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PSA: Stop calling every weird light in the sky a 'drone' right away
Last Tuesday around 11 PM in Tucson, I watched a silent, triangular cluster of three red lights move across the sky, stop dead, and then shoot straight up and vanish. My neighbor instantly said 'just a drone,' but I've flown drones for my design work and nothing I've seen moves like that without a sound. Why are we so quick to dismiss things we can't explain with the first easy answer that comes to mind?
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margaretramirez7mo ago
Paulw53 saying the weird stuff is super rare is true, but that doesn't make it less real when you see it. A buddy of mine, a really grounded guy who fixes farm equipment, swears he saw a silent, glowing orange ball hover over a field for ten minutes before it zipped off faster than anything he'd ever seen. He told a few people and they all just said "swamp gas" or "a weather balloon" without even thinking. It kind of ruined the wonder of it for him. Sometimes the easy answer just shuts down the conversation before it even starts.
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wade2504mo ago
Man, I feel you. When I saw something weird over my backyard last year, I started pulling up flight radar and drone maps like @aaronsullivan says, and it actually helped me figure out two out of three things I was curious about. The third one still doesn't have a normal answer, but at least I knew I wasn't wasting people's time before I brought it up.
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paulw537mo ago
Honestly, it's probably because most of the time, it actually is a drone or a plane. The weird stuff is super rare. You saw something strange, and that's cool, but getting worked up about people using the most likely answer feels like making a problem where there isn't one. Most folks just aren't that invested in sky watching and go with the simple guess.
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aaronsullivan7mo ago
Paulw53 has a point, most sightings are normal stuff. The trick is to check flight radar or drone maps first before posting. Saves everyone time.
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