Weird thing that shouldn’t be in the sky??!

[Curiousfi]

Hello, complete newby who joined to get a logical answer from someone more experienced and knowledgable than me.
Western Sydney beautiful day bright blue sky and soft puffy clouds dotted.
I exited my workplace which is on a suburban st, turned right for 50 m and saw something in the sky. The time was4:15 pm. I was going slow and saw it through my windscreen. It was a rectangle that was opaque and bright shining white. There were no definable borders. It was high, at least as high as the clouds. It was really big. It did not move. I checked my dashboard to see if there was a piece of white rectangular paper reflected up onto my windscreen and there was nothing. My brain was trying to make sense of it. I had to then turn right and a quick left and when I slowly turned left it was still there. There was no plane dragging it along, no kite, no spotlight in the middle of afternoon. I thought of all possibilities. I rationalised to myself that there must be a way to project something like that in the day. It could be described as a giant tv screen showing brilliant white. Go figure. I will go to my grave wondering if it was fair dinkum or was perhaps just seeing things?? Sorry for the long post.

 

[John J.]

Hi @Curiousfi and welcome,
I haven't really got any suggestions. There are some threads here with examples (or possible examples) of spotlights on cloud, but this must be very unlikely for a bright shape at 16:15 over Sydney on a bright day.

Threads include CLAIM: Proton bursts? Sofia, Bulgaria Feb 2024; Can someone explain these lights?; Trying to figure out what it is I recorded? [Spotlights on Clouds]. The relevant sightings/ footage were during low light or darkness as might be expected.

As far as I know, there isn't a capability to project images to a specific location in clear air at present; there's work on this but not much in terms of practical results which can be used "out in the wild" .

There seems to be a technological improbability of large-scale, "in-air", holographic projection at a distance at this time.
Mitsubishi were working on a small scale sort-of holographic in-air set-up in 2016;
" Mitsubishi is developing a hologram-like 'Aerial Display' ", Farrha Khan, techradar website, 19 February 2016,
https://www.techradar.com/news/worl...loping-a-hologram-like-aerial-display-1315322

However, Mitsubishi explains that people may find it difficult to focus on such floating images, as we are not yet accustomed to viewing aerial images displayed without physical cues. To combat this, the company is using visual cues on the wall behind where the midair image will appear so people will know where to look. ...Mitsubishi believes this tech could end up being used in public spaces and possibly as early as the 2020 Olympic games.

...Anyone remember this from the (2021) Tokyo Olympics? Nor me.

There are one or two Metabunk threads where shapes in the sky are shown to be the top sections of tall buildings reflecting sunlight and/ or in conditions where mist/ haze, which might not be obvious, obscures the lower sections (sorry, can't find one at the mo., perhaps someone else can help).
As you were in a familiar place/ route, this also might be an unlikely explanation, but it's an illusion that has tricked other sincere people.
Maybe there weren't any tall buildings visible from where you were?

If the rectangle was objectively "there", large, bright and high in the sky over/ near Sydney at 16:15, and was of anomalous appearance (i.e. not identifiable as something known by people closer to it) it is likely other people would have seen and commented on it.
It might be worth seeing if local newspapers or other media of the time mentioned anything.

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

Hello, complete newby who joined to get a logical answer from someone more experienced and knowledgable than me.
Western Sydney beautiful day bright blue sky and soft puffy clouds dotted.
I exited my workplace which is on a suburban st, turned right for 50 m and saw something in the sky. The time was4:15 pm. I was going slow and saw it through my windscreen. It was a rectangle that was opaque and bright shining white. There were no definable borders. It was high, at least as high as the clouds. It was really big. It did not move. I checked my dashboard to see if there was a piece of white rectangular paper reflected up onto my windscreen and there was nothing. My brain was trying to make sense of it. I had to then turn right and a quick left and when I slowly turned left it was still there. There was no plane dragging it along, no kite, no spotlight in the middle of afternoon. I thought of all possibilities. I rationalised to myself that there must be a way to project something like that in the day. It could be described as a giant tv screen showing brilliant white. Go figure. I will go to my grave wondering if it was fair dinkum or was perhaps just seeing things?? Sorry for the long post.

Let's start at the beginning...

What was the date?

Which direction were you looking?

How far was it above the horizon?
Pointing straight up is 90 degrees.
Pointing to the horizon is zero degrees.
Half way between the two is 45 degrees.

How close or far was it from the Sun?

How close or far was it from the nearest cloud, even thin clouds?

If you held your hand out at arms length, and held something between finger and thumb, what would it be that would just cover up that mystery object?
-Aspirin tablet
-Australian ten-cent coin
-Golf ball
-Apple
-Tea saucer

You mention checking to see if it might be a reflection in the glass. A reflection of something white. Was it, then, kind of hazy or translucent?

Was there any hint of color, such as the colors of the rainbow?

 

[NorCal Dave]

Hello, complete newby who joined to get a logical answer from someone more experienced and knowledgable than me.

Welcome! People here are not necessarily "more experienced and knowledgeable", we just enjoy the puzzles and many here have seen many different things that seem un-explainable, but turn out to be. Sometimes though, it's hard to say.

As Mr. Wolf noted in the post above, the first thing to do is compile as much detail as possible. If nothing else, it makes you try to remember as much as you can. Of course, this brings up another problem with events like this and that's human memory, or rather the lack of. We have numerous posts throughout the forum highlighting research showing we don't always remember what we thought we did. Our memories are very malleable and subject to interpretation. We do the best that we can.

But trying to compile details can at least help with a few things. Time and location can determine where the sun or celestial objects might be. It can reveal where landing paths for airports are, or radio towers, or buildings on hills, or Christmas light shows, or whatever.

 

[Mendel]

A google search on "sydney white rectangle sky" was inconclusive, so I expect not many people (other than you) noticed it.

Which points to either some phenomenon to do with your car or its contents, or something that is recognizable from most other angles.

If I were to guess, I'd bet on a white aircraft fuselage with a tail painted to blend into the sky, lit by bright sunshine, but of course it may have been something else entirely.

 

[MonkeeSage]

It would be worth checking if the angle of a possible reflection could be caused by something in the car further away than the dashboard as well. I once had my phone sitting upright in a cup holder in the center console and I got a text message which turned the screen on, and it appeared as a lit up triangle on the windscreen reflection. It took me a bit to recognize what it was, because it looked like it was in the sky. I put my phone back down in the cup holder and turned the screen off and then back on and confirmed it was the source.