UFO sighting

ThrAx

Not extrememly interesting or anything but the other night at about 4 am on a small country road near Clounacauneen castle outside Galway I saw what at first appeared to be a star above the moon. After looking at it for a few seconds it started moving really slowlying downwards, stopped dead still, then started moving slowly to the right, then down and then to the left really slowly. It had no flashing lights and was just bright white like a bright star and it did not tiwnkle (just continuous light).

I thought it was weird anyway.

Saruman

I would have said a satellite only they dont move like that. hmmm

Bee

"Lights in the sky" type phenomena are notoriously difficult to interpret as there are no reference points to relate distance/speed/size/etc.

Unfortunately we must assume the mundane explanation of an aircraft.

An aircraft very many miles away with headlamps on whilst approaching directly will appear to all intents and purposes , be "standing still" after a minor course correction it will appear to move very slowly in the sky, if it again approaches directly it will once more appear to hover, hanging in the sky.

A sharp course correction will make it appear to dart across the sky.

It's even more difficult to evaluate if you are in a moving car/bus/train...bicycle!

I was on a misty salisbury plain once with friends ...they all swore they were seeing a UFO...A Wiccan with us had a much more colourful definition than an alien spacecraft... until the light aircraft finally passed over.

Bee

ThrAx

A very valid point Bee. Thanks, I think that explains what I must have seen.

Bee

I was hill walking in Wales late one evening....I heard what I can only describe as a ripping sound in the air...followed by an enourmous whoosh!!!!!

I looked around to see a long fireball, guestimates = approx a few hundred meters...

WoW! it was really spectacular...

Next, along flies a Raf Tornado at hill top height.

The fireball was created by the Tornado dumping fuel and then setting it alight with its afterburners.

I am sure there must have been UFO's reported in the area after that one!

BTW There must have been something wrong with the jet as they normally only dump fuel if they have to return to base in a hurry.

Bee

oeNeo

It was an alien!

LegacyUser

No.

It was the Satellite thing. I heard it on the radio. EXTREMELY bright star. Up and down, left and right. You cant miss it.

Thats what they all said. The astronomy ireland guy explained its a satellite.

funky penguin

Thats what they want you to believe.

Bee

Sattelites move across the sky in one direction only , they do not change course mid flight.

Bee

Webmonkey

Originally posted by funky penguin
Thats what they want you to believe.

exactly!


+ that couldn't be a satellite, a satellite moves in an orbit, not up and down like that. Impossible for it

Evil_Bilbo

In the early nineties in wexford there were hundreds of reported ufo sightings.

the reason:

A nightclub had just installed those lights that are like massive spotlights shining up to the clouds.

Feckin eejits!

Loobz

I remember that.

BrookieD

Best i got was in a place called Harlston Furs in Northampton, England.
myself and 4 others were out this night as we had little else to do and each of us saw 3 lights in a triangle formation glowing red in colour coming from left to right,
as the lights were passing us they dissapeared and a second later three white lights in the same place as the red ones appeared and the went of into the distance at great speed.

wierd this being we all noticed that all sound from Northampton town and the railway nearby was dead! no sound at all until the lights were gone.

i know it was the best i have ever seen, apart from satilites at night which i still see in Ashbourne every so often.

keu

k..heres a story
first of all I'm not really a believer in UFO's (not saying that there isn't life elswhere in the universe, I just think that if there was and they were advanced and they understood the laws of the universe well enough to comprehend time travel than they wouldn't really need spaceships)

Was comming back from a seminar in ucg in 2002 and we were the best part of an hour into the drive (heading toward waterford). Was fairly late, I think it was around about march and about 11/12pm.
We were out in the middle of nowhere, countryside, hedgerows and stuff, no lights, no cars on the road. There were five of us in the car and we were all rabbiting on about the weekend when driver sees something in the sky and says "phuck, you see that lads", so all five of us stuck to the windshield waiting to see what he saw. Then a huge big light flashed across the sky. It was like (sheet) lightning, but you could tell it wasn't, it moved in a pattern, like a lighthouse beam and seemed to be comming from the lefthand side of our view (which was blinded by a wood, the light seemed to be comming from the top of it)...it happened a few times and I suppose we were all trying to figure out what it was.
So were all there thinking what the hell is it, when the headlights on the car started failing the radio stopped playing and the car started chugging along and eventually just cut out. (dead battery style)
So were all sitting there in the pitch black in the middle of nowhere with a strange light zooming around in the sky and we can't get the car started.
We eventually get out to try and jumpstart the thing and we realise we have a flat tyre too :rollseyes:
It took the lads about half an hour to get things going again (the last thing we were thinking about was the lights in the sky at this stage, which conveniently had stopped at this point)
anyway..I didn't see any "spaceships" or little green men
A while later I came across a newspaper story about "ufo" activity in galway (or in and around that area) and I thought about how easily this incident might have been taken as some sort of "close encounter" by the same ufo seeking authorities in galway.
I still haven't come up with a decent explanation for the light in the sky that night and I could just put the battery dieing while observing it as a coincidence.

anyone want to come up with a theory?
the light wasn't one of those advertising promotional light up the sky type efforts, (i'm familar with them) it was way tooo broad and expansive, covered a lot of area (like sheet lightning) and was much brighter and faster and we were probably well outside of galway at this stage, in the middle of nowhere.
Think of the light like a wave rather than a beam.
(and no we weren't on drugs)

finnpark

ThrAx wrote:

Not extrememly interesting or anything but the other night at about 4 am on a small country road near Clounacauneen castle outside Galway I saw what at first appeared to be a star above the moon. After looking at it for a few seconds it started moving really slowlying downwards, stopped dead still, then started moving slowly to the right, then down and then to the left really slowly. It had no flashing lights and was just bright white like a bright star and it did not tiwnkle (just continuous light).

I thought it was weird anyway.

Just be aware that the International Space Station can be visable at ceertain times for certain periods. It usually appears as a very bright star and moves across the sky very fast, in 2 -4 mins I think. It does not move sideways nor do satellites.

finnpark

keu wrote:

k..heres a story
first of all I'm not really a believer in UFO's (not saying that there isn't life elswhere in the universe, I just think that if there was and they were advanced and they understood the laws of the universe well enough to comprehend time travel than they wouldn't really need spaceships)

Was comming back from a seminar in ucg in 2002 and we were the best part of an hour into the drive (heading toward waterford). Was fairly late, I think it was around about march and about 11/12pm.
We were out in the middle of nowhere, countryside, hedgerows and stuff, no lights, no cars on the road. There were five of us in the car and we were all rabbiting on about the weekend when driver sees something in the sky and says "phuck, you see that lads", so all five of us stuck to the windshield waiting to see what he saw. Then a huge big light flashed across the sky. It was like (sheet) lightning, but you could tell it wasn't, it moved in a pattern, like a lighthouse beam and seemed to be comming from the lefthand side of our view (which was blinded by a wood, the light seemed to be comming from the top of it)...it happened a few times and I suppose we were all trying to figure out what it was.
So were all there thinking what the hell is it, when the headlights on the car started failing the radio stopped playing and the car started chugging along and eventually just cut out. (dead battery style)
So were all sitting there in the pitch black in the middle of nowhere with a strange light zooming around in the sky and we can't get the car started.
We eventually get out to try and jumpstart the thing and we realise we have a flat tyre too :rollseyes:
It took the lads about half an hour to get things going again (the last thing we were thinking about was the lights in the sky at this stage, which conveniently had stopped at this point)
anyway..I didn't see any "spaceships" or little green men
A while later I came across a newspaper story about "ufo" activity in galway (or in and around that area) and I thought about how easily this incident might have been taken as some sort of "close encounter" by the same ufo seeking authorities in galway.
I still haven't come up with a decent explanation for the light in the sky that night and I could just put the battery dieing while observing it as a coincidence.

anyone want to come up with a theory?
the light wasn't one of those advertising promotional light up the sky type efforts, (i'm familar with them) it was way tooo broad and expansive, covered a lot of area (like sheet lightning) and was much brighter and faster and we were probably well outside of galway at this stage, in the middle of nowhere.
Think of the light like a wave rather than a beam.
(and no we weren't on drugs)

First of all a dead battery would not cause the car to stop. You could drive a car without the battery, its only used for starting a car .

As for lights across the Sky one possible explanation is the aurora borealis (northern lights) which can take many forms and cover many areas of the sky. It can also interfere with electrics/radio etc of a car if severe but this pheenonema is rather unusaual in Ireland. The aurora in Ireland usually looks like car headlights/lighthouse beam across the sky beaming from the North East usually. If you can tell me the exact date or even month I will be able to tell u probably. An aurora in this country typically lasts 20-40 mins but this can also vary largely.

keu

its funny you posted about the aurora, after I posted this I had a discussion with a friend about it, trying to figure out the most likely reason and I did suggest at one point that it could have been some sort of natural electromagnetic phenomena (like in particular places in australia where gases are released from dry rock and react on contact with the atmosphere creating a shimmering light effect)
The description of the aurora sounds decent. its just at the time the light waves were not at all random (as I would have expected from natural phenomena) I know for a fact it wasn't a lighthouse, unless they've started planting them down in the burren. It wasn't headlights of other cars, geographicaly from what I remember thats just not possible and the light stream just doesn't account for that kind of light.

Trying to think back, as far as I remember it was my final seminar in galway so it would have been around march or april (can't quite remember) 2002
I wasn't driving, but I know we were on a secondary road and not main thoroughfare driving south eastwardly.possibly 60-80 miles outside of glaway.

I'm fascinated that a car can still run if the battery has stopped, I'm hardly a mechanic, but I did consider the thought that it could possibly be the result of interference from such phenomena (aurora) never knew they were that strong tbh.
Thanks for the info and I appreciate any more if you would like to add.

(btw, we did manage to jump start the car after a few runs

finnpark

Its funny u said March/April. There were auroras, especially around 18th April 2002 but nothing major. I dont think that an aurora would affect your car's running but could effect radio etc.

The aurora in Ireland usually looks like faint car headlights through the Sky usually white or green in colour. It can be directive. It can change all of a sudden, go mad really but this is very unusual in Ireland.

However auroras can occur which have very unusual patterns, change various colours, etc. The aurora of November of this year that I saw in Ireland was incredible. I could not describe it to you. March/April can be a good time to view the aurora and also Oct/Nov.

I would guess that it was aurora u saw. And that the car was a bit dodgy.

Yes the car should have kept going as the battery is only used to start it and keep electrics going-Im no mechanic so some1 correct me if Im wrong.

Anyway this sounds very much like a natural phenonema. Hope this helps, there are lots of resources on internet about auroras. Also if you subscribe FREE to astromony Ireland mailing list u can warnings of aurora-very nice to see and photograph, will put shivers down your spine.

keu

I got pics of novemeber aurora and was really p***ed off I didn't get to see it form myself ( I did look saw nothing) so I'm quite pleased that I may have particpated in viewing one unawares, kinda makes up for missing the one in nov.

thanks.