Chinese Sky Lanterns/Strange lights in the sky megathread

[loobylou2008]

theyre lovely , a lovely site ....

[daftlad]

i saw a bloke on the bottom of fargate at a stall yesterday selling them

[math71]

I'm feeling pretty disgruntled having had my post closed and linked to the 'Chinese Sky Lanterns' post.

 

I'm no believer of UFOs but what I saw last night were certainly not lanterns (I know what lanterns look like and how they behave as they move through the air). Do lanterns travel at reasonably high speed when there's little wind (or even against the wind)? Do they just suddenly appear in the middle of the sky (surely someone on the ground must have lit them)? Do they make drastic directional changes (i.e. up, down and from side to side) or travel parallel to the ground if there's no wind; you'd expect a slight upward trajectory surely in benign conditions?

[MuteWitness]

I'm feeling pretty disgruntled having had my post closed and linked to the 'Chinese Sky Lanterns' post.

 

I'm no believer of UFOs but what I saw last night were certainly not lanterns (I know what lanterns look like and how they behave as they move through the air). Do lanterns travel at reasonably high speed when there's little wind (or even against the wind)? Do they just suddenly appear in the middle of the sky (surely someone on the ground must have lit them)? Do they make drastic directional changes (i.e. up, down and from side to side) or travel parallel to the ground if there's no wind; you'd expect a slight upward trajectory surely in benign conditions?

 

It is the 'Chinese Sky Lanterns/Strange lights in the sky megathread', as your describing strange light this would be the place to ask.

[Halibut]

Do lanterns travel at reasonably high speed when there's little wind (or even against the wind)?

 

Yes. The windspeed and direction at ground level is often very different at even moderate altitudes.

 

Do they just suddenly appear in the middle of the sky (surely someone on the ground must have lit them)?

 

No, but they can appear to, for a whole host of reasons.

 

Do they make drastic directional changes (i.e. up, down and from side to side) or travel parallel to the ground if there's no wind; you'd expect a slight upward trajectory surely in benign conditions?

 

Quite probably yes. See my earlier point about windspeed and diection.

You saw lanterns.

[norks]

One landed in my front garden last week.

 

 

I have seen many chinese lanterns in all sorts of weather conditions but nothing comes close to what i saw last year and all i know is it certainly was not a chinese lantern.

[Reilly]

Honest opinion. I know Im setting myself up for ridicule here, but I dont really care. 99% of people in this thread have got it in their head that the orange lights/strange objects etc are all 'chinese lanterns'. Im going to say that its a mix of both! reason being, date : 4th october 2009, sunday night around 8:17pm. I witnessed what I thought was just a typical lantern in the night sky, but didnt act like one should. It sat stationary for well over 6mins staying at the same attitude less than 700ft (around that height maybe 600?) looking unstable, like a ball of fire in the sky no outlines just looked engulfed in flames. Dropping hot blobbs directly over the village.

 

not adding rest of what happened because it is hard to describe to anyone on here without seeing it for yourself!....contacted MOD/etc because a military merlin helicopter came on the scene about 12mins after seeing the whole event circled the village very very low...wondering if they could explain or had picked anything up on radars..

 

nearly a year ago now, posted on here the full description of what i saw on the 4th oct 2009 obviously got laughed at then...but still cant forget it!

 

But Im not saying they are aliens, little green men from far away planets, could be a military experiment/hardware..... more likey...but definately dont assume that every orange light in the night sky is jsut a lantern :S

 

Thanks p.s dont bite my head off for what Ive just wrote, Its what I saw and thats it!

[norks]

Honest opinion. I know Im setting myself up for ridicule here, but I dont really care. 99% of people in this thread have got it in their head that the orange lights/strange objects etc are all 'chinese lanterns'. Im going to say that its a mix of both! reason being, date : 4th october 2009, sunday night around 8:17pm. I witnessed what I thought was just a typical lantern in the night sky, but didnt act like one should. It sat stationary for well over 6mins staying at the same attitude less than 700ft (around that height maybe 600?) looking unstable, like a ball of fire in the sky no outlines just looked engulfed in flames. Dropping hot blobbs directly over the village.

 

not adding rest of what happened because it is hard to describe to anyone on here without seeing it for yourself!....contacted MOD/etc because a military merlin helicopter came on the scene about 12mins after seeing the whole event circled the village very very low...wondering if they could explain or had picked anything up on radars..

 

nearly a year ago now, posted on here the full description of what i saw on the 4th oct 2009 obviously got laughed at then...but still cant forget it!

 

But Im not saying they are aliens, little green men from far away planets, could be a military experiment/hardware..... more likey...but definately dont assume that every orange light in the night sky is jsut a lantern :S

 

Thanks p.s dont bite my head off for what Ive just wrote, Its what I saw and thats it!

 

 

 

 

I too have witnessed the orange ball of fire and it was definately not a chinese lanturn.

[elainew]

I saw the lights over Handsworth at 22.10 last night and my partner saw them on the same night last week. What ever it was really low over the houses and then moved off really quickly. There was also 2 planes which seemed to be chasing the strange thing.

[cazowl]

hey that's weird, i live in hillsborough and ive seen some strange lights a few times over hillsborough park. Anyone else seen them? At first i thought they were those lantern things that burn that people set off, but these were orange in colour and they were moving about. Sometimes it was just one, another night i saw 2 side by side and they were going fast, then changing direction. I was fascinated because i watched them for ages. Eventually they faded and went upwards disappearing into cloud...