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I have seen lots of things in my 50+ years that people around me interpreted as UFOs, but which were easily explained, and once I explained, all the other observers concurred - satellites, Venus, unusual cloud formations, etc. (Well, almost all concurred - once or twice there were a couple of "died in the wool" UFO believers who could not be swayed, despite the evidence.)
However, I have two sightings that lasted several minutes each, and despite my best efforts, I and those around me could not explain them away - until after quite a few minutes of observing, when the truth revealed itself.
Incident 1:
I was walking with a few friends along Sherwood Road at about 8:00 pm, which is a straight undulating road near Rocklea Markets in Brisbane - this would have been about 1975, and back then the land was grazing paddocks, with hardly any nearby illumination, but today is heavily trafficked, with lots of industrial lights etc. We saw a classic illuminated UFO shape appear on the horizon ahead of us, coming silently towards us, rising and falling as it came. We watched closely for what seemed at the time like a couple of minutes, but was probably only 30 seconds or so, and were getting quite alarmed as it approached, because it seemed to be seeking us out - we were just about to run for cover when ...
See if you can guess what it REALLY was, before scrolling down for what it turned out to be.
Incident 2:
A few years later (around 1980 perhaps), I and several other amateur astronomers were setting up our telescopes on the Scarborough shoreline (near Brisbane) just after sunset, but well before dark. A mysterious flashing light appeared some distance offshore - we judged it to be half a kilometre or so away, and at an elevation of 50 to 100 metres or so, but it was hard to be sure, as it moved very erratically, and appeared and disappeared quite abruptly. We watched this for several minutes, in which time it moved up and down the shoreline by a kilometre or so in each direction, before it crossed the shore more or less overhead, when it revealed itself to be ...
Incident 1:
It was an unoccupied taxi cab; the rooftop "For Hire" dome light was illuminated, but the road undulations meant the headlights stayed below our line of sight as the cab approached us, so all we saw was a brightly illuminated UFO rising and falling a metre and a half above the ground as it approached. The fact that we were getting quite alarmed as it approached probably meant we were ducking down, aiding the illusion until the cab crested the last rise just a hundred metres or so away from us.
Incident 2:
As many of you may have already guessed, this was one of the classic UFO sightings - a flock of seagulls that were catching the last rays of sunlight, while we were standing in semi-darkness. Because of the light conditions, when the birds wheeled away from us, they disappeared altogether, but when they turned so as to present the underside of their wings towards us, we saw a brilliant flash of reflected sunlight.
Both events are absolutely humdrum everyday occurrences, but were very convincing UFOs with the right light and observing conditions.
Bottom line: Yes, i believe there are other intelligent civilisations out there somewhere - but I don't believe any of them are visiting us!
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