What about an automated probe to Alpha Centauri?  Think that's doable inside 100 years, Doc?

That fits under when I said light sails and nano crafts.  Humanity could probably build such things today, if the goal were to simply get to another star. 

But would it be too much to get a small crew there inside, let's say, 200 years?  Of course, we have major logistics issues, and it would probably require a Generation ship.

And oh yes, we would be as insignificant as ants to any highly developed sentience that could do something we can't even dream about right now.  The probability is so low that it probably only happens once or twice in a given galaxy and the chances are far too slim that they would actually stumble upon us, with how vast even just our galaxy is.

Bit of a late response

I am for the option that it is just from the military

I agree actually.  Given the rapid advances in aircraft and drones over the past few decades and my proximity to airforce and naval bases when these sightings occurred it seems reasonable that its military.  

I find the notion of aliens visiting rather difficult to believe, so many other problems come up if that is the case, mostly on the propulsion side of things.

I even have this poster framed on my wall

That is just one of many options. That militray have that kind of technology. But, what do you think of Aliens cooperating with the government and military?
Yes, I also want to believe. Actually, I think that extraterrestrials are working with some part of US and Russian goverment. I still don't know what is going on there. Just one of my thinking.
There is one video about Russian prime minister Dimitry Medvedev talking about Aliens. I don't know if he was just joking, or telling the truth. Well, politicans have habit of speaking lies just to make people more interested in them. But Russia? Here is the video, tell me what you think:
[youtube]zHCSpm2kepo[/youtube]
There is actually the documentary he was talking about. 'Men in Black' It is on youtube also. Will post it here later.

Okay, I found the documentary. But, there were not subtitles on some parts, as people are claiming and I saw some of it. But, luckily, I found version that has all the subtitles, but lacks on resolution and sound. It was probably recorded with some camera. If anyone can find a better version, it would be great! But, here it is:
[youtube]m4xpsVgOPTE[/youtube]

This thread has already diverged from its intended purpose It's supposed to be about UFOs that you've personally seen. Other UFO and alien related stuff should go in the conspiracy theories thread.

This thread has already diverged from its intended purpose It's supposed to be about UFOs that you've personally seen. Other UFO and alien related stuff should go in the conspiracy theories thread.

Sorry! I was just heading at the direction like others here. And I btw, I saw some light now outside the window as I was just watching the Moon. It was blinking red light and probably was some airplane. Well, you can still watch the documentary if you want...

 I have rarely seen slow bright meteors with Perseids too but it required observation over three consecutive nights to see just one- that one actually had a tail and dropped somewhere over the Ocean to our south I think.

Meteor showers have particles with a distribution of sizes, and even the Perseids sometimes produce fireballs.  I did capture one nice Perseid fireball in a shower a few years ago.  But you also have to be careful to distinguish meteors associated with the shower from unrelated sporadics.  The best way to distinguish them is by their speed and origin on the sky.  If the meteor was slow, then it definitely was not a Perseid.  Perseids come in at almost 60km/s!

I have also seen meteors that do weird things like take right hand turns and change direction, etc.

Impossible for a meteor.

So it could be that I saw a piece of space junk falling or something?  I was out all night.  The right hand turn really threw me for a loop lol.  It was slow moving. 
The one with the tail falling over the Ocean just south of me was definitely a fireball and I saw that around 5 AM just before it started getting light around here and I was getting ready to pack up.  It forced me to stay outside an extra hour lol to see if there would be another but that was the only one.  I love the Perseids because I love being outside in the summer at night, it's just  a bit too painful to be out all night in December.  For the Perseids I'm usually outside three or four nights in a row between Aug 11 and Aug 14 from around Midnight to 5 or 6 AM in a sleeping bag in my driveway or balcony lol.

So it could be that I saw a piece of space junk falling or something?

I don't think so.  Re-entering space junk doesn't change directions.  I won't tell you that you just imagined it (I've seen weird stuff I can't explain, too), but nothing entering the atmosphere at such speeds can change direction like that.  And even if we went wildly speculative and jumped to "aliens" as an explanation for what you saw, I don't think aliens would, or even could, do such a thing.  So, I don't know.  I couldn't say any more about it without good video documentation.  And even good video might still leave it mysterious.

What color was it?  Things entering the atmosphere at high speed usually glow greenish-turquoise from the ionized gases around them.  If it was very slow (like taking around a minute to cross the sky) and had a trail of fiery orange behind it, that's typical of re-entering space debris.

(Spectacular) example of a re-entering Chinese rocket stage:

[youtube]fFpL36n68eY[/youtube]

So it could be that I saw a piece of space junk falling or something?

I don't think so.  Re-entering space junk doesn't change directions.  I won't tell you that you just imagined it (I've seen weird stuff I can't explain, too), but nothing entering the atmosphere at such speeds can change direction like that.  And even if we went wildly speculative and jumped to "aliens" as an explanation for what you saw, I don't think aliens would, or even could, do such a thing.  So, I don't know.  I couldn't say any more about it without good video documentation.  And even good video might still leave it mysterious.

What color was it?  Things entering the atmosphere at high speed usually glow greenish-turquoise from the ionized gases around them.  If it was very slow (like taking around a minute to cross the sky) and had a trail of fiery orange behind it, that's typical of re-entering space debris.

(Spectacular) example of a re-entering Chinese rocket stage:

[youtube]fFpL36n68eY[/youtube]

I really couldn't tell the color Wat, it wasn't exceptionally bright, it sort of looked like a star that was moving lol.  I guess it was white?  It wasn't just one though I saw a few of them over the course of several hours between 1 am and 5 am.  I guess it could be some sort of aircraft since I do live near the airport?  At the time I just thought they were just meteors since they didn't really seem like they could be anything else.  But now I'm thinking perhaps it was an aircraft.  The lights weren't blinking or anything like that though and it really did look starlike, except for the fact it was moving and changed direction.  And they were moving slowly it was enough time for me to stare up at the sky and think- what the heck am I looking at? and when it changed direction at a right angle- okay did I really just see that? lol.  After it happened a few times, I figured it was just a different type of meteor lol. I can say though that the impression I got was that they were very far away, and that's because they looked like points of light that were moving.

PS now that we're here in this thread what do you think of the videos that were released by the air force at the beginning of the year where they were chasing UFO?  Couldn't really tell what they were chasing but they certainly looked weird and made fast changes of direction lol.  I dont think it belongs in the conspiracy thread because I'm just looking for opinions on what those might be, and since the air force released them, I guess you could call them "official."  They never commented on what they thought they were either, just that they were chasing them.

Some things to note to tell aircrafts, satellites, meteors and space debris apart:

Speed: Aircrafts move slower than meteors and space debris, unless the aircraft is close in which case you should hear it.  Satellites are always slow.  Meteors can move slowly if you view them almost head on, but it's rare and see next item:

Duration: Meteors are typically visible from a fraction of a second to around 10 seconds.  Very occasionally they can last for 1-2 minutes and cross the entire sky, much like space debris.  If you see a fireball lasting this long, both space debris and meteor are roughly equal candidates.

Track: Meteors and space debris always travel in a straight path.

Brightness: Meteors typically increase in brightness slower than it decreases, often blink irregularly, and not infrequently break up pieces or even a small spray of pieces.

Lights changing direction may be aircrafts, flares/fireworks or Chinese lanterns.

Then, be aware that shortly after sunset contrails of airplanes are frequently mistaken as meteors.  This happens because the airplanes, usually low in the sky and too far away to be seen, are still in sunshine while it's getting dark at ground level.  But the speed and duration are both wrong.

Finally, a very common misconception about meteors are that they fall nearby, like just behind that hill or even behind that building.  Ironically, such reports indicate that the meteor was in fact quite far away, several hundred km away. If it's seen low in the sky it can only mean that.  Meteors are typically seen 50-100 km above ground, rarely below 30 km, extremely rarely below 20 km. So anything low in the sky must be far away.

There were many reports from people who witnessed a fireball in the Austin and Houston area the day before last. Here's a dash cam video of it in Austin.

Streaking Fireball over Austin on Dashcam

The reports might be for multiple Fireballs, not just the same hunk of rock. I'm guessing it is possible that it breaks up in the upper atmosphere and the chunks scatter before actually lighting up from the friction of thicker atmosphere. Or it might be the same object seen by people.

I've seen a UFO once while camping out in the Big Thicket of East Texas. This was in the late 70s.  It as during the day and it was not moving. Just a silvery cylinder like object with some details I could notice with the naked eye. It just didn't make sense to me it wasn't moving. To this day I consider it was probably a weather balloon or some such man made object.

I've seen Fireballs too, also during the day. I was driving around and I think I was facing east in a normal suburban neighborhood. Something caught my eye to the left of me. I looked over and up and saw a bright tumbling light also going eastward. It stretched out and parts fizzed out after falling behind. It had all the colors lol but mostly a glowing green with the smaller bits turning yellow or orange or white. It seemed so dimensional to me as it tumbled, I was almost convinced I could guess it's size, some where between a bus and a plane. It lasted probably 3 seconds but I can still see it in my minds eye. It was a clear day and pretty bright, but it was so bright I saw it in my peripheral vision. Wowsers.

The closest thing to a UFO experience I've had was when I was around 10 or so playing with a friend in a pile of snow.  It was dark, but suddenly there was a flash of light around us, like a spotlight forming a circle of white light a few metres across with us two in the middle.  It lasted only a fraction of a second - just a flash.  At the same time a passenger aircraft was passing in low altitude overhead, probably 0.5 - 1 km above (this was about 25 km away from Oslo airport at that time).  Somehow the light must have something to do with the aircraft, but it doesn't make sense that it would send a focused beam straight down.

Hopefully your friend was still there after the light passed by!

Hopefully your friend was still there after the light passed by!

Earth speeding-laws do not apply to ET, they have diplomatic immunity. Plus hit-and-runs are a form of greeting on their planet.

The closest thing to a UFO experience I've had...

I've only had one UFO experience (err, so far. That I can remember) as well.  About ten years ago in August I was hiking alone out in the mountains near the southern edge of a national park, at about 9:30 PM. A deep, cool lake was between me and the rest of the park. I remember the evening well because it was very hot and humid, and I had thought I was in the Amazon jungle, not 2500 meters above sea level. On the lake I mentioned I saw a collection of white glittering lights, roughly ten feet above the water and about a kilometer away from me (the lake is about 3.4 kilometers across and 5.5 kilometers long). They did not bob like the boats I had thought they were.  They looked almost like distant street lights, except in the middle of a lake.  I looked at them for about five minutes, thinking it was some sort of fishing derby or gathering of some sort. For those reasons I didn't take a picture with the digital camera I had on me at the time. After observing the lights for the time I did, and seeing nothing especially interesting, I walked on, since it was getting dark and I wanted to be back to my campsite before true dark got to me. About ten minutes later, with the entirety of the lake still in sight the whole time, I looked back to where I had seen the lights. They were not there. I did not hear the sound of boats revving their engines or a plane taking off. Nothing was present on the shores of the lake. Nothing was in the sky, and no stars or planets were bright enough to reflect off of the lake waters.

To be honest, I found my experiences with fireballs are a lot more interesting and spectacular. For example, just last year in September, a huge fireball shot across the sky NW to SE at 10 PM as I was having a big family reunion! The streaking piece of spacedust was visible from southern Alberta to Vancouver, BC. It was so bright, it was like a second sun lit up in the sky.  I could even hear a hissing sound as it passed over.

[youtube]SFdJREYBN-M[/youtube]