Was December UFO report an International Space Station sighting?

It’s the third Thursday of the month, so today I’m giving you an update on UFO reports in Alabama from the past month, courtesy of the Mutual UFO Network.

A search for UFO reports in Alabama between Dec. 1 and Dec. 31 on MUFON’s website, www.mufon.com, resulted in only one report from within our state.

According to the witness, the sighting took place on Dec. 14, but they don’t say where it occurred except that it took place somewhere in Alabama.

“I was walking my dog and looking at the sky,” the witness said in their statement. “I saw a bright object in the sky. It looked like a star, but it was moving.

“There were five airplanes in the sky,” the witness wrote. “This object did not look like them. There were no flashing, colored lights.”

The witness watched the object for about 10 minutes until he walked with his dog behind a house.

“As I walked out from behind the house, it (the object) was gone,” he said. “I don’t know if it was the ISS (International Space Station) or a satellite, but I would like to know.”

This report is interesting because the object that the person reporting seeing could very well have been the International Space Station. The ISS can easily be seen from your own backyard if you know when and where to look. It does look unusual, and if you didn’t know what you were looking at, you might just think that you’re seeing a UFO.

If you’d like to see the ISS for yourself, you can track its appearances by visiting http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/, the Web site for NASA’s Human Space Flight program.

The site is simple and easy to use if you’d like to try it. Just visit the site and click “Go to Country” under “Sighting Opportunities.” If you choose the United States (as most of you will), then the site will take you to another page where you have to select the state or territory where you’re located.

If you’re in Alabama, select Alabama and on the next page, select the city closest to you. When I checked the page last Thursday, there wasn’t an option for Evergreen, but Andalusia and Monroeville were among the selections. For our purposes, that’s close enough.

The next page will give you the times in which the ISS will be visible from your location on days when sighting opportunities are possible. The site will also tell you in which direction to look to see the ISS “approach” and “depart.” It also gives you an idea of how many minutes the ISS will be visible. Keep in mind that the weather will have to cooperate if you hope to see it.

Before closing out this week, I just want to put it out there again that I would be very interested to hear from any readers of The Courant who have witnessed a UFO in Conecuh County. I think a lot of other people would be interested in hearing your story too, and I’d be willing to accept your report on an anonymous basis if you’d be more comfortable with that arrangement. You can contact me by e-mail at courantsports@earthlink.net or by phone at 578-1492.