silver ball

[tyrant lizard]

I was at a bbq the other day and it was a nice sunny day with no clouds in the sky. At one point (whilst drinking some beer if you're asking) I noticed a ball in the sky. It was either a very small object, or it was very high as I could only barely see it. The object looked metallic to me as one side of it reflected the sunlight which is how I saw it.

I pointed it out to my mates and after some pointing, then some shouting, then some head twisting I finally managed to get them all to see it. It stayed up there all day long, for many hours and periodically someone would say, 'where's that thing gone?' and we'd search the big blue for a couple of seconds before we found it again. It moved around in the sky randomly, but very slowly so as you wouldnt notice.

None of our phones could pick the object up as it was either too small or too far away.

I saw something very similar to this a few years ago too.

Anyone got any ideas?

Also can anyone explain how when I first saw it I checked the time and 60 seconds later a whole minute had passed?

Edited September 5, 2013 by tyrant lizard

[Sweetpumper]

Also can anyone explain how when I first saw it I checked the time and 60 seconds later a whole minute had passed?

Ummm...wut.

If it was moving that slowly, I'd say weather balloon. Too bad you didn't have binoculars.

[preacherman76]

Can a weather balloon stay in the air all day? Im seriously asking.

[tyrant lizard]

When I first saw it I thought it was a normal helium balloon, but after about half an hour I reckoned it would have blown away if it was, even though there wasn't much wind.

My mate bought our some ****e binochs but you'd have been better off looking through a pair of used toilet rolls.

[Sweetpumper]

How long they stay up depends on the balloon, I suppose.

Edited September 5, 2013 by Sweetpumper

[mcrom901]

Also can anyone explain how when I first saw it I checked the time and 60 seconds later a whole minute had passed?

what did you expect?

[brlesq1]

Weather balloon for me, too. As for the 60 seconds, I'd say you got caught in a time warp.

[scowl]

Or a standard Mylar party balloon.

[DingoLingo]

could have also been one of those radio controlled survey blimps

[PersonFromPorlock]

If it was really small it could have been Venus. Once you find it, it's not that hard to see in in daytime. As for the moving around, there's no way to tell if an object in a blank field (the sky, with no stars in the background) is in motion or not, and lots of perceptual glitches that can make you think it is.

[Vance665]

This sounds like the one UFO sighting I had. Except the one I saw was not much higher than the tree tops. It was a silver sphere a foot or two in diameter that hovered for a few seconds before slowly accelerating away in a slight curve. It never came back and that was the only time I ever seen a UFO.

[tyrant lizard]

what did you expect?

I don't know. Being abducted and having my memory erased would have been cooler than nothing

If it was really small it could have been Venus. Once you find it, it's not that hard to see in in daytime. As for the moving around, there's no way to tell if an object in a blank field (the sky, with no stars in the background) is in motion or not, and lots of perceptual glitches that can make you think it is.

I did think it was Venus at first but it was too close for that, I could clearly see it was a sphere with sunlight on one side and shadow on the other. And it moved quite drastically to different points of the sky over time.

This sounds like the one UFO sighting I had. Except the one I saw was not much higher than the tree tops. It was a silver sphere a foot or two in diameter that hovered for a few seconds before slowly accelerating away in a slight curve. It never came back and that was the only time I ever seen a UFO.

This could have been the case with my one. Some of my friends were saying it was as high as 40,000,000 feet while other thought it was just a few hundred feet.

[JesseCuster]

tyrant lizard, you clearly don't understand the objections and questions about your story.

You seem confused as to how 60 seconds passed in the same period as 1 minute. Either you don't understand that 60 seconds is exactly 1 minute by definition, or you've got your units confused or your story is bizarrely confused to the point of incoherence (or you're trolling).

Asking why 60 seconds took the same time as 1 minute is like asking how it's possible that I walked 1 mile and walked the same distance as if I had walked 1760 yards. How is it possible to walk 1 mile and 1760 yards at the same time? How is it possible to pass 60 seconds of time and 1 minute of time at the same time?

[Brian Topp]

Maybe it is because 6e+10 nano seconds had past.

[DecoNoir]

Can a weather balloon stay in the air all day? Im seriously asking.

They can stay up a good long while. Seeing as they are fitted with instruments to take atmospheric measurements, they wouldn't be that great at their job if they only lasted a few hours.

[lost_shaman]

Deco, you are wrong. 1.5 to 2 hours for a typical sucessful balloon or less. This is because they will burst at or before 100,000 ft and ascent rates are standardized at 275 - 350 meters per minute any slower and the instruments actually give faulty readings!

[DecoNoir]

Deco, you are wrong. 1.5 to 2 hours for a typical sucessful balloon or less. This is because they will burst at or before 100,000 ft and ascent rates are standardized at 275 - 350 meters per minute any slower and the instruments actually give faulty readings!

While true, there are always exceptions. Here is an article of a balloon in Antarctica carrying cosmic ray detection equipment that stayed aloft for more than 46 days! An incredible bit of engineering.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/space/stories/antarctic-science-balloon-shatters-longest-flight-record

Not saying its this particular balloon or anything, but it shows that a balloon can be designed to last more than a couple of hours if needed.

[psyche101]

Googles Project Loon is keeping balloons afloat for up to 100 days. They look like this.

Very interesting idea. LINK - Project Loon.

I think they have only released balloons from NZ so far.

[seeder]

I was at a bbq the other day and it was a nice sunny day with no clouds in the sky. At one point (whilst drinking some beer if you're asking) I noticed a ball in the sky. It was either a very small object, or it was very high as I could only barely see it. The object looked metallic to me as one side of it reflected the sunlight which is how I saw it.

I pointed it out to my mates and after some pointing, then some shouting, then some head twisting I finally managed to get them all to see it. It stayed up there all day long, for many hours and periodically someone would say, 'where's that thing gone?' and we'd search the big blue for a couple of seconds before we found it again. It moved around in the sky randomly, but very slowly so as you wouldnt notice.

None of our phones could pick the object up as it was either too small or too far away.

I saw something very similar to this a few years ago too.

Anyone got any ideas?

Also can anyone explain how when I first saw it I checked the time and 60 seconds later a whole minute had passed?

Just my two cents, I used to live In Peckham Rye - zone 2. There were two balloon rides permanently set up, one was on the south-side at vauxhall or Lambeth bridge. Basically they were huge spheres, helium filled I think, with a large circular carriage under, that could take maybe 20 plus people sitting down. The whole balloon was on a winch, and it used to float up the tourists/passengers quite high for about 30 mins a time, then winch them in again and send the next lot up

I did a quick goggle and found a similar one in Hong Kong, at least it may explain why it seemingly stayed in the one spot!!

Edited September 6, 2013 by seeder

[tyrant lizard]

tyrant lizard, you clearly don't understand the objections and questions about your story.

You seem confused as to how 60 seconds passed in the same period as 1 minute. Either you don't understand that 60 seconds is exactly 1 minute by definition, or you've got your units confused or your story is bizarrely confused to the point of incoherence (or you're trolling).

Asking why 60 seconds took the same time as 1 minute is like asking how it's possible that I walked 1 mile and walked the same distance as if I had walked 1760 yards. How is it possible to walk 1 mile and 1760 yards at the same time? How is it possible to pass 60 seconds of time and 1 minute of time at the same time?

It was an attempt at humour - I was assuming people would get the connection to lost time incidents, but if you have to explain it... tough crowd.

I'll stick to the facts next time.

[quillius]

It was an attempt at humour - I was assuming people would get the connection to lost time incidents, but if you have to explain it... tough crowd.

I'll stick to the facts next time.

it had to be humour....I enjoyed it

[lost_shaman]

Now it is true that someone can build a special balloon/blimp/drone. But if you ask if its a typical weather balloon that is launched all over everyday? Then no! They go up fast and burst. And you could only see them with the naked eye for a few minutes.

[lost_shaman]

You can't just blow off what the OP said as weather balloon cuase it sounds good.

[tyrant lizard]

You can't just blow off what the OP said as weather balloon cuase it sounds good.

Good shout. I don't know the behaviour of balloons and stuff like that, but I do know this thing was up there for hours.

[tyrant lizard]

Also it didn't seem to get any bigger or smaller so I'd say it wasn't going up or down to any noticeable degree.