Unusual Light

Hi Guys,

Since it's a lovely clear night out I decided to venture outside, despite the cold, with my binoculars. Just as I was going in ( about 10.45pm) I noticed a bright yellowish / white light low on the western horizon. I didn't really give much thought to what it was until it stopped moving and appeared to be stationary for about 10 minutes or so.. I viewed it through my binoculars and saw it to be a single solid object.It was a yellow / white oval shape and the centre of it appeared to give off a more intense light than the rest of it.I doubt it was a helicopter or an aircraft as it didnt show any safety or navigation lights. Im pretty sure it wasn't venus either as it had well set by now. After about 10 minutes, the object began moving again in a northerly direction. As it moved it began to brighten up very noticably.

Anyone else see it?

P.S.- I'm not stating that it was a UFO- I don't really believe in them!

Chinese Lantern would be my guess. Bright centre would be the flame inside. Hovering for 10 minutes could be wind direction change carrying it towards or away from your line of sight making it look stationary from your perspective and then the wind changing direction again and blowing it perpendicular to your line of sight again thus making it look like it had started to move again. In all likelyhood it never stopped moving at all, just changed direction.

Didn't see anything that night myself Phil, but I have seen plane aircraft move like you described. It is like their forward landing lights are on full blast (though very far away) in your direct line of vision. You don't see any of the fuselage strobes as a result. But I would have thought that as it moved that maybe you would have eventually seen the fuselage strobes. So what you saw probably wasn't an aircraft. I don't know about the Lantern theory Keith, I guess we need Phil to tell us what the apparent distance was to the object in question.

Seanie.

Calibos wrote:

Chinese Lantern would be my guess.

Must let of a few more of those soon since UFO's seem to be popular again in wrecking windfarms in the UK

Might let some off during COSMOS, it will give Seanie something other than laser pointers and headlights to complain about

Hi Guys,

I don't know what the object was , wasn't anything astronomical, I'm pretty well familiar with the night sky. The night itself was clear, steady, almost full moon and the visibility was 10km ( according to yahoo weather I checked before going out)
I doubt it was a chinese lantern, I've seen some before and would recognise them. It might well have been an aircraft of some sort. But when the object suddenly stopped moving and it remained as bright as when I had first observed it ( if it had of been an airplane wouldn't the apparent brightness of it either dimmed or brightened as it changed direction from the view point of the observer?)

anyways, I suppose we'll never know what it was?
But still, It was a good sight! Next time I'll try to shoot it down.

Philip, Dublin 24

albertw wrote:

Might let some off during COSMOS, it will give Seanie something other than laser pointers and headlights to complain about

Says the fella who practically created an Irish node to complement an International body that complains and campaigns for dark skies...