Hi Xnomad & All,
Quote:
Originally Posted by xnomad
I'm a rational human being, I believe in the scientific method, I can't explain what I saw, hence I use the term UFO. ...
I thought amateur astronomers would be more curious, scientific and open to discussion.
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But XNomad, the term UFO is exactly the problem here.
On the one hand you say that you believe in the scientific method. Good!
But on the other hand by using the term UFO, assert that the sightings were both an "object" and "flying". This is what U.F.O means --
Unidentified
Flying Object.
The acronym at once implies that the sighting is a solid "object" and that it is being aimed/directed/flown. If it is being flown, then it must be being piloted by an intelligent being. Because it is similarly unidentified, it must therefore be an Alien/LGM. This is what UFO really implies. With the vast majority of these reports there is no evidence at all that the sighting is a solid physical object or that it is being "flown" -- it's simply a light in the sky that isn't identified by the person making the report.
And it is one of the things that I find most alarming about the whole subject. If people (in particular the media) would refer to them as "Unidentified Aerial Sightings" or an Unidentified Light in the sky, it would take a lot of heat out of the subject.
The thing is, amateur astronomers spend a lot of time out under the night sky and are by and large pretty knowlegable about what they are seeing. Yet, most of the so-called "UFO" sightings do not come from amateur astronomers. In this respect amateur astronomers are
woefully under-represented in reporting "UFO's". The question must be asked -- why is that so? The answer is obvious.
I've spent 39 years out underneath the night sky and have never seen a single thing that did not have a ready explaination. There are many amateurs of similar experience level on this forum and many of them have a similar track record. Is that to say that unidentified lights in the sky don't exist? No. I'm sure there are lots of genuine people see things in the sky they can't explain or interpret and are on the face of it reasonably credible.
Probably 99% of the so called UFOs have a simple rational explaination that is simply not known to the person who observes the light in the sky. Would you believe a majority of them turn out to be the Moon, Venus or Jupiter. A substantial number of the residual turn out to be aircraft or weather ballons. There are a very small residual number that appear on the face of it not to have a simple explaination. That isn't to say they don't have a natural cause -- we can't tell.
But the use of the term UFO isn't really scientific unless you can say it was definitely an "object" and that it was being flown/aimed/directed -- which at once implies an intelligent pilot of unknown origin.
I know, I know ... I must stop from harping on about "UAS's" ...
Best,
Les D