Two spheres flying in tight formation near Ford Parkway bridge
On June 16th 2006, my wife and I were sitting outdoors at a café, the clouds looked particularly interesting that day, and as I often photograph them for my projects, I asked her if she minded us making a quick stop at the Ford Parkway bridge. This bridge provides an excellent panoramic view of the sky, perfect for capturing images of clouds.
I considered stopping at home first, to grab my Nikon D50, but I could tell I was testing my wife’s patience as it was. To my everlasting regret, we proceeded with my cheap digital camera that I kept in my car.
We got to the bridge and I walked out to the center of the bridge and took about 20 some pictures. The sky was partly cloudy (25% cloud cover?) but mostly blue sky.
When I finished, I walked back to the other end of the bridge where my wife stood waiting. As I talked to her I noticed two grey spheres flying toward us from the East in tight formation, the one nearest us just above the other.
They flew at a constant speed and trajectory from East to West. I was so excited I forgot that I had a camera in my hand. I kept asking if my wife could see them, but she could not. By the time I finally got my composure, the objects had begun to pass behind an apartment complex in front of us. Unfortunately the next mistake I made was to switch my camera to the movie setting, not realizing that the resolution is so poor it would not pick up the objects. I took a short video which is completely useless.
I have seen many different aircraft in my 43 years on this planet, these objects defy conventional classification. They were not weather balloons, I have seen weather balloons. They were perfect spheres, metallic gray, but not too reflective.
I figured that the reason my wife did not see then was the glare. Despite the partial cloud cover that day, it was actually a very bright day, and I had polarized prescription shades on. As the objects passed through the sky the seemed light gray, as they passed in front of clouds they seemed darker. They disappeared on the Eastern horizon. From the time I spotted them to the time they reached the Eastern horizon was less then a minute.
On June 16th 2006, my wife and I were sitting outdoors at a café, the clouds looked particularly interesting that day, and as I often photograph them for my projects, I asked her if she minded us making a quick stop at the Ford Parkway bridge. This bridge provides an excellent panoramic view of the sky, perfect for capturing images of clouds.
I considered stopping at home first, to grab my Nikon D50, but I could tell I was testing my wife’s patience as it was. To my everlasting regret, we proceeded with my cheap digital camera that I kept in my car.
We got to the bridge and I walked out to the center of the bridge and took about 20 some pictures. The sky was partly cloudy (25% cloud cover?) but mostly blue sky.
When I finished, I walked back to the other end of the bridge where my wife stood waiting. As I talked to her I noticed two grey spheres flying toward us from the East in tight formation, the one nearest us just above the other.
They flew at a constant speed and trajectory from East to West. I was so excited I forgot that I had a camera in my hand. I kept asking if my wife could see them, but she could not. By the time I finally got my composure, the objects had begun to pass behind an apartment complex in front of us. Unfortunately the next mistake I made was to switch my camera to the movie setting, not realizing that the resolution is so poor it would not pick up the objects. I took a short video which is completely useless.
I have seen many different aircraft in my 43 years on this planet, these objects defy conventional classification. They were not weather balloons, I have seen weather balloons. They were perfect spheres, metallic gray, but not too reflective.
I figured that the reason my wife did not see then was the glare. Despite the partial cloud cover that day, it was actually a very bright day, and I had polarized prescription shades on. As the objects passed through the sky the seemed light gray, as they passed in front of clouds they seemed darker. They disappeared on the Eastern horizon. From the time I spotted them to the time they reached the Eastern horizon was less then a minute.
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Minneapolis
USA
1 minute
1 minute
44.99
-93.30
sphere
MN
Occurred : 6/18/2006 15:00 (Entered as : 06/18/06 15:00) Reported: 1/4/2008 8:00:39 AM 08:00 Posted: 1/21/2008 Location: Minneapolis, MN Shape: Sphere Duration: 1 minute
Two spheres flying in tight formation near Ford Parkway bridge