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#1
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help me identify what I observed
Hi,
Walsall, UK 29-09-11 23:30 I had been observing Jupiter with my son. It was clear, though there must have been a very thin haze of cloud because the seeing wasn't brilliant. We stopped to watch a low-flying plane pass over the house on its way to Birmingham airport. The plane approached from roughly SW and as it passed overhead turned to a more easterly track in the direction of the airport. As it disappeared over the house I saw three yellow/orange lights out of the corner of my eye. The lights were not sharp, they were dim, slightly fuzzy and a thin oval shape, with the centre brighter than the edges. Each was the same length (about half the diameter of a full moon). All three followed a parallel course from south to north. Two were close together, about two moon diameters apart, and the third further away and slightly behind. They travelled very fast. From first observing them almost overhead to them disappearing (fading out in unison about 20 degrees above the horizon) took only 3 to 4 seconds. I shouted to my son who also saw them. When I asked him to describe what he saw, he described the same as I had observed. My initial impression was that it was some kind of reflection onto a thin cloud layer, but I can't see how it could be connected to the plane we saw given the relative directions and the speed difference. Pretty sure they were not Chinese lanterns, satellites or meteors (all of which I have observed before) I would appreciate any thoughts! -- Andrew Woodward |
#2
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help me identify what I observed
Andrew Woodward wrote in message
o.uk... Hi, Walsall, UK 29-09-11 23:30 I had been observing Jupiter with my son. It was clear, though there must have been a very thin haze of cloud because the seeing wasn't brilliant. We stopped to watch a low-flying plane pass over the house on its way to Birmingham airport. The plane approached from roughly SW and as it passed overhead turned to a more easterly track in the direction of the airport. As it disappeared over the house I saw three yellow/orange lights out of the corner of my eye. The lights were not sharp, they were dim, slightly fuzzy and a thin oval shape, with the centre brighter than the edges. Each was the same length (about half the diameter of a full moon). All three followed a parallel course from south to north. Two were close together, about two moon diameters apart, and the third further away and slightly behind. They travelled very fast. From first observing them almost overhead to them disappearing (fading out in unison about 20 degrees above the horizon) took only 3 to 4 seconds. I shouted to my son who also saw them. When I asked him to describe what he saw, he described the same as I had observed. My initial impression was that it was some kind of reflection onto a thin cloud layer, but I can't see how it could be connected to the plane we saw given the relative directions and the speed difference. Pretty sure they were not Chinese lanterns, satellites or meteors (all of which I have observed before) I would appreciate any thoughts! -- Andrew Woodward Perhaps airplane lighting fittings/lenses have changed. I saw one last night near me, single orange light , too bright for Mars, wrong place and moving. After a while of following it , the single orange light resolved into the normal red and green port and starboard lights. Red and green gives a sort of orange |
#3
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help me identify what I observed
N_Cook wrote:
Andrew Woodward wrote in message o.uk... Hi, Walsall, UK 29-09-11 23:30 I had been observing Jupiter with my son. It was clear, though there must have been a very thin haze of cloud because the seeing wasn't brilliant. We stopped to watch a low-flying plane pass over the house on its way to Birmingham airport. The plane approached from roughly SW and as it passed overhead turned to a more easterly track in the direction of the airport. As it disappeared over the house I saw three yellow/orange lights out of the corner of my eye. The lights were not sharp, they were dim, slightly fuzzy and a thin oval shape, with the centre brighter than the edges. Each was the same length (about half the diameter of a full moon). All three followed a parallel course from south to north. Two were close together, about two moon diameters apart, and the third further away and slightly behind. They travelled very fast. From first observing them almost overhead to them disappearing (fading out in unison about 20 degrees above the horizon) took only 3 to 4 seconds. I shouted to my son who also saw them. When I asked him to describe what he saw, he described the same as I had observed. My initial impression was that it was some kind of reflection onto a thin cloud layer, but I can't see how it could be connected to the plane we saw given the relative directions and the speed difference. Pretty sure they were not Chinese lanterns, satellites or meteors (all of which I have observed before) I would appreciate any thoughts! -- Andrew Woodward Perhaps airplane lighting fittings/lenses have changed. I saw one last night near me, single orange light , too bright for Mars, wrong place and moving. After a while of following it , the single orange light resolved into the normal red and green port and starboard lights. Red and green gives a sort of orange Yes, I've seen a few odd things that turned out to be planes! However, given that it traversed approx. 1/3 of the sky in 3 to 4 seconds, I can't see how it can have been. I was out in the garden last night and happened to see two meteors in quick succession. The first of which was a similar yellow/orange colour and had a slightly fuzzy glow around the head. It moved at a similar speed, so, even though there was no discernible tail to what I saw, I'm now wondering if it was some kind of orbital debris? -- Andrew Woodward |
#4
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help me identify what I observed
Andrew,
This is spooky. I observed EXACTLY what you described. Even spookier, I saw this, not in the vicinity of Birmingham airport, but over Gatwick! I live in SW Surrey, about 30 miles from Gatwick, and regularly see air traffic coming in and out of the airport every day. From my location this traffic is usually not far above the horizon, but enough to see it over the roof-tops. I can't remember exactly when I saw the objects, but it was only two or three weeks ago. It was evening time, not too late, the sun had set by this time, and the sky was pretty dark. Looking out of my window in the SE direction I saw what was clearly just another flight leaving Gatwick flying westward. I watched it for a few seconds and then saw another fairly bright light moving close-by it, at pretty much the same speed, in pretty much the same direction like it was also leaving Gatwick. This sometimes happens when (it seems) a batch of flights take off in close succession. However, this light was distinctly red/orange, not like the bright white light of the first aircraft. The light looked extended too, fuzzy-like. This was odd, so I watched it a bit longer, and also noticed there were no flashing lights on it as you would expect for a normal aircraft. Then I saw two more identical lights join the first, travelling together pretty much in the same direction, in tandem formation. This really got my attention, so I pulled the binoculars out for a closer look. With magnification (only x10) I could clearly see they were extended, but still couldn't make out any defined shape. Each light was concentrated at its centre and surrounded by an extended red/orange evelope. It seemed like they were swaying somewhat but I can't be sure, it may have just been an effect of holding the binoculars unsteadily. One idea that occurred to me at the time was they were hot-air balloons, but I doubt anyone would be flying at that time of the day and I did not see any flame burning at any time I watched them. They moved far too quickly for ballons, anyway. By this time the real aircraft had moved out of sight to the west, but I could still follow the other objects for a little longer. They did not follow the aircraft but seemed to turn back on themselves, like they were moving on a curved path, and soon they were actually moving eastward, still in tandem. I can't remember now how I lost sight of them. I may have just lost them because they disappeared below the roof-tops. In all I observed them for about 10 minutes and afterwards I was convinced I had seen something very unusual; you know, shivers-down-the-spine type of thing! Later I did a quick search on the net for any other reports but didn't find anything, althought I did not try very hard. So it's great to have heard of your experience. All I can say is that the pilots and/or the passengers on that real flight must have seen something very clearly; they looked to be a lot closer to the action than I was. John. "Andrew Woodward" wrote in message o.uk... Hi, Walsall, UK 29-09-11 23:30 I had been observing Jupiter with my son. It was clear, though there must have been a very thin haze of cloud because the seeing wasn't brilliant. We stopped to watch a low-flying plane pass over the house on its way to Birmingham airport. The plane approached from roughly SW and as it passed overhead turned to a more easterly track in the direction of the airport. As it disappeared over the house I saw three yellow/orange lights out of the corner of my eye. The lights were not sharp, they were dim, slightly fuzzy and a thin oval shape, with the centre brighter than the edges. Each was the same length (about half the diameter of a full moon). All three followed a parallel course from south to north. Two were close together, about two moon diameters apart, and the third further away and slightly behind. They travelled very fast. From first observing them almost overhead to them disappearing (fading out in unison about 20 degrees above the horizon) took only 3 to 4 seconds. I shouted to my son who also saw them. When I asked him to describe what he saw, he described the same as I had observed. My initial impression was that it was some kind of reflection onto a thin cloud layer, but I can't see how it could be connected to the plane we saw given the relative directions and the speed difference. Pretty sure they were not Chinese lanterns, satellites or meteors (all of which I have observed before) I would appreciate any thoughts! -- Andrew Woodward |
#5
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help me identify what I observed
I once saw a meteor split into two similar sized fragments which
followed slightly diverging paths over something like 90 degrees of the sky. |
#6
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help me identify what I observed
On 03/10/2011 18:49, John Irwin wrote:
Andrew, This is spooky. I observed EXACTLY what you described. Even spookier, I saw this, not in the vicinity of Birmingham airport, but over Gatwick! I live in SW Surrey, about 30 miles from Gatwick, and regularly see air traffic coming in and out of the airport every day. From my location this traffic is usually not far above the horizon, but enough to see it over the roof-tops. I can't remember exactly when I saw the objects, but it was only two or three weeks ago. It was evening time, not too late, the sun had set by this time, and the sky was pretty dark. Looking out of my window in the SE direction I saw what was clearly just another flight leaving Gatwick flying westward. I watched it for a few seconds and then saw another fairly bright light moving close-by it, at pretty much the same speed, in pretty much the same direction like it was also leaving Gatwick. This sometimes happens when (it seems) a batch of flights take off in close succession. However, this light was distinctly red/orange, not like the bright white light of the first aircraft. The light looked extended too, fuzzy-like. This was odd, so I watched it a bit longer, and also noticed there were no flashing lights on it as you would expect for a normal aircraft. Then I saw two more identical lights join the first, travelling together pretty much in the same direction, in tandem formation. This really got my attention, so I pulled the binoculars out for a closer look. With magnification (only x10) I could clearly see they were extended, but still couldn't make out any defined shape. Each light was concentrated at its centre and surrounded by an extended red/orange evelope. It seemed like they were swaying somewhat but I can't be sure, it may have just been an effect of holding the binoculars unsteadily. One idea that occurred to me at the time was they were hot-air balloons, but I doubt anyone would be flying at that time of the day and I did not see any flame burning at any time I watched them. They moved far too quickly for ballons, anyway. By this time the real aircraft had moved out of sight to the west, but I could still follow the other objects for a little longer. They did not follow the aircraft but seemed to turn back on themselves, like they were moving on a curved path, and soon they were actually moving eastward, still in tandem. I can't remember now how I lost sight of them. I may have just lost them because they disappeared below the roof-tops. In all I observed them for about 10 minutes and afterwards I was convinced I had seen something very unusual; you know, shivers-down-the-spine type of thing! Later I did a quick search on the net for any other reports but didn't find anything, althought I did not try very hard. So it's great to have heard of your experience. All I can say is that the pilots and/or the passengers on that real flight must have seen something very clearly; they looked to be a lot closer to the action than I was. John. You have just described the look and behaviour of Chinese lanterns exactly. |
#7
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help me identify what I observed
In article ,
Andrew Woodward wrote: Yes, I've seen a few odd things that turned out to be planes! However, given that it traversed approx. 1/3 of the sky in 3 to 4 seconds, I can't see how it can have been. A slight variation in the height of the cloud layer could make its illumination by plane lights appear to move very fast. -- Richard |
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