From: kym@kymhorsell.com   
      
   When you look for things I guess you tend to see them.   
      
   I mentioned some time back I've seen funny point flashes in the sky to   
   N and to S of me. One time they were apparently "chased" by 2 choppers   
   incl the police. Something I didnt know at the time, but the flashing   
   to the NE of me became significant about 1 week later when the largest   
   quake in recent history hit the state. No guesses which direction   
   from me it struck. Sure. Coicidence.   
      
   During the pandemic the number of funny things that seem to be flying around   
   the day and night skies over Melbourne down on the S coast of AUS   
   seemingly have jumped to proportions that have just become obvious.   
      
   But "obvious" is a loaded term. When I travel on a train down to Melbourne   
   city I sometimes see kangaroos by the side of the track. Sometimes they   
   group in mobs of a dozen or more, just a few feet from the track.   
   When they stand up on low ridges that tend to surround various   
   factories on the way down there you'd imagine a kangaroo standing up   
   against the skyline would be bleeding obvious. But I doubt if any of   
   the dozens of other passengers on the trains seem to see them.   
      
   Lights in the sky are always a problem to ID. If they move slow   
   and go from west to east then you have to imagine they are mostly   
   satellites.   
      
   But if they blaze away or take strange turns, dont move at constant speed,   
   and track across the sky in paths that a satellite should not be able to   
   take given they circle the centre of the earth, then you have to assume   
   they are something else.   
      
   Last night saw a typical sequence of events that seem strange.   
   Several lights, some of them brighter than Sirius that just happens   
   to be up most of the night at this time, tracked across the sky in various   
   curves. Often they seem to move like a catterpillar -- speeding up   
   and slowing down every few sec, or curving slightly from one side   
   to the other. ANd of course the ones I'm particularly interested in   
   are that that seem to go the opposite dir to the spin of the Earth --   
   rouhgly from eastward to westward. Commercial sats at least are launched   
   to take advantage of the spin of the planet to cut the cost of fuel   
   and overall launch. Some refs claim they "all" go from west to east   
   unless they are deliberately polar.   
      
   So last night saw in the space of 2 hrs roughly in the early ams   
   of the morning 4 strange lights. Mostly small whitish dots that   
   eventually faded out. One a bright yellow one as I said brighter than   
   Sirius when it was above the S horizon.   
      
   They were coming from all directions. And going against the spin of the   
   earth. A couple of them seemed to change their minds at some point   
   and decide to turn in ways that seemed contrary to being in orbit.   
   Some moved at high-alt jet speed like sats do. Some were maybe 1/2   
   the speed and some 2x that speed.   
      
   It seemed the objects were at very high alt. But the interesting thing   
   was a light aircraft that was lit up like an Xmas tree with a bunch   
   of white led lights on the bottom flashing on and off seemed to be out   
   looking for funny lights in the sky.   
      
   I've noticed such aircraft and maybe even this particular one on many   
   nights. It circles around and around and around in big lazy circles   
   down S of me. Mostly.   
      
   This time it was doing that to start with. When the first  strange light   
   appeared maybe by coicidence it left that pattern and started moving around   
   in my region.   
      
   When the 2nd and 3rd lights showed up the plane seemed to move to the   
   general location -- we imaging far below the actual objects --   
   and cirlce a bit. It seemed to move almost immediately I spotted the   
   light. When it disappeared the plane tended to wander back to its holding   
   pattern down south of me.   
      
   The plane could not be a traffic plane. 2-3 am in the morning.   
   What the heck could it be doing? Police? One thing I do know govts   
   put up photo recon aircraft to take photos during the day to track   
   any and all activity on the ground that may be of interest to various   
   authorities. Maybe it also has a couple cameras pointed up.   
      
   By the time the last light showed up around 3am the plane missed it.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)