Something Strange

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
A few nights ago I went to bed around 3 am. We have an AC unit in the bedroom window and have the blinds up over the unit about an inch so the air flows freely. My side of the bed faces this window, the window is on the west wall. I lay down and I've got this bright light in my eyes. So I think "oh, great when did they put in a street light there??" (there would be the neighbor on the corner, probably on the alley across the street kitty corner from us. I lay there a minute or two and am really getting annoyed because it IS bright and I look at it and think "wait a minute, there would be no street light there." So I get up and go to the window. It's the moon (well I *think* it was the moon) and it's huge and bright orange and full. And I'm like wow it's even bigger than the night it was supposed to have been so close to the earth as to be "huge" in the sky! And I go lay back down. In the meantime husband had gotten up to go to the bathroom, he smokes in the bathroom.......and so it takes him about 15 min or so. I'm laying there.....by the time husband comes back up stairs it has dropped down behind the neighbor across the street's garage and is no longer bothering my eyes. At the time I did note that I've never known the moon to move across the sky that fast.

Last night (wed night, it's almost 2am here) I went to bed around the same time. Again with the light in my eyes, again I get up and look. The "moon" is huge ( I swear I've never seen it this big in my life) it's bright orange and full as can be. And I think wow it almost looks like the sun (as large as the sun is in the sky actually) when there is a thin layer of clouds in front of it letting you actually see it's outline. I watched and waited and again it descended quickly out of sight.

Now I asked easy child after the first time if she'd noticed anything odd about the moon because they'd been at the drive in until around 2am, which is why I'd been up. (to let Travis in) She said no, it looked the same to her. I asked if it had been a full moon. She said no only about a three quarter full moon. okkkk. hmm

So tonight earlier I went out and took a good look at the moon. Looks normal. Not bright orange. Not as large as the sun. I'm going to go to bed about the same time that it happened the last two times and see if what I saw before is in the sky.

This is really weird. I've looked at the moon a zillion times over the years. I happen to like looking at the moon.......and I've been able to see it from my bedroom window for 7 yrs. I know about the speed it travels across the night sky and it certainly doesn't normally take it 15 mins to drop from the position I first spotted it in to behind the neighbors garage.....it would normally be about 2 hrs because it was fairly high up to begin with.

If it had happened once I'd just figure it was a fluke and shrug it off. But it's been twice. Last night we didn't have the AC on. If it was something other than the moon it certainly didn't make a sound. But I haven't the vaguest idea what else it could've been.

Anyone else out there seeing enormous orange moons in the sky? I went out and looked the night it was supposed to be at it's closest point to the earth in however long......this appeared to be much bigger than that and much much brighter, and well ORANGE.

I swear I'm not crazy. lol
 

Malika

Well-Known Member
Funnily enough, I distinctly noticed the moon last night - full and round, white-yellow as usual. There was the most beautiful formation of wispy black clouds passing across it.
I have (of course) no explanation for your huge orange moon. But treasure the experience :)
 

skeeter

New Member
Step - no, no, the aliens are BURIED at the base - I have a t-shirt that says so! (really, I have a t-shirt with green faces on it that says WPAFB!!!).

I'll try to make it a point to look at the moon tonight and see if I notice anything strange........
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
Yeah, skeeter, I know - and I'm pretty sure it's under the building I used to work in!!!

In fact - remember Ghost Hunters? They were at WPAFB a couple years back. My building was one of the ones they came to. I took Onyxx to the meet & greet - on a day she had to visit BM - who refused to let her make up time later. So we were about 100 people from the front and were going to have to leave, one of the roadies came by asking trivia questions & Onyxx got a t-shirt - on his way back I stopped him to say thank you, because of us having to leave - and they took her and I to the front of the line!!!!!

I will never forget that - Onyxx even wrote them a really sweet thank you note for it.

And BM? Then got ANGRY with husband and I because we took her to it. It was "inappropriate" for her age (almost 12)... I saw 4-y/o kids in that line! Ugh.
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
Actually, we see the huge orange moons frequently. Has to do with the brown air we breathe here in the valley. I don't know exactly what kind of pollutant it is, but it's something like that. It's beautiful, though, and I love looking at it.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Well, it seems it gets a tad stranger. I made it a point to check the moon when I went up to bed around the same time this happened before. Different position in the sky. Sort of large but looked normal.

But I woke up early, not too long after sunrise. Don't know what time because I can read the clock without my glasses. Looked and the big orange moon thing is there with those whispy clouds in front of it. Not as bright in daylight and with the clouds But there.

LOL on the UFOs/alien thing. So far as I know it's not a flying anything. It's just there, in the sky. Planetary body, not ship like. And I don't know hardly squat about the stars and such. Heck I only found the big dipper a few years back. lol Travis says he's seen it too, only both it and the moon at the same time. I dunno about that. My bedroom windows only face south and west. And what I saw when I woke up this morning is not what I saw as the moon when I went out on the porch earlier last night to look. So that doesn't quite make sense. The moon in the eastern sky should look the same as the moon in the western sky.

Travis was trying to come up with some atmospheric reflection type theories. I just stared at him. HE might know what he's talking about but it was so much mumbo jumbo to me. lol

easy child just called. Turns out she was up late last night. She'd gone into the kitchen for something before bed......looked out the window and noticed it was far brighter than normal outside. She remembered what I'd said about the moon lately. Looked outside and saw it too and yup bright orange. She couldn't see the whole thing from the angle she was at, but she could see that it was the bright orange I described.

Ok. So since other people have seen it too, I don't think we can be crazy together. lol But that doesn't answer what it is either.
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
Hound,

You are not crazy, it's a HAY moon...or some people call it a Thunder moon. THey are huge and usually orange. lol. (Oh how I wish I had that howler avatar). There will be another one tonight. (BEEEEEWARE))
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Hmmm. Ok. Although I can honestly say while I can see the moon from my window each night it isn't something I've noticed before and this I just can't not notice.

But wouldn't it look the same the whole night?? Not just look different in the west sky? When I say huge I'm not meaning full moon big.....I mean huge up close huge, like wow huge. I'd take a picture but I don't have anything to take a picture with. It did NOT look like that when I looked twice earlier in the night, not even as huge......normal size full moon and normal color. Little bright like full moons can be, but nothing out of the ordinary.

I will watch again tonight though as this has got me intrigued. I wish I could talk to an astronomer or what ever they're called.......the dudes that map out where stuff is supposed to be in the sky at any given time.

When did WPAFB get the UFO thing going on? What happened to Area 51? lol Oh........and once many years ago I DID see a UFO. Still don't know what that was, have a sneaky suspicion it might have had something to do with WPAFB, except how we'd have the technology for aircraft to do what I saw that thing do in utter silence is beyond me. But while it was UFO to me, it was probably something they were testing.
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
Okay I'm no scientist, just an amateur astronomer - and I love the stars, moon, planets - so my best guess as to why it's going so fast?

The days are getting shorter -and in July is typically when people harvest hay. SO the extra light of the moon has been used by farmers to see the fields to work because July is also one of the rainest months of the year and you can't harvest hay when it's wet. Sometimes I think it would have been necessary to use dry Summer nights with big bright moons to get the harvest in. By the time we get to the Autumnal equinox in September when there is the Harvest Moon? The days are really short. The moon orbits around the earth in the Fall and Winter months at the horizon faster than it is during the Summer and Spring. Since you are in the North? With the days getting shorter - you'd see a bright big moon for a little bit longer. In September you Around the 20th of the month? There will be a moon so HUGE and so Magnificent it will look like it's sitting RIGHT on the horizon. IT can be red in color or bright orange. THEY are PHENOMINAL! I've rarely seen them here in SC like I ever did up North. WE used to sit in the cornfields and watch them come up.

I'll check and see if I cant find a chart on them - so you don't miss any more and can teach the Grands all about Waxing and Waning Gibbous and what they mean. The lunar phases. Who knows someone might be on Jeopardy or MIllionaire one day and that would be one of the questions. Let me check around to see. AND FYI - different cultures call moons different names.

Oh and the Blue moon - like when people say "Once in a blue moon" - yeah no "blue" colored moon. That means when there are TWO full moons in one month. (now you know too)

Hugs...Moondoggie.
 

keista

New Member
Weather balloon?

Years ago, a friend of mine saw something similar to what you describe, BUT it moved back and forth across the sky - not stationary, not in one particular line, but moved around. She and her boyfriend contacted 'authorities' and were told it was a weather balloon. Ahhhhhh, they don't move back and forth the way this thing did. Anyway, she wasn't intrigued, she was freaked so didn't want to talk about it.

If you see it tonight, go OUT SIDE to get a really good look. See if you can borrow someone's camera today to be ready for it. Of course, when you're ready for something, it usually doesn't materialize. :(
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
Oh and FYI - if you ever want to read "project blue book" I have an original copy. It's NOTHING spectacular - trust me - it's a bunch of Government - blah blah weather balloon, no space ship we don't belive in little green men...blah blah blah.

I also have original copies of the newspaper clippings from 1940's sightings. Citing State troopers and police that saw things they could not explain. Pretty incredible reading, but again? Govt says "Bla blah weather balloon..." Well mister ---I'm no believer in little green men from mars.....but I do think you have technology that you won't share with the rest of the world with good reason. I can't figure out what a web cam is.....lol. Not sure I'd want the guy down the road knowing what area 51 knows and I'm smarter than him.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
No way in hades was it a weather balloon.

And truth be told it does freak me out when I'm looking at it. The fine hairs on the back of my neck prickle and I get an odd feeling I can't put into words. BUT it also intrigues me as I'm not the type to jump to conclusions about such things.

I still don't understand how it can change appearance from one part of the sky to the next......maybe it can, I dunno. But you'd think if it was normal looking in the east it would be normal looking when it reaches the west. Know what I mean?

Another thing. When I looked at the same time as it's happened before last night I could only see the normal appearing moon out the south window, it was no where near the neighbor across the street's garage and I could NOT see it through the west window at all. During the night it looked "normal" until I saw it shortly after sunrise this morning in the west.....then back to the huge orange ball, not as bright due to daylight and a thin layer of clouds.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Oh........and first night I did watch it move. It descended behind the treeline from fairly high in the sky within 15 mins or so, much too fast for the moon.

Maybe it's not the moon. That would explain why at other times during the night the moon didn't look anything like that. But if it's not the moon, what the heck is it?? The reason I checked the moon earlier was to see if it would be the same, in other words, if it was the moon at all. I can't judge size in the sky except by other things I normally see in the sky. Far far too big for aircraft, and it did appear to be at a distance while also closer than the moon or sun normally is. At least the size of the sun, maybe at times appearing even larger. Just this BIG presence in the sky that lights up the whole night. I remember also wondering if the odd color and the appearance of being huge could be the light of the sun playing on the moon somehow......but like I said I don't know squat about such things.

I've seen harvest moons and they're amazing. This was not that, or did not look like what I've seen as a harvest moon, be it in the summer or fall. Although I do admit I've never seen a red moon, either. This thing when you see it gives you an "it's up waaaaay too close" type feeling.

Nichole is going to bring her camera tomorrow so I can try to catch a picture of it. My camera works when it feels like it, which isn't often, and only when you hit it just right. ugh lol

But I also don't get a feeling it's a UFO thing. It's like a presence, something in the sky that should not be there, but doesn't give me the impression of machinery type thing. When it's really bright it's actually hard to look at because it hurts my eyes.
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
I'm sure there's some scientific atmospheric reflection blah blah yada yada...

I still think you're being summoned.

Bring me back a souvenir, eh?
 

exhausted

Active Member
Hound Dog,I was so interested in your post as I teach Moon phases and apparent motion of the moon to my students every year. This observation of the moon being larger and it's vibtrant color etc. has not come up except to talk about harvest moons etc. So I did a little research. Star already gave you some good info but this is a current topic of debate amongnst scientists and has been for thousands of years. Some believe it is an optical illusion when the moon is low enough on the sky that it can be compared with objects on earth (thus a building or tree). Some say that atmospheric moisture and refraction (bending of light) around the roundness of the earth and the moon causes the illusion. So no answer. Tonight is indeed the full moon in your area-it has been waxing (getting larger). The color can indeed be atmospheric. We are a day ahead out here in the west-I'm going to see if I see anything tonight (how fun). Mountains get in the way here so I don't know. Keep observing and I hope that bothersome light does not interfere with your sleep.
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
On the prairies, its called a "Harvest Moon", because people usually only see it in the fall...
At that time of year:
- the evening starts early
- the moon rises early in the evening,
- the sky is full of dust of various forms, from harvesting

And yes, its really big, and a really bright orange. And you only see it when the moon is within a certain distance of the horizon. And yes, the moon seems to move faster... no idea why.

Seems like its part of why "orange" is one of the Halloween colors.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
We call it a Harvest moon here too but also there are times that both the sun and the moon can be seen in the sky at once in the sky. One will be casting a light against the other or something.
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
Waxa on.......waxa offr.............waxxa on.........waxxa off......nowa u try waxa car.......
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
I'm going to watch tonight.

So far it's a large pretty "haying" moon as Star calls it. Looks like the moon. I'll make a point to look at it when I go to bed too.
 
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