Satellites or UFO's

[Azores Hi]

I know I'm going to regret this and I'm opening myself up to all sorts of ridicule but I really need to tell you all about my fishing trip last night.

It was a lovely warm night, prehaps a little windy and the sky was lovely, clear and moonless. The fishing had been very slow and I spent quite a bit of time looking up at the stars. I had seen about 4-5 leonid meteors that evening and I remember also thinking that Venus (well I think it was Venus ) was looking very bright and clear.

My Girlfriend called me up on my mobile at about 01:10 this morning to say goodnight. We talked for a few minutes and when I hung up I reeled in my rod to check the bait.

It was when I was walking back up the beach that I saw a bright orange ball of light above me to the north east. It was moving quite slowly from west to east, my immediate thought was that it was a satellite as I had seen a few that night. This one however was very orange and almost as bright as Venus. I watched it slowly move east until it quite suddenly faded away.

At this point I didn't think much of it, having seen the ISS last week pass overhead it didn't really strike me as odd. However as I looked over head I saw an identical object, travelling in the same direction and the same speed. This one was pretty much overhead and was very clear to me. It looked like a bright orange ball, again about the same light intensity of Venus. As I watched it seem to vary in intensity sometimes seeming brighter an sometimes fainter. At times it also looked like it was flickering or even pulsating (although pulsating isn't correct really as there was no rhythm to the changes in light intensity).

At this point it struck me as a little bit odd. Although I have witnessed plenty of satellites in the past. Never have I seen 2 so close and so identical.

Then I was in for a bit of a shock. A third object, exactly the same, appeared on the western horizon. Same trajectory. Same speed, same behavior. I watched this one approach but this time, instead of disappearing on the eastern horizon It faded out right overhead. I looked west again and saw 3 orange balls, all the same. All approaching at the same speed.

It was then that I got a little bit concerned. I have certainly never seen anything like it in my life. The exact details of the behavior of these three is a little bit sketchy as by then I was attempting to take pictures on my mobile. I think one by one they moved from west to east and faded out like the others. But in different parts of the sky. Some making it further east than others.

I'm not sure of the exact number I saw in the end. I think possibly one more orange ball crossed after the three. So in total 6-7 were observed. In all the whole event lasted at least 10 mins. I suppose the lights took about 2 minutes or so to cross from horizon to horizon. No other lights were seen, these were not aircraft as far as I could make out.

My location was on the east Kent coast. On The beach at Seabrook between Hythe and Folkestone.

The pictures are still on my phone. I can't make out from the tiny screen if I caught them on camera. I need to get a lead to enable me to transfer the pictures onto the computer. Fingers crossed I captured them clearly!

I would be gratefull if anyone could shed light on what it was that I saw. Is it reasonable to assume that 6-7 identical satellites all crossed above me. All so bright and I've never seen an orange one before. It's all very puzzling!

P.s I only caught 2 fish and no I wasn't drunk

[Phil UK]

6 or 7 at the same interval. Not satellites.

Sounds to me like you saw a UFO. (Or UFOs even!)

There was an incident here in Birmingham about 2 months ago where something was spotted, not by me personally but made the local newspaper inner pages. where this object was 'scanning' an area? I don't know too much about it, but I have tried to do some further research into it.

Otherwise, could be laser light activity, or you have just entered... The Twilight Zone. (Cue music)

Phil.

[Mesosphere]

it is puzzling Azores Hi

i'm struggling to find a possible explanation but my first thought was re - entering space debris or something , like a rocket booster or something similar. But there were 6 or 7 which does not seam right. There are a group of satellites called the Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) and they travel in formations in the sky , but i've not heard of them being orange.

here's a link anyway mate , http://www.satobs.org/noss.html

It could have been a fireball or a formation of satellites , i can't find any other explanation

[Nick L]

This is very, very odd. I was in Cambrils in Spain last week, and in the sky was a bright orange light just as you described. But it lasted about a minute and then went behind a cloud, but did not re-emerge. Strange.

[Louby]

military helichoppers possibly?

[Greyowl]

Someone setting off distress flares maybe?

[Azores Hi]

it is puzzling Azores Hi

i'm struggling to find a possible explanation but my first thought was re - entering space debris or something , like a rocket booster or something similar. But there were 6 or 7 which does not seam right. There are a group of satellites called the Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) and they travel in formations in the sky , but i've not heard of them being orange.

here's a link anyway mate , http://www.satobs.org/noss.html

It could have been a fireball or a formation of satellites , i can't find any other explanation

Thanks for the link. It's possible that it was a series of Satellites, they certainly had the appearance of something in orbit' That slow staedy track of a satellite. Id ividually. I probably would not have given it a second thought. But a series of the same spectical is what really got my attention. Also seeing the group of three on the horizon really made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end!

I did wonder if the orange glow could have come from the reflection of a setting sun on a satellite? Would sunlight refracting through a dusty atmosphere be strong enough to reflect off 6-7 consectutive satellites?

military helichoppers possibly?

Maybe Louby. But there was no strobe lights and if they were in 'stealth' mode why were they bright orange?

Someone setting off distress flares maybe?

I've seen flares before. Both distress and military flares. Neither of them move from one horizon to the other. I'm convinced they were not flares.

Edited August 3, 2008 by Azores Hi

[Azores Hi]

Hmmm, I've been doing some research and I'm starting to wonder if what I saw were chinese lanterns or mini hot air balloons. There are numerous reports all over the internet of strange orange glowing lights, high up and moving at a constant speed.

I think this is the most logical explanation.

It would be helpfull if someone could tell me where I can find out the wind direction for that night. The lights moved almost exactly west to east. I know this as I was facing the north star and the lights moved parrallel to the beach. I remember that the wind was more sw. But being at the sea shore this is sometimes deceptive due to sea breezes.

[I can't believe it's not better]

Hopefully it turns out the wind was coming from the east!! I want to believe.

[Azores Hi]

Hopefully it turns out the wind was coming from the east!! I want to believe.

I want to believe too but I'm trying to be sensible about this. I'm acutely aware that there are people out there who flatly refuse to believe in UFOs and there are those who are utterly convinced that little green men are out there.

Personally I have an open mind but I want to get the bottom of this.

Thinking about the chinese lantern theory. I have launched these in the past and I can say that they are really difficult to get right. I think out of 10 lanterns we only got 1 airbourne. That was on a still summer night.

Saturday night was quite windy. I think the forcast was 20 mph. On the beach I would say that the forecast wasn't too far out. I reckon launching chinese lanterns in gusty conditions would be pretty challenging. Getting 6 out in a row...impossible???

Again, anyone out there with wind data from Sat night in SE?

Edited August 4, 2008 by Azores Hi

[Greyowl]

I want to believe too but I'm trying to be sensible about this. I'm acutely aware that there are people out there who flatly refuse to believe in UFOs and there are those who are utterly convinced that little green men are out there.

Personally I have an open mind but I want to get the bottom of this.

Thinking about the chinese lantern theory. I have launched these in the past and I can say that they are really difficult to get right. I think out of 10 lanterns we only got 1 airbourne. That was on a still summer night.

Saturday night was quite windy. I think the forcast was 20 mph. On the beach I would say that the forecast wasn't too far out. I reckon launching chinese lanterns in gusty conditions would be pretty challenging. Getting 6 out in a row...impossible???

Again, anyone out there with wind data from Sat night in SE?

As you say, the success rate at launching chinese lanterns in that wind speed would be pretty low I would think.

[Coast]

Well it doesn't look like there were any rescues on that part of the coast Saturday night/Sunday morning. There was a 35ft trawler that had to be towed later in the morning (11.30 am) but that was on the Whistable side of Kent (although a Coastguard helicopter was diverted from a training mission to attend). Too late at night to be fireworks I guess, was it towards the Sandgatte part of the French Coast AH?

There were no Channel swimming competitions Saturday by the looks of things so that starts throwing out most things man-made unless its was military or civil aircraft.

I'm sure you read up on recent events including this one the previous Saturday night in Dartmoor.

"Wayne and Jo Taylor, from Ashburton, said they spotted a formation of a dozen slow-moving circular lights in the sky on Saturday night. Mr Taylor, 40, said that at one point the lights moved at a 90-degree angle, adding: "I have never seen anything like it."

I'll dig deeper but I am sure there is a rational solution there somewhere.

[Mesosphere]

The Chinese Latern Theory sounds the best for me , loads of people on astronomy forums lately have been reporting orange lights going across the sky.

have a look at the following thread on this astronomy related forum :-

http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php/topic,28750.0.html

it roughly the same thing you reported

Edited August 4, 2008 by Calum

[Coast]

Is this a similar phenomenon?

WEST SUSSEX MAN OBSERVES UFOs OVER THE CHANNEL

On May 8, 2000, at 2:30 a.m., David Johnson was near the beach in Worthing, West Sussez, UK when he spotted something strange in the sky to the south, out over the English Channel.

"I initially saw a bright light out over the English Channel, and it seemed static (stationary--J.T.) for for around five minutes, so I went to get my binoculars to look further at the light as the light was too bright to be either a star or planet and could not be a plane." ""While I viewed through binoculars, I saw the object itself with a pulsating orange light beneath." The light, he added, reminded him of the computerized K.I.T.T. automobile in the TV series Nightrider.

"There were smaller red lights coming too from the large object. Then the larger light vanished, and four orange lights remained, triangular in formation with one in the middle. They moved slowly and elegantly and were followed by the other smaller (red) lights, until they went out of range from my binoculars." The UFO formation was traveling due south and seemed to be heading for Deauville, a port city in the Calvados department of France. (Email Form Report)

Source: www.ufoinfo.com

[Azores Hi]

Well it doesn't look like there were any rescues on that part of the coast Saturday night/Sunday morning. There was a 35ft trawler that had to be towed later in the morning (11.30 am) but that was on the Whistable side of Kent (although a Coastguard helicopter was diverted from a training mission to attend). Too late at night to be fireworks I guess, was it towards the Sandgatte part of the French Coast AH?

There were no Channel swimming competitions Saturday by the looks of things so that starts throwing out most things man-made unless its was military or civil aircraft.

I'm sure you read up on recent events including this one the previous Saturday night in Dartmoor.

"Wayne and Jo Taylor, from Ashburton, said they spotted a formation of a dozen slow-moving circular lights in the sky on Saturday night. Mr Taylor, 40, said that at one point the lights moved at a 90-degree angle, adding: "I have never seen anything like it."

I'll dig deeper but I am sure there is a rational solution there somewhere.

Thanks Coast. The lights I saw were actually inland slightly, not out to sea. The beach is South facing and I was facing north when I observed them. I guess that the lights were 70-80 degrees from the horizon so nearly overhead.

Here are the co-ordinates for my location.

Lat 51- 4' 14.2"

Long 1- 7' 19.4"

[Mesosphere]

here's another UFO mystery what turned out to be sky lanterns aswell

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstori...-sky.3981213.jp

[Coast]

Thanks Coast. The lights I saw were actually inland slightly, not out to sea. The beach is South facing and I was facing north when I observed them. I guess that the lights were 70-80 degrees from the horizon so nearly overhead.

Here are the co-ordinates for my location.

Lat 51- 4' 14.2"

Long 1- 7' 19.4"

That throws out this one then:

Misuse of Signals

There are frequently observed examples of the misuse of light signals in this area, by a range of vessels, but again in particular by fishing vessels. Very large vessels, obviously in ballast and "flying light", can be seen displaying three vertical red lights, or vessels, usually small coastal tankers, exhibiting a single red light. Fishing vessels in parts of the North Sea often display a flashing orange light and in the Dover Strait it is common to see fishing vessels displaying two vertical red lights, indicating that their nets are fast on an underwater obstruction, happily trawling along at five or six knots. This can be quite dangerous as a vessel seeing these lights may quite rightly expect a fishing vessel displaying such lights to be stationary, making no way over the ground, and then suddenly realise that the fishing vessel is in fact making considerable headway. It would seem that the reasoning behind the misuse of these light signals is to create some element of doubt in the mind of an observer and thereby induce a wider berth from vessels in the vicinity.

www.europilots.org.uk

Miss Shorelines brother moved into a new house in Lyminge this weekend, I'll find out if he was having a late night firework party!

Edited August 4, 2008 by Coast

[Azores Hi]

The Chinese Latern Theory sounds the best for me , loads of people on astronomy forums lately have been reporting orange lights going across the sky.

have a look at the following thread on this astronomy related forum :-

http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php/topic,28750.0.html

it roughly the same thing you reported

Yes, like I said it's the most rational explanation. It's just the wind strength that bothers me on that one.

[Robinhood75]

I know I'm going to regret this and I'm opening myself up to all sorts of ridicule but I really need to tell you all about my fishing trip last night.

It was a lovely warm night, prehaps a little windy and the sky was lovely, clear and moonless. The fishing had been very slow and I spent quite a bit of time looking up at the stars. I had seen about 4-5 leonid meteors that evening and I remember also thinking that Venus (well I think it was Venus ) was looking very bright and clear.

My Girlfriend called me up on my mobile at about 01:10 this morning to say goodnight. We talked for a few minutes and when I hung up I reeled in my rod to check the bait.

It was when I was walking back up the beach that I saw a bright orange ball of light above me to the north east. It was moving quite slowly from west to east, my immediate thought was that it was a satellite as I had seen a few that night. This one however was very orange and almost as bright as Venus. I watched it slowly move east until it quite suddenly faded away.

At this point I didn't think much of it, having seen the ISS last week pass overhead it didn't really strike me as odd. However as I looked over head I saw an identical object, travelling in the same direction and the same speed. This one was pretty much overhead and was very clear to me. It looked like a bright orange ball, again about the same light intensity of Venus. As I watched it seem to vary in intensity sometimes seeming brighter an sometimes fainter. At times it also looked like it was flickering or even pulsating (although pulsating isn't correct really as there was no rhythm to the changes in light intensity).

At this point it struck me as a little bit odd. Although I have witnessed plenty of satellites in the past. Never have I seen 2 so close and so identical.

Then I was in for a bit of a shock. A third object, exactly the same, appeared on the western horizon. Same trajectory. Same speed, same behavior. I watched this one approach but this time, instead of disappearing on the eastern horizon It faded out right overhead. I looked west again and saw 3 orange balls, all the same. All approaching at the same speed.

It was then that I got a little bit concerned. I have certainly never seen anything like it in my life. The exact details of the behavior of these three is a little bit sketchy as by then I was attempting to take pictures on my mobile. I think one by one they moved from west to east and faded out like the others. But in different parts of the sky. Some making it further east than others.

I'm not sure of the exact number I saw in the end. I think possibly one more orange ball crossed after the three. So in total 6-7 were observed. In all the whole event lasted at least 10 mins. I suppose the lights took about 2 minutes or so to cross from horizon to horizon. No other lights were seen, these were not aircraft as far as I could make out.

My location was on the east Kent coast. On The beach at Seabrook between Hythe and Folkestone.

The pictures are still on my phone. I can't make out from the tiny screen if I caught them on camera. I need to get a lead to enable me to transfer the pictures onto the computer. Fingers crossed I captured them clearly!

I would be gratefull if anyone could shed light on what it was that I saw. Is it reasonable to assume that 6-7 identical satellites all crossed above me. All so bright and I've never seen an orange one before. It's all very puzzling!

P.s I only caught 2 fish and no I wasn't drunk

Hi, i have seen the strange orange balls over the last 4 days. I have seen them in groups of 7, 4, 3 and i have seen them on there own.

The first time was last week when i was out in the garden looking at the stars with my binoculars. At about 3am i noticed 3 orange looking objects in the sky. I stood watching them as they was passing over head. Then 4 more just appeared and was following the other three. I got my binoculars and started to look at them. It looked like a solid round shaped object that was surrounded by fire. It had a small trail of flames behind it which was not visible to the naked eye. I ran inside to get my phone but by the time i got back outside they had all gone. Then the next day i was looking out my window and saw another one, so got my phone and started to record. I only managed two small clips before it vanished. Then on saturday i saw them again another three times, the third was when i was in my garden recording a firework show in the park a couple of miles from my home in gloucester. I have uploaded all my videos to youtube. I'm on my mobile and as such i can't copy and paste the link to my videos. If you go to youtube and search for jameslovesjayne you will find my videos.

Someone said that it could be a chines lantern, i don't think so as they was all passing the same stars on all 4 nights. I dont think thats possible as the wind direction had changed too. More detail is on my youtube page.

James

Edited August 5, 2008 by Robinhood75

[opplevelse]

they were mini tornados ...

... Chinese lantern sounds like the best explanation to me. Seen them before and they look EXACTLY as described and are often launched on consecutive nights. Of course that wont deter those who "WANT" to believe in LGM LOL

[kar999]

I remember reading in the press or hearing on the news about similar "UFO lanterns" over Scotland last weekend.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7539334.stm More than a dozen UFO sightings were reported to police after partygoers attached candles to balloons and released them into the night sky.

A bit far from Kent, but this is the summer party season! Apparently you can get them to rise up to 2000ft so even on a windy day you might then get them high enough to drift a fair way.

Instructions How to Build Birthday Candle Engine Powered UFO Fire Balloons.

Birthday Candle Balloons can rise over two thousand feet high, sail for miles, and shine like Big Orange Stars, for over ten minutes.

Models include Dry Cleaner Bag Balloons and Homemade Plastic Bag Balloons. The heat engines are made by melting birthday candles together, either single-file, or double-file. The frames are made with balsa wood sticks or drinking straws, shaped into either an "H" or an "X."

http://www.overflite.com/

FOOTNOTE: PLEASE READ THE WARNINGS PAGE... These things can cause fires and other hazards!

Edited August 6, 2008 by kar999