Reddit Thread about January 2nd sighting in Denver, Colorado

[SuppaCoup]

The thread is here:
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1huosub/repost_sighting/

Time: January 2nd 2:05pm

Location: Denver, CO

Statement: I was waiting in a drive through line and watching the sky. There was a plane flying above me and as I watched it pass, I noticed a tiny black dot miles above the plane at a distance. It was coming towards me and I tried to record a video first, but it was so fast and small I couldn't zoom in close enough to focus. I managed to snap these pics as soon as it came closest to me before it was flying away the opposite direction.

I am inclined to repost (was deleted because i didn't post correctly) because I just watched "Transmedium: Fastmovers and USOs" and it looks like the shape and speed of the "go fast" video they show.

And they included several images:

Assuming they're real images of something in the sky I'm not sure what they'd be, the image quality is very low so that makes it pretty tricky.

 

[Mick West]

It might be a mylar balloon with the sun reflection off it, creating a specular highlight that appears larger than it actually is (due to glare)

 

[Ann K]

Things that can be discounted, because we know how wildly inaccurate such estimates can be with nothing with which to compare it:
- miles above the plane
- so fast and small
- as it passed above me (not directly above, because it certainly looks like a side and front view.)

It has a helicopter-shaped appearance with a bright light in front.

 

[SuppaCoup]

The balloon with a very strong sun highlight theory from Mick seems plausible. it's a shame this person didn't take a video and not just pictures.

 

[jdog]

Date, time, location and direction would be really helpful in starting an evaluation. Just picking Denver as a location for that time on Flightradar24 gives me 337 data sources. And Denver International is the fourth-busiest airport in the United States.

Offhand, if we're looking straight up, it looks like a balloon with a payload, like a Stratollite, or a weather balloon with a radiosonde.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research regularly launches radiosondes and ozonesondes from Marshall Field in Boulder and the prevailing winds carry many of them over Denver.

 

[Scaramanga]

I'm tempted to respond with ' I see the helicopter....but where's the UFO ?'

 

[PacketSniffer5000]

OP said it was "south area of Denver, on alameda", 2.05pm. He mentioned a plane up there too, which could be the Cessna linked by another redditor. Does the video look edited or just phone processing artefacts?

 

[Duke]

That looks like some of the decidedly cheesy model "rocketships" used in the late 1930s "Flash Gordon" serial. Unfortunately I can't find a photo of them from behind while "in flight." (And no, I'm not that old.)

 

[NorCal Dave]

That looks like some of the decidedly cheesy model "rocketships" used in the late 1930s "Flash Gordon" serial. Unfortunately I can't find a photo of them from behind while "in flight." (And no, I'm not that old.)

View attachment 75556

A bit OT, but damn those were great looking Art Deco rocket ships! Like you, I would not have seen them in the theater, but on TV in my youth.

 

[JMartJr]

A bit OT, but damn those were great looking Art Deco rocket ships! Like you, I would not have seen them in the theater, but on TV in my youth.

Coincidentally, I just ordered a model of one of them for my "Little Spaceship Collection," a hobby I started during the pandemic.

But anyway, is there any way to tell which direction was up in the picture? In other words, is there a way to know if it has been rotated? I notice that if you rotate it 90 degrees, it really really really looks like a balloon:

it's a shame this person didn't take a video and not just pictures.

Perhaps it is harder to rotate a video 90 degrees to hide its "ballooniness?" Just a possibility...

 

[Alytha]

Definitely looks like a metallic weather balloon or similar, with some kind of sensor equipment attached below.
Or possibly a gas balloon really high up? They're mostly white, but I've found pictures of metallic ones.

 

[JMartJr]

Definitely looks like a metallic weather balloon or similar, with some kind of sensor equipment attached below.
Or possibly a gas balloon really high up? They're mostly white, but I've found pictures of metallic ones.

That little bit of possible "structure" at the (rotated image) top makes me think "foil (Mylar, but not really) party balloon." That would make the dangly bit at the bottom the flappy bit where you put the helium in, and would make it smaller/closer than a weather balloon.

 

[Alytha]

It really depends on which picture you look at... in some, the dangly bit looks a but further away from the main part, so it could be payload on a balloon of indeterminable size, on another one it does look like the valve (is that the word for that bit?)

Somebody mentioned a helicopter above, and if you squint it could be an EC145 or similar one with the sun glinting off the fenestron.

With pics this bad it's basically pareidolia.

 

[JMartJr]

Somebody mentioned a helicopter above, and if you squint it could be an EC145 or similar one with the sun glinting off the fenestron.

With pics this bad it's basically pareidolia.

That's why I'd love to know if we can tell whether this is the original orientation of the picture -- if the "payload" or "helium putting in place" is indeed on the bottom, that would rule out some things, if it is sticking out to one side it would tend to rule out others, though party balloons can float in that orientation....

I also think the light on the object makes more sense in the orientation I posted, but it is certainly possible that this is too subjective to be worth much.

 

[dschaff]

Date, time, location and direction would be really helpful in starting an evaluation. Just picking Denver as a location for that time on Flightradar24 gives me 337 data sources. And Denver International is the fourth-busiest airport in the United States.

Offhand, if we're looking straight up, it looks like a balloon with a payload, like a Stratollite, or a weather balloon with a radiosonde.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research regularly launches radiosondes and ozonesondes from Marshall Field in Boulder and the prevailing winds carry many of them over Denver.

I was so surprised to see your answer as I was formulating a response that was nearly identical to your response word for word. I live close to NCAR and have seen plenty of strange balloons with suspended instruments floating overhead. Upon further consideration, I don't think it was one of those. I do think it's a party balloon inflated with helium and possibly a big eye painted on it. All we can do is guess. the image is seriously degraded.

 

[jdog]

I was so surprised to see your answer as I was formulating a response that was nearly identical to your response word for word. I live close to NCAR and have seen plenty of strange balloons with suspended instruments floating overhead. Upon further consideration, I don't think it was one of those. I do think it's a party balloon inflated with helium and possibly a big eye painted on it. All we can do is guess. the image is seriously degraded.

Thanks! I agree with the other posts that this is not obviously a match for a balloon with a known instrument package. The "tiny black dot" description in the distance doesn't match a big white latex balloon in sunlight, among other things, though the photos with the blown-out highlights don't show something obviously black.

As we've seen on other threads, a silvery mylar balloon would reflect the blue sky from above and the ground from below, so it's not going to look terribly interesting shot from below. But your normal cell phone camera would get blown-out highlights like this from the side facing the sun.