who keeps me updated on the wonderful happenings.

The meteor showers :

Though I didn’t witness it, it was a wonderful experience. It happened on the day before my DSP semester exam. It was November 17, 2008 04:00 IST. I woke up due to a series of messages from my friend Inc asking me to wake up. The previous day, he had sent a message (to all of his friends) to watch the sky from 3 am to 6 am – to watch the meteor shower leonids. I read the messages from Inc that he had spotted two meteors already. Just two meteors? I thought. I looked out of the window and saw just a peaceful sky promising a good night sleep. But as my friend insisted me to go upstairs, I woke up my sister and we both headed to the terrace. We both watched the clouds passing by, lot of planes making its journey and even some stars (I remember seeing Regulus (Thanks to the phone call with Inc, who provided me with all the information)) but never did we witness any meteor showers. Inc, determined to watch a few more, waited for an hour more and witnessed altogether five plus meteors.

Sprinkle of Glitters:

It was November 28, 2008 23:30 IST. There was no power in my house for two days due to the heavy rains that showered its blessings (maybe a bit too much blessing turned out to be a curse). I heard that the rains will finally stop that night. I went to the back door and looked up at the east sky to check whether the sky is clear. Something weird struck my eyes. The sky was indeed clear and the clouds had moved away to reveal the moon and the stars, which seemed to me that I saw them ages ago. What was weird was that the stars were extremely bright! It was as if someone had sprinkled silver glitters all over the sky. Towards the eastern horizon, I saw a bright star that was shining blue. I looked above and saw a series of stars and immediately guessed that I was seeing a constellation. It had three stars in the middle with stars stretching diagonally at its edges. They were all bright. I wished I had taken a photo of that night sky. Two days later, I learnt from Inc that what I saw was the constellation Orion, which was the brightest one, and the three stars in the middle was called as the Orion belt.

A smile on that face:

It was December 1, 2008 19:00 IST. Inc had already told me to watch the sky for a glimpse of Venus and Jupiter very close to each other. That evening, I was online and Vivek reminded me to go and look at the sky in the west. When I asked him what it was, he told that there is a smile. I immediately went up and searched for the crescent moon. I found it in the south-west and just above the crescent moon, there were Venus and Jupiter forming two eyes and the entire thing looked like a face with a smile. The clouds had made the planets look dull but seeing the sky smile at you was an amazing sight. The following pic is taken from Vivek’s blog.
UFO sighted!!!

Yes, Unidentified Flying Object!!! I couldn’t believe I saw one. It was December 5,2008. I went and opened the back door of my house and looked at the sky. To my shock, I saw a round shaped white object moving slowly and steadily. It was like a space shuttle and had a typical shape of a UFO. I immediately took my mobile and recorded the movements of the UFO as it went past my house. The lights below the UFO was clearly visible. Did I forget to tell you at what time I saw it? I was some time between 02:00 to 04:00. Ofcourse in my dreams! 😉