Wednesday, September 6, 2023, I was enjoying the tall trees behind our house when I spotted an object in the sky. It was hovering for more than twenty minutes at the exact location. Not a plane, not Superman, either. It was undoubtedly cruising at a high altitude and was big! I am sharing above the grainy picture taken with my phone below at its maximal zoom. Looks more than a tic-tac. So, could it be an alien ship?
It turns out it was a weather balloon, like the one I flew here in Oregon, at 97,000 feet. But this one, operated by Near Space Corporation (here), was way bigger and beat my record hands down. In the video above, taken during my flight, you can spot when the ballon explodes and see debris flying away. Of course, many spotted the craft, and the local news covered the topic as you would expect.