Close Encounters
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c/close_encounters is a community dedicated to investigation and discussion of UAP (formerly UFO), USO, and all other unexplained anomalies from other domains. Discussion of all kinds of close encounters are permitted.
What's the spirit we're trying to foster here? The spirit of good faith curiosity and inquiry, wherever that inquiry may lead. For example, if somebody shares a personal experience, while you shouldn't talk down to them or shut down the spirit of curiosity, you should always feel welcome to inquire further and investigate to try to understand the phenomenon they're describing.
What is explicitly permitted:
- Sharing personal experiences is welcome. If you feel compelled to share your personal experiences, please provide as much useful detail as possible, though please avoid doxing yourself.
- Speculation and reasoning about relevant phenomena
- Reviewing cases, events, and news that are conceivably relevant.
- Original research and analysis
- Sharing hypotheses, analytic techniques (i.e. how to differentiate from drones, etc).
- Discussion about Aliens/ Non-Human Intelligence/ UAP operators. We don't know that they are alien, or even non-human, but there may be some value in discussing the supposed operators of the UAP.
- Shitposting is okay as long as it's in good spirits, but that may change as the community evolves.
What is not permitted:
- This is not a community for creepypastas. Check out c/[email protected] for that. Please don't abuse the spirit of honest interest, inquiry, and curiosity by sharing fiction here.
- Conspiracy theories: We don't yet know what's behind these anomalies, everyone has a different hypothesis that they've arrived at in good faith. Sharing speculation about intent, or even ETI, is accepted and encouraged here. We're going to try and walk a narrow line here, but generally speaking, if it feels like conspiracy slop, it's going to get cleaned up.
founded 2 days ago
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Wow, you managed to see a UAP! What now?
Well, this guide is here to help. With any luck, you will have read it before, remembered its advice, and jotted down some notes to make sure you didn't lose any details. The best way to contribute to UAP investigation is to do your best to record objective facts alongside your subjective observations, and to record them as early as possible.
Start with:
- Date and Time (or best approximation)
- Location (or best approximation)
- What you observed with each of your five senses. Visual tends to be very important, and will usually offer the best details for distinguishing from aircraft or drones.
- If other people were with you, get them to write down what they observed with their five senses as well.
More advanced:
- Have a camera with you? Great! Make a note of the settings you used when you took the picture, as well as the device itself and any lenses or filters you may have been using. I've seen really interesting analysis done that was able to use the shutter speed of a camera to estimate UAP speed. Many smartphones also offer optical zoom these days.
- Have binoculars with you? Amazing! Try bracing against something to stabilize your view. Low-power, wide-aperture binoculars like 7x50s will be your best bet for getting a better look without being too unwieldy.
- You can estimate the alt-az (altazimuth) coordinates of where you observed the object, its track along the sky, and where you stopped observing the object. This, along with time and date and location, could prove highly valuable in helping to distinguish the observation from drones or other aircraft.
To estimate azimuth (the compass direction you're facing), I would recommend starting with an app called Stellarium (it's free and actually super cool) to help you find Polaris, the north star, if you're in the northern hemisphere. From Polaris, you can use the above chart to roughly estimate your azimuth positions. Simply rotate your hand ninety degrees and then estimate the degrees from the horizon to estimate altitude. The combined coordinates will give you altazimuth, which, together with date and time and location, can help investigators compare against public flight records and astronomical phenomenon.
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Additionally, make a note of the weather. If it was dark outside, note how clearly you could see the stars (i.e. were the stars twinkling strongly or not at all; how many stars in Ursa Minor could you see? If you can only see polaris, or not even polaris, that suggests poor sky transparency or high light pollution.
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Consider making a report to NUFORC: https://nuforc.org/
Some quick rule-outs to consider: NUFORC has a really useful guideline here:
https://nuforc.org/report-a-ufo/
But at a glance, consider:
- Venus: Venus is responsible for something like 33% of all UAP reports, because it's very bright and attention-getting. Check Stellarium. If the bright light was in the West for up to an hour or two before or after sunset, or in the east up to an hour or two before or after sunrise, that could very well have just been Venus punking you.
- Planes and drones: FAA requires that all operating aircraft use navigation lights, which are red on the left side of the aircraft, green on the right, and white on the tail. Aircraft will also use a strobe when taking off and landing, and may do so under 10,000 ft. Drones use similar nav lights, but are required to use bright red or white strobes at night as anti-collision lights.
- Starlink Constellation / LEO satellites: Increasingly, LEO satellites are polluting the sky with bright reflections. They're much more prominent at night, but have been seen during the day. Starlink in particular has been responsible for many reports due to its visually striking appearance; Starlink constellations appear as a series of lights moving in a single-file straight line across the sky. While Stellarium is another useful tool to double check, generally speaking, if it moved across the sky in a constant direction and constant speed, that's a pretty good candidate for a satellite.
Happy hunting!
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