Tom and I had just arrived at the Cincinnati Art Museum about noon (Saturday, June 3) and I had climbed the steps in front of him and turned around to watch him approach. While standing there a few seconds I looked out over Cincinnati and saw a fairly bright white dot floating high above the city.
The dot appeared not to be moving at all so my attention was drawn to it. This is what I first saw:
The dot is hard to see in this shot because it is so far away and so tiny. I pointed it out to Tom. "Maybe it's a drone," he said. [Click on the picture to see a larger size]
We were looking west and the object continued towards us (and on a track that would take it north of us). As it got closer I could see movement ... it appeared to be tumbling. Here's my first telephoto shot trying to get a closer look:
It clearly was not an airplane - and not a drone, either. Though it continued on a steady path, I could see movement of the object itself. It appeared to "flutter"; no, it was not a bird. In person I could see it clearly enough to know that it was irregularly-shaped.
It got closer and closer and I pushed all the telephoto into the camera that I had. The object could be seen to be elongated.
You can see in this final shot that it is of an irregular shape. My best guess it that it was a plastic bag of some sort. Perhaps a dry cleaner's bag? You can also see in these final two pictures that it has turned around (the "tail" has switched ends).
Clearly this is not the arrival of aliens but more likely the airborne arrival of trash. But what could possibly have sent it so high? Was it filled with helium, or even hot air and launched purposely from somewhere? The air was almost calm and warm (mid-80's). There wasn't a cloud in the sky.
With Tom now beside me on the top step of the Cincinnati Art Museum, we watched the object begin to pass just north. When we turned our attention elsewhere and looked back, it was gone. There wasn't a sign of it anywhere.
So UFO indeed ... Unidentified Flying Object. But aliens? Not yet.