I have elected not to post all sightings reports, as some were obviously of the International Space Station. Below are the reports of Texas sightings from July 15th to July 31st, 2009.Date/Time: 2009-07-16 22:10
Location: Lubbock, TX
Shape: Square/Rectagular,Triangle
Distance: Unknown
Report:
"A friend and I were outside having a cigarette when I spotted a bright white light in the western sky. The light did at first appear very much to be a star. I could see no blinking lights. After only a few seconds it became very obvious that the light was moving and heading east, my next thought was it is an airplane. We have an international airport in lubbock so I am accustomed to seeing atleast 10-15 planes on any given night. i saw the object make a sudden sharp change in direction due north, after maybe two or three minutes of moving southeast. At that point i could see what appeared to be a much smaller and different shade of white flashing on what I will call the back end of the object and what appeared to be the bottom. Suddenly the object made another sharp direction change heading back east. within only a few minutes we could see this object growing much larger seemingly flying very low and very slow directly over the loop which it right in front of my apartment. I felt like I would have been able to reach out and touch this object. Definately not any airplane I have ever seen. There was a distinctive set of two rows of lights, a top and bottom row, if you will. The top had a very pronounced set of white beams or bar looking lights. The top had a blue flashing light on the western corner, the bottom had a red flashing light on the eastern corner, the rest were hot white. Even though this object appeared to be flying low and slow, however, based on the original point I first spotted it, this thing was massive and moving very, very fast. For a split second we saw the object make another sharp direction change to the north once again. While the object was turning we could see a very distinctive triangular shape to the object. The very interesting thing was were we could not see a lights it really just looked as though there was nothing there, just sky and the few scattered clouds in the sky. Oh and did I mention that we never heard any kind of sound from this thing! This is one of the best sightings I have had yet. I couldn't explain it."
Source: MUFON
Date/Time: 2009-07-18 06:31
Location: Breckenridge, TX
Shape: Disc, Sphere
Distance: Over one mile
Report:
July 18, 2009 Saturday, 6:31 a.m. Object observed from 0631 to 0636 hours CDST. I woke early and at 6:30 a.m. I let the dogs out and checked the rain gauge, as it had rained shortly before. The sun was moments away from inching over the Eastern horizon. The sky was light blue and bright with the early morning sun. We had just received a 1/2 inch rain, so there were storm cloud banks to my south, same to the west and a few puffy clouds above. That is when I noticed a bright light slightly to my SW at approx. 80 degrees AGL. This light couldn't be Venus, as Venus and Mars are "morning stars" now, rising in the East. Jupiter was about 20-25 degrees above the southwest horizon and not visible. Whatever this was, it was almost directly overhead. I retrieved my binoculars, which were adjusted for viewing stars at night (infinite). I had to re-adjust my binocs for closer viewing, in order to focus on this bright object. The object appeared to be a perfectly round, white glowing disk, at least 3 times the size of Venus at it's closest and brightest, if not larger. It looked like a huge spotlight, high up in the sky. From my perspective and with the naked eye, it was the size of a .22 pellet. With 7x35mm binoculars it appeared the size of a very large pea. No extraneous lights observed. I lost sight of the object when it was obscured by clouds. As the clouds drifted away, the object was gone. No sound, no discernible movement, constant illumination (bright white). I could not estimate the altitude of the object other than to say that it was well above the clouds. If I had to guess, I would say at least 50,000 ft. My exact thoughts at the time, "Oh, crap." I am enclosing a photo I took moments after the object disappeared. I have drawn in a representation of how the object appeared to the naked eye. The only reason as to why I did not attempt to take a photo of the object when I saw it, was that I "knew" the object would disappear as soon as I took my eyes off of it.
Source: LITS
Date/Time: 2009-07-18 20:30
Location: Houston, TX
Shape: Circle
Distance: Unknown
Report:
"A storm had just passed through the area an I was standing outside watching the lightning to the south. I then noticed a round object hovering below a cloud top to the thunderstorm. What caught my attention was the black dot standing out against the cloud and lightning. I was able to watch the object for over 4 minutes.I first thought the object was a balloon but with the wind in the area from the storm it was stopped. Object gave the appearance it was spinning.It was black and a second color that was nearly the color of a flame or copper color. As I watched it it began to lift into the clouds and the flame color disappeared. This happened about 30 seconds before a jetliner headed to Hobby airport flew just below the area the object was in. I then noticed it just to the side of a cloud and it lifted extremely fast into the clouds as a second jet flew into the area. I did not see the object after that. THe two jets were Southwest Airline 737s."
Source: MUFON
Date/Time: 2009-07-21 18:10
Location: Houston, TX
Shape: Sphere
Distance: 500 feet or less
Report:
"I was driving home on Fodren waiting to turn left on Westhiemer. I noticed in the overcast sky a black orb moving straight in a NOrth West direction. It moved rather quickly, about the same speed and altitude as I have seen helicopters travel in that area. It maintained the same altitude as it traveled accross th sky. I had to turn finally and buildng and trees obstructed my view. When I could see the Northern horizon again, the object was gone. It didn't wobble, it moved with purpoe and didn't look like a balloon."
Source: MUFON
Date/Time: 2009-07-24 22:03
Location: San Marcos, TX
Shape: Triangle
Duration: 00:01:45
Distance: 500 feet or less
Report:
"While walking at night from my house to my friend?s nearby apartment, my friend and I witnessed an unidentified flying object. I was looking at the stars, identifying constellations, when I turned to look at the sky in the southeast, over the top of a building I saw a flying object enter my field of vision. The UFO flew seemingly in complete, eerie silence, at a low altitude probably around a few hundred feet and looked to be around slightly less than half the altitude I normally see planes at. It moved at an unusually slow, constant velocity which is difficult to estimate but safe to say that it was definitely the slowest air craft I have ever observed, maybe around the speed of the average bird. The object was dark with three large bright white lights in a triangular configuration on its underside, one toward the front, two in the back. It was somewhat difficult to make out the exact shape due to its angle, the prominence of it?s lights, and the darkness of it's outline contrasting little with the night sky. However it appeared to be flat and triangular, with each white light close to a vertex. The size appeared to be around that of a large helicopter but wider. There was one faint, small flashing light towards the front on the right side of the object (the only side I could see) which seemed to emit multiple, alternating colors of which I remember green, white/yellow, and blue. The object flew over us westward toward the university campus and was visible for around one and a half, possibly two minutes. My friend who was about 30 feet in front of me and who witnessed it for around 30 seconds, saw the same object."
Source: MUFON
Date/Time: 2009-07-24 22:50
Location: Texas
Shape: Circle,Flash,Sphere
Distance: One mile or less
Report:
Around 10:50 I stepped out my back door and immediately noticed a low-flying sphere like object moving slowly towards me from the north. Thought it may be an airplane at first but it looked a little too bright. I waited to see if there were any flashing lights and the object seemed to be slowly weaving back and forth as it moved. I watched it for maybe 15 seconds and it slowly started to turn red and dim out until it vanished. Absolutely no noise coming from the object and i usually hear any aircraft that close. About 5 minutes later I was still looking around the sky, looked straight up and saw a very bright white light flash that lasted for less than 1 second. Looked almost Venus appearing and disappering. 10 second later another flash but very dim in exact same spot. No clouds in the sky or anything to distort my view.
Source: MUFON
Date/Time: 2009-07-25 22:45
Location: Austin, TX
Shape: Flash,Triangle
Duration: 00:01:00
Distance: One mile or less
Report:
"My brother, a friend, and I were on our deck in Lakeway Texas. We were having a casual conversation when the ufo appeared. I was staring off into the horizon, facing NW, just staring at the lake and stars. All of a sudden, (and I mean out of nowhere) there suddenly appeared a very bright red light. I shouted, "what is that?" My brother and friend turned and saw the bright red light, we briefly inquired amongst ourselves whether or not it was a flare. James, my brother, grabbed a pair of (8X42)Bushnell Excursions Binoculars, (we keep a pair on the deck to bird watch etc.)he quickly got them focused. My friend and I sat amazed, commenting that there was no sound at all, we also agreed it increased in brightness. James was quickly able to determine that the bright red light (spherical or circular, as viewed from the deck) when focused in the binoculars was definitely an object with lights, he explained a red one and a smaller purple-ish/white. All the while we are quickly analyzing possible explanations in our heads. He hands the binoculars to me and I get the object focused and clearly there was a definitive object, with lights helping to define its features. The lights appeared as a bright red and in my opinion a smaller white/yellow one, possibly two, I yelled to him to grab the camera and in that instant it blinked out, it "turned-off." It was there and then gone. Before we got overly excited the natural skeptic voice in our heads was calling out. We all three agreed that there was NO WAY that it was a helicopter of any kind. This is based on the fact that we have lived in this location all of our lives and have seen "Star - flight" and other helicopters at all hours at any angle etc. and there is always a sound, this made NO SOUND. The flare idea was shot down as well, after we focused the object it clearly was not a flare, the only reason a flare was thought of was to perhaps explain its sudden appearance. It also did not pulsate or blink out like a flare, nor did it drop in elevation as a flare would. After what appeared to be stillness and no motion of the object and/or it's flight path, it's course seemed to be heading, albeit very slowly, in our general direction (roughly SE as it was coming in from the NW), and once again it was lower on the horizon and in the sky than anything conventional. I am very familiar with planes appearing on the horizon and coming closer and closer and closer until it passes over. This was not the case it was to low on the horizon to be a plane, at least compared to any plane we have seen from this deck, also there was NO SOUND. It was not some private plane; it (the light) appeared, continued to increase in brightness, then seemed to fly towards our direction, very slowly and with no sound (so it appeared), and then blinked out, to be clear -- it did not fade out, or slowly dim, it specifically "turned off." I consider myself to be somewhat (as well as my brother)an ametuar skywatcher; we have a Celeston NexStar 130 SLT and love gazing at the stars. Our feelings were of amazement, nervousness, shock, realization, etc. We realized we saw an unidentified object in the sky, one that appeared to be cruising at a very low altitude and speed, with no sound. All of us are familiar with ufology especially what has recently been going on in Texas. I am no expert, but if I were to classify this particular type of object, I (and my brother) agree it was somewhat triangular in shape and appeared to be bigger than a helicopter or small plane, but was not bigger than a commercial aircraft. Basically the view through the binoculars was filled up with the object, the object and its lights seemed to fit fully within the viewing context (lens of the 8X42 Bushnell Excursion). As to its location, it was higher than the horizon on the other side of the lake by a few inches, that is to say if you are looking out at the horizon the object was roughly 1-3 inches higher than the green hills on the other side of the lake. We could also clearly tell it was not past the horizon, it appeared to be between us and the other side of the lake, our general consensus was that it was over the lake at the time of our viewing window."
Source: MUFON
Date/Time: 2009-07-26 22:15
Location: Tilden, TX
Shape: Circle
Distance: One mile or less
Report:
"It was very windy this night with a strong wind blowing from the SE. I went outside to walk my dog when I noticed something in the sky out of the corner of my eye. I saw what appeared to be something about as bright as a Street light. But here in Tilden, TX we do not have many street lights and this light was pretty high off the ground so I knew this was not what it was. I am guessing it was about a 1000 ft off the ground. I thought it might be the front landing lights of an aircraft but there is not airfield close by here and this was bright orange. We do get military aircraft here due to the bombing range but this was no airplane. This was moving very, very slow from West to East. I was yelling for my wife to get out here to see it but by the time she got there it was fading away. I am not sure if it was gaining altitude or just fading away but it was gone with no sign of it anywhere. I looked for it to reappear off in the horizon, but there was nothing. I am not sure what I saw but I have seen a thousand aircraft in the night sky and this was no aircraft or sattelite. If there was anything else reported like this around this date please let me know. Gabe Spencer"
Source: MUFON
Date/Time: 2009-07-28 21:35
Location: Anahuac, TX
Shape: Star-like
Distance: Over one mile
Report:
"On 7-28-2009 at around 9:25 pm i went outside because i thought the space shuttle was supposed to be making re-entry at around 9:30. I later found it i had the date wrong. Anyway thinking this my wife and i were in the back yard watching the sky and waiting to watch the shuttle come home. Where we live in Anahuac Texas there is a George Bush in Bound flight path that comes right over our home as these planes make there decent for Houston. Therfore we are used to watching and observing all kinds of air traffic and this night was no differnt with inbound flights arriving while we were waiting on the shuttle. At around 9:35 i noticed a bright light to my north and it appeared to be moving. I pointed this out to my wife and she noticed it also. The light was bright and was moving in a south south east direction at a high rate of speed. I then noticed another light just like it maybe 10 miles behind the first one moving in the same direction. Neither light was flashing and both were moving right through the flight path i mentioned. If i had to guess a altitude i would say around 20,000 feet. Both lights were gone from view in about 10 to 15 seconds. About one minute later i observed another one further to the west but at much higher altitude and moving the same direction. The first two light looked low enough that i should have heard the engines if they were military or commercial flights but i heard nothing and observed no flashing lights. All three light where white."
Source: MUFON
Date/Time: 2009- 07-30
Location: Georgetown, TX
Read report here
The observations were collected from a planet called HAT-P-7, known to transit a star located about 1,000 light years from Earth. The planet orbits the star in just 2.2 days and is 26 times closer than Earth is to the sun. ...It is so close to its star, the planet is as hot as the glowing red heating element on a stove. ...these new measurements are so precise, they also show a smooth rise and fall of the light between transits caused by the changing phases of the planet, similar to those of our moon. This is a combination of both the light emitted from the planet and the light reflected off the planet. The smooth rise and fall of light is also punctuated by a small drop in light, called an occultation, exactly halfway between each transit. An occultation happens when a planet passes behind a star. ...The depth of the occultation and the shape and amplitude of the light curve show the planet has an atmosphere with a day-side temperature of about 4,310 degrees Fahrenheit. ..."This early result shows the Kepler detection system is performing right on the mark," said David Koch, deputy principal investigator of NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. "It bodes well for Kepler's prospects to be able to detect Earth-size planets."
Date/Time: 2009-07-18 06:31
