Yesterday morning I was on my usual walk back the neighbor's lane and a small airplane happened to pass overhead. I looked up as I always do - I took pilot training in the 1980's - and spotted the plane leisurely flying by.
But quickly my attention was directed to something almost in line with the plane, but much higher. I'd have to describe it as "star-like", something along the lines of how Venus appears in the night sky. Of course it was daylight (just about 8 am) and the sun was shining brightly. I knew it wasn't a plant which would have been washed out by the sun. And I also knew there shouldn't have been a bright planet there anyway (Venus and Jupiter have been in the western sky at sunset, near conjunction).
As I walked I took a few photos. I leaned against a telephone pole to keep my balance. And in the time I was walking - about 15 minutes - the light never appeared to move. Clearly it was not a plane.
Here's what I saw:
8:02 am - wide angle
There isn't much to see with this view, just a pint of light mid-frame. I zoomed in:
8:00 am - zoom
8:10 am - zoom
I could see when I zoomed in that it was an actual object, not a point of light like a planet or a star.
What I didn't realize is that it had made the local news the day before. It was almost certainly a high-altitude balloon. Here's some of what was said about it:
* High altitude balloon that’s been meandering between/around Dayton/Springfield/Columbus at around 66k feet since yesterday. Shows up on flight tracking systems as HBAL790
* FlightRadar showed this:
* A local TV meteorologist said it was part of Project Loon. But Google says this about that project: "Project Loon was an Alphabet (Google X) initiative that used high-altitude stratospheric balloons to beam internet access to remote, rural, and disaster-stricken areas. Although the project was officially shut down in 2021 due to challenges in achieving commercial viability, its pioneering technology legacy lives on."
* Today's (06/18)
Dayton Daily News has an article about it and says in part: "A high-altitude balloon that hovered over Dayton on Tuesday, June 16, was seen again over the skies in Preble County Wednesday.
The balloon was positioned northwest of Eaton, according to the online website Flightracker 24. It was first spotted Tuesday above Dayton and was described as orb-like object by people who witnessed it in the sky. Data from FlightTracker24 indicates the balloon originated in Illinois, south of Pattonsburg.
Hovering at 66,600 feet in the air, the balloon exceeds the typical altitude of commercial aircrafts, which tend to cruise between 30,000 feet and 42,000 feet, as well as private jets, which cruise between 35,000 and 45,000 feet according to Epic Flight Academy.
In any case, it was an unusual sight and suggests why UFO reports are so common. I called Tom to come outside and see it and he wasn't very impressed. It was like looking at a daytime star.
Last night the weather changed and just after midnight we had a Tornado Warning. If it was indeed HBAL790 it's now meandering the skies between Dayton and Columbus:
Credit: FlightRadar24 06/18/26 9:40 am
Credit: Kevin Rice
This photo was posted to Facebook by ABC-6 in Columbus, Ohio (WSYX).
The answer: Post by Nick Dunn, meteorologist with WHIO-TV in Dayton, wrote this yesterday:
"BALLOONS: Hey there! Lots of questions and curiosity about these high altitude stratospheric balloons. In case you missed my post recently, these two balloons that are visible right now (and the past few days) are operated by Aerostar. These are very slow moving objects that are flying at 55,000 to 70,000 feet.
Aerostar is a South Dakota-based aerospace and defense company. They can transmit locations using an ADS-B receiver and can be used for a variety of applications. From internet connectivity, to research, and testing being done in the stratosphere…these balloons appear to be something to not worry about.
