UPDATE: The TV program mentioned at the bottom has today changed it's   
   ad for the up-coming spot.  Previously, it had featured a "threat"   
   message.  Just seen as I was about to post this was a new ad for the   
   spot that is now strictly neutral. Given the way most things are   
   quietly controlled by the govt in Australia, it would seem said TV   
   spot may be part of an official info release and possibly the initial   
   message has been modified to alert but not alarm the public esp in the   
   run up to a national election due in May.   
      
      
   	 A possibly long and boring story as usual told in the style   
   	 of the childhood tales our parents told us in a long ago   
   	 century.  I find it calming. Staying calm is likely to become   
   	 more important in the near future.   
      
      
   	 All the events are real. It's as close to accurate as I can   
   	 manage. But when assaulted by a barrage of things over hrs   
   	 which sometimes includes surprise deviations from normality,   
   	 I kin gits a bit cornfuzed.   
      
      
   It was another busy day over my part of outer Melb last night.  But it   
   is "often" a busy day.   
      
   Proceedings seem to start around 9pm on most days. It helps when the   
   sky is totally clear because action happens in all directions,   
   sometimes with things buzzing around in all directions for a couple hrs.   
      
   The "usual pattern" nowadays also involves one or more aircraft of   
   conventional types. In the recent past these have been light aircraft   
   with unusual arrays of lights -- very bright leds -- that can not be   
   nav lights but something else.   
      
   A couple light aircraft are apparently fitted out with big arrays of   
   white LED's on the bottom. Hard to imagine this could be an aid to   
   taking pix of the ground or pix of satellites.   
      
   One story we've seen recently is the AUS govt is surveying the sky for   
   foreign satellites. The stories don't say exactly how this is   
   supposedly being done. But you'd imagine light aircraft might not be   
   the best way to do it. Ground based telescopes or high-power   
   wide-field cameras should seemingly be the way to go there.   
      
   But the stories might be both the truth and a cover story for what is   
   going on for other reasons.   
      
   Some of the aircraft that include a couple of very very quite choppers   
   incl big yellow and red lights on front and back.   
      
   One chopper with a big yellow light that typically shines out the   
   front is particularly interesting. It sometimes tools around the local   
   skies with all other nav lights turned off. If it's turning off its   
   nav light because its doing "terrorism surveillance" (the local   
   region is one of foreign terror groups largest recruiting zones -- we   
   sometimes have guys in black PJ's running up and down streets carrying   
   flags with -- forgive the ignorance -- Arabic writing on them; and   
   there used to be groups of guys with very straight backs and very   
   short back & sides rolling around in black cars pretending to be part   
   of the local scenery and apparently surveying things that were going   
   on) then you don't really want to attract attention with an   
   arena-lighting appliance on the front of your aircraft even if it has   
   a very very quiet engine.   
      
   Another chopper or choppers have big red lights on the front or back.   
   These typically flash. Even if you're looking in the opposite   
   direction, with one of these things hanging around in the area you   
   immediately turn around to see what the H*ll is going on. So it's not   
   really a stealth strategy.   
      
   So what is going on?   
      
   Well last night provided more clues. As I said, this is kinda a   
   nightly thing with some nights being way more busy than others.   
      
   Last night was quiet overcast. But as you get into the swing of things   
   you find this is only a minor impediment. The gaps between the clouds   
   sometimes feature moving lights. You can tell it's the lights moving   
   rather than just the clouds because any star visible in the gap stays   
   still. It's quiet obvious when the little light is moving with respect   
   to the rest of the world.   
      
   Around 9pm I went out to watch proceedings again. It started off slow   
   with a couple of lights moving in odd ways across the sky.  They might   
   superficially seem to be satellites. And sometimes they act exactly   
   like satellites. They go from west to east, maybe curve northward   
   toward the east which is a totally valid path for a sat. Sometimes   
   they flash bright yellow at some part in their path.  This is also   
   normal for satellites. On one occasion a sat seemed to flash dazzling   
   violet for a tiny fraction of a second. This is not quite normal for   
   satellites. Another time or 2 as the "sat" moves across the sky there   
   are pinpoint pinpoint flashes nearby. Also not normal for satellites   
   passing overhead.   
      
   Both of these 2 sats that started the evening were pretty normal.   
   Sometimes there are so many objects I get a bit confused later over   
   exactly what happened. Last night might have been like that.  So it's   
   hard to remember if one of these first 2 guys was super fast and the   
   other was super slow. Or one might have been bright yellow for a good   
   part of its track and the other was just a tiny little dim yellow thing.   
      
   Whatever. A few mins after the 2nd one left off to the NE somewhere a   
   light plane turned up -- surprise -- over in the NE. Unlike a commuter   
   at 9.30pm it didn't disappear off to the N. It hung around, doing   
   orbits over in the E and later over in the N. Mostly flashing its   
   white belly lights.   
      
   Sometimes during proceedings I have to go inside for a coffee or visit   
   the loo.  Something like that happened around 10pm.   
      
   When I came back there were no new little lights moving around.  But I   
   could hear a heavy heavy chopper off to the SE. Sounded like a big   
   multi-blade rotor wakka-wakka-wakka over there.   
      
   In 5-10 mins it turned up and flew over the property at least one time   
   while it toured the general area. It tended to come and go from sight   
   in the next 10-15 mins. At one point it was up in the NW which seems   
   to be one of the fave locations for this kind of aircraft. But "kind"   
   I mean it was a chopper with a high flashing red light seemingly on   
   the back. I've also seen similar big choppers with a big flashing red   
   light seemingly mounted under the nose of the thing.   
      
   I kept looking around the sky and not much else seemed to be going on.   
   Usually when unusual choppers or light aircraft turn up lately in the   
   night it's a tip-off there will be some "satellites" visiting.  Didn't   
   seem to happen this time.   
      
   Eventually the bigger chopper starting coming my way from the NW.  At   
   the same time I suddenly saw a small very bright red light appear near   
   a cloud over in the NW and slip over the top of the cloud.  It was a   
   smallish cloud and I expected to see the light appear on the far   
   northern side within a sec or 2. It didn't happen.   
      
   The chopper came closer and passed W to E over the block very close to   
   me.  At some point I thought I'd just helpfully point in the direction   
   I'd seen the little red light. Is that what you guys is looking for?   
   I asked. Although my yard is pretty dark I'm sure if they wanted their   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)