Large orange light above barnsley..

[Rustynailer]

Ok but Cb said it went fast does ball lightning suddenly accelerate fast like he describes, if it does then that could possibly be it by the sounds. Although descriptions in the written word are never as good as face to face, when trying to understand/describe something.

Of course I prefer the unknown, its more interesting :lol:

[andy_leics22]

Ok but Cb said it went fast does ball lightning suddenly accelerate fast like he describes, if it does then that could possibly be it by the sounds. Although descriptions in the written word are never as good as face to face, when trying to understand/describe something.

Of course I prefer the unknown, its more interesting :lol:

Thing is though, if it was a lightning ball would it zoom off and then come back to the same place 5 minutes later? Plus wouldn't he hear thunder?

[full_frontal_occlusion]

With all the bad weather, this sounds like it may have been distress flares possibly on the peaks or motorway.

Distress flares are often two part, with a red coloured candle and bright orange smoke for a ground marker. You may have seen the flare through the orange smoken or a white flare filtered by cloud / mist.

That would account for the flame, colour, apparent motion, lack of sound and second incidence: i.e. rapid movement slowing to a standstill as it reached its apex and then drift coincident with the flare decaying sometime later. (Some flares have parachutes so they can loiter for some time)

My guess would be emergency services using flares to vector a rescue helicopter to their position

Distress flares

ffO.

Edited September 7, 2008 by full_frontal_occlusion

[03jtrickey]

A couple of years ago in Cheltenham something similar happened; there were white circles of light going round the sky randomly. In the paper the next morning there were reports of people seeing this, and even calling the police to report it. It had been confused for the aurora, UFO sightings etc. In the end it turned out to be a light show staged somewhere in town for publicity (as far as I can remember).

[Chris Knight]

Hot air balloon - Flame on, the balloon lights up, flame down, the light diminishes to a point, then vanishes?

Edited September 7, 2008 by Chris Knight

[Rustynailer]

I have been thinking, could it be a genuine UFO. I mean most are hoaxes or misidentification's arn't they Perhaps this is unexplainable.

An analogy would be:-

In this day and age there is no such thing as a genuine accident; Its always somebody's fault on the public highway for a start.

Which as humans are prone to the occasional accident, is 90% baloney.

With that in mind, perhaps for once it is not possible to understand what it is.

Then again may be not :lol:

Russ

[Rustynailer]

A couple of years ago in Cheltenham something similar happened; there were white circles of light going round the sky randomly. In the paper the next morning there were reports of people seeing this, and even calling the police to report it. It had been confused for the aurora, UFO sightings etc. In the end it turned out to be a light show staged somewhere in town for publicity (as far as I can remember).

Good point, one of those happened a few miles away from me in the summer, the laser beam part of the show was quite alarming for about 5 seconds, till I realized what it was. At extreme range a laser beam certainly fits the description.

So there is a possibility. If I had seen the show at extreme range, I doubt I would have been so quick at calling it a light show either.

Oh pooh, I was hoping for good fright

Regards,

Russ

[andy_leics22]

What I can't work out is... No one has actually really said it could be a UFO and a mystery kind of craft. I know when you bring the subject of visitors from outer space up people laugh at you but to be honest there have been so many reportings of alien craft all over the world in the past 100 years or more that it can't just be people making things up lol.

Could be something explainable but at the same time never rule out the unknown.

[Rustynailer]

Could be something explainable but at the same time never rule out the unknown.

My sentiment exactly,

[full_frontal_occlusion]

Laser light shows? Hot air balloons? UFO's lol.

Come on peeps, this happened during the storms and flooding over the last 48 hours - in one of the worst hit regions of the country.

Gather the facts, analyse and then eliminate the unreasonable: Would anyone attempt a suicidal balloon flight? Would organisers stage a public event in such hazardous conditions?

Everything else is wishful thinking.

But hey, that's just my humble opinion.

ffO

[Gray-Wolf]

We're a bit 'hilly' here and the concitions you've had over the past few days have been shared here. We get loads of 'Scotch Mist' with the hill sides and thier trees trapping clouds or shrouding the tops in a blanket. If you watch (as I do) you'll see lots of 'strange' darting/stationary/ascending/descending lights (of varioius hue) in such conditions as vehicle high beam headlamps (as the hillside roads are unlit) reflecting back off the clouds. Until I sussed what was going on it did have me a tad bothered

We also get aircraft lights as they descend into Manchester or take off from Leeds/Bradford and their 'headlamp' does the same, over quite a distance, at higher levels.

Quite freaks you out when you have no explaination for things you have seen doesn't it?

[Rustynailer]

Laser light shows? Hot air balloons? UFO's lol.

Come on peeps, this happened during the storms and flooding over the last 48 hours - in one of the worst hit regions of the country.

Gather the facts, analyse and then eliminate the unreasonable: Would anyone attempt a suicidal balloon flight? Would organisers stage a public event in such hazardous conditions?

Everything else is wishful thinking.

But hey, that's just my humble opinion.

ffO

The Isle of Wight Bestival just had 40000 people camping out looking at lightshows listening to music and dancing in the torrential rain.

Still have not heard weather Amy Winehouse played of not though.

I like the modern pilotless military stealth jet theory myself, it is not impossible by far, but ball lightning blown by the wind well thats not impossible too, neither is a powerful flare, but why is the UFO option more attractive, the unknown ? :lol:

Perhaps its just because it would be something new :lol: :lol:

[Gray-Wolf]

Come to think of it you're still in our Geology in Barnsley (Carb) and so will enjoy the 'earth lights' that the quartz in the millstone grits generate.

We all know what happens when you compress quartz.

If you think of the number of faults that went in during the mountain building of the Caledonian orogeny you can see that all the millstone grits are heavily fractured giving rise to a lot of 'fault zones' where rock is pushed hard against rock on a movement surface.

The tension alone on these fault planes may generate quite a charge and so maybe in the right mix of weather conditions 'enhances' the opportunity for it to propogate out from the rock as an 'earth light'.

[andy_leics22]

Laser light shows? Hot air balloons? UFO's lol.

Come on peeps, this happened during the storms and flooding over the last 48 hours - in one of the worst hit regions of the country.

Gather the facts, analyse and then eliminate the unreasonable: Would anyone attempt a suicidal balloon flight? Would organisers stage a public event in such hazardous conditions?

Everything else is wishful thinking.

But hey, that's just my humble opinion.

ffO

Couldn't have been lightning though, lightning doesen't stay in one place in the sky for a minute or so and then move at a fast rate across the sky and then come back to the same place and hover without a noise... lol.

To be fair there is quite a few UFO sightings in the UK, especially Yorkshire so I wouldn't be surprised if it was a UFO. He said it made no sound either, people who have reported strange craft have said it has had no sound to it even when it's hovering low enough for them to see it quite clearly. Pretty spooky but this isn't a UFO thread it's a strange orange light which has no explanation thread

[Cookie]

this should explain all

the answer click here

[SP1986]

I would have to go with the helicopter light theory, maybe a search light from a plane perhaps the method of finding targets involves a bright orange light (a type of radar mechanism?)

I certainly don't think it's ball lightning, ball lightning is very very erratic and in most cases is not orange. We can count that one out therefore. Aliens, UFO's I think we can safely count this one out straight away.

It was definitely something below the 900 feet cloud ceiling, what I dont know but I would guess a plane or helicopter search light (perhaps facing you) may be the plausible explananation

[magic]

Also could be a sky lantern? Had quite a few homemade ones scare people in my area earlier this year. They look like orange balls of light once they're up and don't always follow a simple path as they follow air movements as they rise up, also can drop at the metling of a hole or go out. And where there's one there's likey to be a few more.

[Mesosphere]

yup i was thinking it could be chinese sky laterns magic

[laserguy]

I'm only a couple of miles from you Cb,but I didn't perchance to see anything. Seems you weren't the only one though - take a look at the article on page four of 'The Chronicle'!

[Richie V]

I'm only a couple of miles from you Cb,but I didn't perchance to see anything. Seems you weren't the only one though - take a look at the article on page four of 'The Chronicle'!

What does it say, I've lost the paper and can find no reference on line

thanx

[laserguy]

What does it say, I've lost the paper and can find no reference on line

thanx

It's only a small article,but says: " A strange light has been spotted in the sky above Monk Bretton. A woman who did not want to be named,said she saw it in the sky from Smithies to Cundy Cross. It was a bright orange glow and was totally silent. It wasn't an aircraft,but I wonder if anyone else saw it or knew what it was. Any information tel.....". I don't know,but I think laser lights can be ruled out because folk are always mucking around with them around here and they don't draw attention anymore.

[stella]

Right first time Magic and Calum.

...and here they are:

[laserguy]

Right first time Magic and Calum.

...and here they are:

Wow,how cool are they? Mind,still doesn't really fit Cb's description though as the thing he saw was moving around rapidly. I reckon even a slight wind would spell trouble for one of those? Cb needs to see the vid and compare,I suppose.

[Richie V]

Very impressive but not what I saw. I want some B)

Thanks for the help, very greatful.

[andy_leics22]

Why would somebody release a sky lantern into the air in South Yorkshire? I have never seen that happen in this country, suppose it happens sometimes in America but I have never seen one here.

Stephen you say we can safely rule out aliens or a UFO... Well no you can't really because no one knows if they exist or not. I suppose these people who have reported seeing one for themselves can say they do exist but we defanitly cannot say they don't.