What is this thing?
I had several ideas concerning things to write about in June 2020, but something extraordinary occurred — a mystery.
I want to tell you what happened and I also ask for your help. This column also references a special friend of mine, Dr. Clinton Willis. He has been my observing buddy for a long time and, since this mystery occurred when he was observing with me, I certainly wanted to include him in this story.
Let me set the scene. It is the night of April 30, 2020. It is about 8:15 p.m. CDT. It is a clear night and the moon is out and showing a most photogenic nearhalf moon. Clinton had, some two weeks prior to the incident, acquired a 6-inch Maksutov telescope which is a very good kind of telescope for imaging the moon and planets. We decided to put the scope through its paces and we decided to get some moon shots. We were all rigged-up to do this and we obtained several good images of the moon. We were about to pack up the scope and camera and process these images so we could evaluate the new scope’s performance.
Then … Clinton spotted a star-like light in the northwestern sky about 50 degrees above the horizon and at about azimuth 250 degrees. I was not looking in that direction and he called to me and brought this light to my attention. Initially, I thought this light was a high-altitude airplane, shining by the reflected light of the sun. Venus was in the west, some 20 degrees above the light, but the light was below Venus and north of it.
“When I first saw it, it was brighter than Venus,” Clinton told me. By the time I spotted it, it was about the first magnitude.
Clinton said, “Let’s get a picture of it.”
We swiveled the scope and camera to the object and we were lucky enough to get the light in the viewfinder and we began shooting. We got about 30 images before the object disappeared from our view. Over the period of our imaging run, the object lost brightness. (Full specs of the camera-telescope setup and camera values will be shared by contacting my email address, listed at the end of this column.)
I have included two images of what Clinton and I call the ‘Willis-Cater Mystery Object.’ We don’t know what this is but I can assure readers of this column that none of the images we obtained are in any way fake. We wouldn’t know how to fake these images anyway and we would never compromise our integrity to do such a thing. The images presented here have been enlarged a bit in Photoshop and contrast and brightness have been increased a bit. The color is that of the original images. The whole set of images is available, unprocessed, if requested.
What is this thing? We don’t know its actual size because we don’t know how far away it was. We heard no propeller sounds, no jet turbine noises, saw no vapor trail and we heard no sonic boom. We heard only the local animal and traffic sounds ambient to my backyard on the edge of Siloam Springs.
We have solicited the opinion of many amateurs and professionals alike but we want your input. We have already gotten some opinions but we have open minds at this point. My wife thinks it looks like a ‘flying bean’ and I think it looks like a ‘flying potato.’ It is probably neither of these.
Notice that there appears to be some markings or mottling on the basic brownish color of the object. Notice that these markings change in the two photos presented here. The changes in mottling are more apparent in the whole series of images. Notice also that there are some sorts of “light patches” at one end of the object. We think the object spun through its long axis, much as a football would spin if thrown as a spiral, but we don’t know the rate of spin if this is what occurred. We do not notice any wings, rudders or stabilizers.
What do you think? Some of the responses we have already gotten have been quite serious, but some have been comical, such as, “It is the “Millenium Falcon” headed for warp drive….”
I am grateful to Clinton Willis who spotted this “Thing” in the first place! It is the strangest object I have observed in over 50 years of watching the night sky.
Please help us identify what this thing could be.
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