I want to believe

EVG regular Spike noticed what could be a UFO... or maybe swamp gas ... over the neighborhood this evening.

Perhaps there are other theories...

[Updated] Today in maybe-strange things hovering in the sky

EVG Roving Photographer Bobby Williams happened to have his camera pointed down Tribeca way… when THIS appeared…



Non-plausible theories welcome.

Updated 2:37 p.m.

Thanks to the several readers who sent along this alert from the NYPD…

A private architecture firm will conduct height surveys of buildings in Manhattan today, Sunday, April 20th, and tomorrow, Monday, April 21st. The architectural height surveys will consist of a large balloon aloft approximately 800 feet today from 11 a.m. until 8:15 p.m. in the vicinity of Chrystie and Stanton Streets, and tomorrow from 7 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. in the vicinity of East 58th Street and Sutton Place.

What the hell was that?

We waited to post these photos until we spoke with NASA, NORAD, the U.S. Military and the World Weekly News.

Bobby Williams took these photos from his East Village apartment last night. Here is his description via email: "This flew by about 9:38 pm. Heading north then turning east."

Aside from anything related to the Hoboken Hoof or Amanda Bynes (just getting those guesses out of the way!), any ideas what this is/was?

UFO sighting this afternoon in Tompkins Square Park

Turned out to be peaceful. Photos by Bobby Williams.

East Village residents ask: WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT NOISE LAST NIGHT?

We're getting all kinds of reports this morning, like this email from a resident on Avenue A near East Second Street (subject line — Last night's starship landing):

Any reports of a crazy loud noises at 2:40 AM this morning? We woke up to what I can only describe as a harrier jet landing outside our window. It lasted about 15 seconds each time with a couple minutes between each. Total of 3. Have never heard anything like it.

Twitter noticed too.

Is anyone else hearing the East Village explode right now?

— RICHIE MOZZAREAL (@richieberetta) February 27, 2013

What the hell is that noise at 3am? #NYC #eastvillage #noise

— Ben Nairn (@bennairn) February 27, 2013

@bennairn heard it too! #eastvillage #noise. sounded like rocket launchers through the sky

— Kerry Docherty (@AMindfulMentor) February 27, 2013

Uhh, what was that sound? #nyc #eastvillage

— Michael Serunian (@mserunian) February 27, 2013

Anyone know what those crazy sounds were a few minutes ago in the East Village?! @eastvillage

— Roxxan Hanson (@roxxan23) February 27, 2013

Anyone else? We haven't heard anything about this just yet... like, anything official.

Updated
Con Ed said this via Twitter: "Looked into it and I have no reports of anything happening there..." Meaning the power plant on East 14th Street and Avenue C, a likely culprit.

So. UFO, totally.

Meanwhile, Unexplained Loud Booms and Light Flashes Persist in U.S.

[Updated] Breaking: Glowing objects spotted over East Village; no one has ruled out UFOs

Via EVG reader MP just after 9 p.m. ... "Series of at least a dozen glowing objects coming from downtown over east village toward Williamsburg... Get higher and higher and eventually fade away. Like large glowing embers. Spooky."

Yes!

Updated 11 p.m.

East Village photographer Steven Hirsch shared unretouched photos of the UFO sighting objects in the sky as seen from Tompkins Square Park ...

Was that a UFO over the East Village yesterday?

From reader Brian B. ... this incident occurred yesterday.

I was walking west on 10th Street between Ave A & B at 5pm today, I looked up and spotted a small red dot floating stationary way up in the clouds.

At first I assumed the red dot was a a child's "toy" balloon that had floated up out Tompkins Square Park. For most of the sixty seconds it took me to travel the block, I watched the red "ballon" remain in a stationary position (against the edge of the buildings in the distance).

When I got to the corner of 10th & A, I watched the "balloon" for a few more seconds, then turned my attention to the pedestrian traffic in front of me as turned right and began walking north on Avenue A.

While I was waiting for light at 12 Street, I looked up and noticed that the "red ballon" that had been floating stationary back over 10th Street was now traveling in a straight line across the horizon acting very much UNLIKE a balloon.

I took out my camera and shot this video. (Canon PowerShot ELPH 300HS 13X optical zoom)

The sun was still pretty bright at 5pm and I my camera's display was too dim for me to see if I was capturing the tiny dot that was hardly visible to my eye. I figured that with the camera zoomed in all the way, the footage would be too shaky to show much.

For most of the footage, the object looks dark, but during the last few seconds of the footage, you'll notice the red coloring I saw when I first mistook it for a balloon.

I don't think it's an alien space craft or anything, but it was definitely a UFO in the sense that it was flying and I couldn't identify it. I'm postive it wasn't a plane or a helicopter. Some kind of surveillance drone? Anyone have any idea what this could be?

I'm totally going with alien spacecraft. But I'm a realist.

You? Your thoughts on what this was. (Aside from Lady Gaga or Lana Del Rey, of course.)

And keep in mind: This isn't the first time for something like this happened around here. Remember this. Or this.

About that really loud noise around 14th Street and Avenue B last night

[Not last night. But it could have been!]

From a reader who lives in Stuy Town near 14th Street and Avenue B:

Just wanted to see if anyone else had heard or contacted you yet about this really loud noise I experienced last night. Around 3:30 am I woke up from a deep sleep to the noise of what sounded like a jet literally hovering over my area. I woke up my boyfriend so that he could hear it too and so that I knew I wasn't dreaming. This noise went on consistently for about a half hour.

They didn't spot anything out the windows... Anyone else experience this? I'm going with UFO. No crackpot conspiracies, please.

UFO sighting in Tompkins Square Park

Early yesterday evening ... captured by Bobby Williams...

Explaining yesterday's UFO sighting

By now you've likely read about the possible UFO (balloons) sighting near, uh, over, Chelsea.

Here's one explanation, courtesy of The News of Today:

Where things get even weirder is that author Stanley A. Fulman, a retired NORAD Officer, who in his book Challenges of Change, claims he has been in contact with 43,000 “old souls,” who have told him that on October 13th, there will be aliens visiting the earth, hovering their UFO’s over several large cities for several minutes. Yesterday happened to be the 13th of October, and the Objects did hover for several minutes over at least one major City of the world, New York City. With 2012 approaching, could this be the end of the world as we know it, or is this a mere coincidence?

Thoughts?

Will Bloomberg need to install UFO lanes too? Or will it not really matter?