UFO? No..........Venus

[seanliddelow]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed_d9we588I&feature=related

Residents over Lake Erie are reporting a strange light which appears night after night. The light eventually moves below the horizon after about 2 hours. It also flickers coulors and may even dim and change brightness. Of course NASA has denied it so it must be a UFO:P Does this object look familiar?.........it should.

[Liz]

Wow, thats a lot of hooha if it is Venus. Had a bit of a google, and doesnt look like it is clarified that it was Venus :shrug: ... though certainly sounds like it may be.
Some of the reports claim that objects were coming in and out of it:question:
Interesting to hear the final outcome. ;)

[seanliddelow]

Here is an article about it by Phil Plait

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/03/15/erie-ufo-sounds-familiar-to-me/

Im still convinced its Venus, although it could be something else :)

[Liz]

Thanks Sean .... and interesting to read the comments there too :lol:
Yes, sounds like they all think its Venus too :thumbsup:

[Clarry]

I did the experiment of making Cleveland, Ohio my location in Stellarium then setting the time to 1930hrs. It shows Venus as being well below the horizon, over near the sun in fact. However something is wrong because it rises along with the sun at 2230hrs. So nothing proven or disproved from me.

[taminga16]

The bloke with his hand in the back of the newsreader is really working overtime on animating it's jaw. ;)

Greg.

[Ric]

I remember seeing Venus early one morning.

There was three of us in an RFS tanker and we were heading up the highway towards it. It was so bright we all thought it was a plane with landing lights coming towards us.

[mithrandir]

You could leave it set to Sydney and roll the time forward to 19:30. You'll see Venus low on the horizon.

When you switch to Cleveland it won't have done the timezone conversion. You would have to change your computer's clock to US CST and restart Stellarium.

[that_guy]

what if it is a ufo taking spot to eclipse venus so that people of this rather underdeveloped planet can't see it??

[EdgesofTwilight]

Is it possible its just a star and scintillation is causing the "changing lights", considering they are viewing this light over a lake there could be atmospheric turbulence or something like it. I live on the coast and some nights Arcturus can look just like an aircraft with oscillating lights.