Strange orange point of light???

PaulC · Post by **PaulC** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:38 pm

Just seen something very strange. Completely clear skies - just shown my father-in-law an Iridium flare at 19:02. Then at 19:22 noticed a bright orange single point of light travelling overhead from west to east. The speed was about the same as the ISS (i.e. far too slow for a meteor) and the mag. was about -2 ish. The strange thing was that the brightness changed very quickly and in a chaotic manner and ocassionally looked like multiple, random tiny flashes of light in a tight cluster. It didn't look at all like a jet airliner (no regular flashes and green/red lights on the wingtips). I watched it for about 30 sec then it seemed to vanish as if passing into the Earth's shadow (like the ISS does).

All very strange! Any ideas as to what is was?

Davej · Post by **Davej** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:51 pm

Hi Paul,
What was your location when you saw the flare ?
ATB.
Dave

mark_smith · Post by **mark_smith** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:56 pm

Lately in the Lincolnshire, Grimsby area there has been quite a few of those Chinese lanterns in the sky. They are orange in appearance and move very similar to the ISS.

Mark

PaulC · Post by **PaulC** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:57 pm

Davej wrote:Hi Paul,
What was your location when you saw the flare ?
ATB.
Dave

Hi Dave,

I was at N54.05 W2.82 (Lancaster)

PaulC · Post by **PaulC** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 7:04 pm

mark_smith wrote:Lately in the Lincolnshire, Grimsby area there has been quite a few of those Chinese lanterns in the sky. They are orange in appearance and move very similar to the ISS.

Mark

Mmmm. Chinese lantern - could be, I suppose. Certainly travelling in the direction of the prevailling wind and 'flickered'. Looked very high up though and very bright. As the crow flies, I don't live that far from the west coast so would it have had time to gain enough altitude?

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 9:36 am

The first Chinese lantern I saw fooled me completely. Checking the wind direction with the Met Office confirmed that it had been travelling in exactly the same direction as the wind. What I had thought was a fast moving object at high altitude was actually only a few hundred metres up.
With the second one I saw a few weeks ago I had time to get my binoculars. The 'bag' shape of the lantern became easily visible.
The clue is in the sputtering nature of the light which is due to whatever is used to ignite and provide the heat.

brian livesey · Post by **brian livesey** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 3:14 pm

Klingons?

PaulC · Post by **PaulC** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 5:52 pm

I'm now convinced that it was a Chinese lantern, especially since that my wife has revealed to me (she saw it before I did) that it was much lower in the sky before I spotted it. Another mystery solved...