Sighting over Killiney, Dublin

josip

Anyone see a bright orange light moving quickly over Killiney Hill tonight? We were out walking along Vico road and at 21.40 saw a large light moving silently eastwards over the hill and out across the Irish Sea. There was no sound nor navigation lights so we don't think it was a plane. It didn't appear to be on fire either as there was no smoke trail; it was a full moonlit night tonight so we would have seen one. It was moving about twice as fast as a plane would and was below the height of the 1 or 2 clouds in the sky. It appeared to have a downward trajectory and about 4 or 5 miles out to sea the light dipped below the horizon level quickly before disappearing into the sea without further ado. It was visible for about 1 minute in total. "We" were my wife and I. What's the most likely hypothesis? Space Junk, ball lightning, aliens drink driving?

lostexpectation

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090904/tuk-astronomers-in-search-of-meteorite-e1cd776.html
The fireball, said to burn as bright as the full moon, was seen flashing across the country on Wednesday night. Astronomy Ireland said the suspected meteor was spotted from Valentia Island, Skibbereen, west Cork to Cavan and further north in Raphoe, Co Donegal. Chairman David Moore believes it may have ditched in the Atlantic.

"If it's brighter than the full moon then there's a chance that part of it survived and landed," he said.

ntrundle

We (there were 3 of us!) were coming back home on the back roads from Lucan to Ongar at around 23:15 on Friday 4th Sept when we spotted 6 or 7 bright orange lights in the sky. They were in the direction of Dublin Bay, heading away from us and were quite low in the sky. We pulled over and watched as they changed formation and disappeared one by one. This all happened in the space of a couple of minutes. Any ideas what they were? Did anyone else see them?

josip

Astronomy Ireland clarified this one for me. They said that almost certainly it was a Chinese Lantern and it does match with what we saw. We saw another one this evening over Killiney, a bit lower and now very obviously a Chinese lantern.

lostexpectation

if you see anything around county dublin/meath then its chinese lanterns at the weddings venue hotels around there