Lights over Dublin?

morlan

No, not of the UFO kind. Why are there search lights mounted all the way up the liffey?

bizmark

We have a lot of money and the goverment is intent on wasting it all (I.E i have no idea)

Where did you get that web cam shot from ?

morlan

bizmark wrote:

We have a lot of money and the goverment is intent on wasting it all (I.E i have no idea)

Where did you get that web cam shot from ?

You've never been to http://www.dublincity.ie/traffic/frame_c.htm
Does Dublin have any festivals in the summer? is there some sort of event on?

bizmark

Nope never seen that thanks for the link and i really dont know some of the dubers will tell you

flogen

it wouldnt be a re-hash of that 'evectorial lighting' (or whatever it was called) thing, would it?

Maybe its something to do with the luas... seems to follow the track...:S

flogen

morlan

bump

Useless Dubs, don't you know anything?

Flukey

We know plenty. I have on occasion seen spotlights in the sky here, coming from the city centre, when no event that I know of was on. So it does happen every so often. It was the Bank holiday weekend and there were reports elsewhere in the boards of people seeing something on Friday night, so there was obviously something going on. That shot you have looks like they are coming from the end of Temple Bar, which would be the type of place that could do something like this.

keu

maybe they were looking for batman.

Puck

This perhaps? -> http://www.dublinelevation.net/

keu

Vectorial Elevation DUBLIN, 22/4 - 3/5, 2004
unless they forgot to take down the lights

Flukey

That was just for the week around the EU Accession. That was only temporary and is all gone now. These are some photos I took in O'Connell Street when that was happening. The first gets them reflecting off the Spire. The last shows the moon and Jupiter - bottom centre- in the photo too.

tba

Puck wrote:

This perhaps? -> http://www.dublinelevation.net/

those lights were on OC street, the ones in the photo appear to be around the temple bar area

_blank_

I'm in coolock at the moment, and if I look out toward the Clontarf area I can see a really bright flashing light, nothing like a search light, and not as high as the spire.

Only tonight mind, not yesterday, not the day before.

ixoy

seansouth wrote:

I'm in coolock at the moment, and if I look out toward the Clontarf area I can see a really bright flashing light, nothing like a search light, and not as high as the spire.QUOTE]
I can see it too - anyone have a clue what it is? A beacon to the gods?

Flukey

You'll always see something in the sky if you look, on any night. On a clear night it could be anything like a plane, a satellite, a star, a planet, a meteor, a comet. There is always a simple explanation for anything you will see. I'm into astronomy, so I recognise a lot of things that people identify incorrectly or don't know what they are and are confused by. There are lots of strange things to the uneducated eye, but I am sure you will all recognise this object in the night sky that I photographed:

keu

fcould ber someesorte of subliminal mmessaging device, or one of thoses psychotronic amplifiersn which pump frequencies generating theta waves in order to hyspnotise dubliners.

Flukey

Well it didn't work on me, or anyone else I know here.

JackKelly

yeah,im pretty sure that that flashing light is the spire. Its soo bright though. Im confused. Anyone else seeing it?

On another note, why isnt the vodafone website working.JUST when i need to send a mesage it goes down.

ssh

Was just out for a walk and I noticed it too. It's a spinny light of some description, like a lighthouse or something.

ixoy

TimAy wrote:

yeah,im pretty sure that that flashing light is the spire. Its soo bright though. Im confused. Anyone else seeing it?.

You're pretty wrong - it's definetely not the Spire as I'm in the IFSC and the Spire is to my right and the flashing light is to my left. The flashing light is also low on the horizon, as if on the top of a building - it's certainly unlikely to be some astronomical feature...

Guy:Incognito

Is there still a web cam broadcasting off the building that redz is in now? overlooking O'Connell bridge. I remember looking at it online a couple of years back. It was in When Brendan Met Trudy aswell.

JackKelly

not the spire than.but it is some sort of mast. I can see it from my window and it has a top light that is flashing, and than an other light below it in the middle. Not the RTE mast as that can be seen beside it.strange

Cabaal

hehe maybe its the new Millenium clock in the sky
gota find a way of wasting money on stupid ideas after all

Cabaal

Stekelly wrote:

Is there still a web cam broadcasting off the building that redz is in now? overlooking O'Connell bridge. I remember looking at it online a couple of years back. It was in When Brendan Met Trudy aswell.

hehe for some reason I've always thought that was the Irish Times webcam as thats the first webcam I can remember was in dublin and it the same position,


Infact I remember a few lads in college about 3-4 years back were doing a race around Ireland to get a picture of themselfs in every county in Ireland in 3 days.

I was working in a net cafe at the time and they asked me to take a screenshot of the Irish Times webcam site as one of the lads was dressed up as a gorilla suite holding up a sign sitting under the green sign-post on the webcam side of the liffey

Sadly they have since moved there web-cam to a different position as you can no longer see the footpath on the side of the river the webcam is on
http://www.ireland.com/weather/cam.htm

steviec

It's the pigeon house.
Not sure why it has a big flashing light at the top though....

Flukey

I can't see it from where I am, but I know it was foggy tonight, so it could be some sort of warning beacon down near the docks. The Spire doesn't flash anyway. There could be some sort of high crane or something down there. They need a light. It is too cloudy to be an astronomical feature and there is nothing scheduled as far as I know, even if it wasn't. It's not the Pigeon House is it? Surely you'd know if it was that. It is just something tall with a light on it, as required by law of course. Look in that direction tomorrow and see can you see what is there. Get a pair of binoculars now or then if you can. Work out exactly where it is now, so you'll know where to look in the morning. Whatever it is, there is a simple explanation.

steviec

It's definitely the pigeon house, clearly visible from Clontarf. One chimney has normal red lights and the other has two ultra-bright flashing white lights for some reason

Flukey

We posted not far off each other Steviec. So it was the Pigeon House. I thought that might have been too obvious. All tall objects have to have a light at the top, by law, to warn aircraft. Even before the lights went on in the Spire it had to have a red beacon at the top, remember? It would be particularly noticeable on a foggy night as tonight and important. Maybe that is why they have extra lights on tonight.

JackKelly

its seems more for "shoe " than for safety

monkeyfudge

I'm in Coolock and can see the 2 chimneys from my window.

I'd assumed the proper lights had broken and the flashing one was an emergancy back up.

But it could be a part of something. There is a pool of light that is visable running along the Lifey from it.

Sheesh, it obviously cost alot to produce this, yet they do a really poor job of publicising it... what's the point? And to do it on a Tuesday?

The only event I can think of that was on was the Latin American festival.. but that was rubbish....

Oh, and it has gotten very foggy now.. so it's hard to see the chimneys at this stage.

segadreamcast

Not the old lights. These are along the quays - those lights originated from rooftops along O'Connell street IIRC.

Not the Spire.

What is it?

The Song Thrush

I can see those flashing lights all the way from my window out here in Monkstown. :eek:

Flukey

Anywhere you can see those chimneys from, you'll see the light. I was up in the Dublin mountains today and you can see the light from there, during daylight.

Oriel

It's Bono's ego going for a little night-time stroll.

S.

Flukey

That'd be down near Dalkey. Ali is known to walk along the beach there. I saw Bono directing traffic in town once. I kid you not. He was directing a car out of or into a parking spot on Hume Street, just off St. Stephen's Green. I think it might have been Ali driving it.

monkeyfudge

As it isn't mentioned yet this thread... here is the standard response from ESB.

New chimney lights have been installed on Poolbeg Chimney No. 1 and are
under test at present. The previous lights were over thirty years of age,
were failing regularly and were in need of replacement as spare parts could
not be obtained.

The Poolbeg chimneys are on the flight path from one of the runways at
Dublin Airport. Because of the height of the chimney, the lights are
aircraft warning lights rather than helicopter warning lights, which are
visible on lower chimneys in the Dublin area, including our own Combined
Cycle chimneys in Poolbeg. The new lights have to comply with the latest
aviation authority standards* for chimneys of that height (680') and are
brighter than the old lights.

Aviation standards dictate how the lights are set up and their intensity.
ESB is required to comply with these standards. The lights will be lit day
and night. There are three light intensity settings - day, twilight and
night, which is lowest.

It is proposed that similar lights will be fitted to Chimney No. 2 in the
next few weeks once testing and commissioning is finished on Chimney No. 1

* ICAO Annex 14, Volume 1, Third Edition July 1999, Chapter 6, Table
6.3

I am looking into this matter further, I'll be sure to keep everyone informed.