Lights in the sky over Dublin Bay

Darren09 · 28-10-2009 2:17am

believe what you want to believe about lanterns or whatever ,ive seen two bright coloured orange lights fly over my head in the matter of 5 minutes tonight about half hour ago and there was no way it was lanterns they were moving too quick to be lanterns or even a helicoptor or plane..they were about 4 minutes apart from each other and the second one was brighter and was closer. It also had something like a ball of light the same color as it but about tenth the size fall about ten feet from it then dim out and disappear. ive seen it once or twice before from far away but always thought it was a helicoptor but tonight it was right over my head its hard to explain, i'm not saying its aliens or UFO's but its though to think of an explanation i'm in tallaght by the way and they came from what looks like is just over the mountains and heading out towards the sea or dublin bay if anyone knows or thinks they know what it could be please let me know its freaking me out, and none of that lantern bull..

Darren09 · 28-10-2009 2:24am

exactly what i thought about the baldonnel thing but doubt they have anything with stealth mode lol. i seen 2 of them about 4 minutes apart and second one looked like something fell from it like a ball of light the same color but tenth the size is freaking me out i'm dying to know what it is

Mr Benevolent · 28-10-2009 3:33am

Darren09 wrote: »

exactly what i thought about the baldonnel thing but doubt they have anything with stealth mode lol. i seen 2 of them about 4 minutes apart and second one looked like something fell from it like a ball of light the same color but tenth the size is freaking me out i'm dying to know what it is

This is getting ridiculous imo. They're chinese lanterns, there's no conspiracy theory, Ireland can't afford afterburning jets and definitely can't afford to divert meteors for the entertainment of Irish citizens. Get a grip.

dubmess · 28-10-2009 7:35pm

I was just googling 'orange lights over dublin' and came across this thread, as myself and my housemate just saw 5 fly overhead in the space of 10 minutes. We are in Crumlin and they came form a southerly direction, heading north(ish).
While they were approaching (at different intervals), one flew close to the path of a plane, yet appeared to be above it. was visible through cloud cover, but then it was as if the light was directional as when i watched them float away i could see no light, only a haze. One of them however stopped coming towards us and moved straight up until the light disappeared. Another one definitely changed direction overhead.
Really odd, and I'm sure there is a plausible explanation, but it was quite interesting to watch! Would love to know if others saw them.
Happened about 6.10-6.20 pm

zidewayz · 30-10-2009 12:01pm

Darren09 wrote: »

exactly what i thought about the baldonnel thing but doubt they have anything with stealth mode lol. i seen 2 of them about 4 minutes apart and second one looked like something fell from it like a ball of light the same color but tenth the size is freaking me out i'm dying to know what it is

All these lights are moving north or east. Irish winds are generally south/southwest. Leads me to beleive theres nothing to get excited about. Lanterns of some sort.

Sleipnir · 30-10-2009 12:06pm

dubmess wrote: »

I was just googling 'orange lights over dublin' and came across this thread, as myself and my housemate just saw 5 fly overhead in the space of 10 minutes. We are in Crumlin and they came form a southerly direction, heading north(ish).
While they were approaching (at different intervals), one flew close to the path of a plane, yet appeared to be above it. was visible through cloud cover, but then it was as if the light was directional as when i watched them float away i could see no light, only a haze. One of them however stopped coming towards us and moved straight up until the light disappeared. Another one definitely changed direction overhead.
Really odd, and I'm sure there is a plausible explanation, but it was quite interesting to watch! Would love to know if others saw them.
Happened about 6.10-6.20 pm

I saw these as well. Chinese lanterns and somebody also fired two emergency flares also, for some reason.

I wish people would think before they launch these Chinese lanterns in urban areas. Yes, they do look lovely but I happened to be out in my garden late one night a couple of weeks ago when one landed, on fire, in my neighbour's hedge.
I had to get the hose out to make sure it didn't set a few gardens ablaze.

Saw another one land of the college on Clogher road too but it thankfully went out after a few minutes.

Thanks, morons.

tubos · 30-10-2009 12:08pm

when you set off a lantern in high winds, they certainly get some speed up. I've seen quite a few head straight for the Irish sea after being launched!!! When a number are launched together in winds, the don't always travel the same trajectory due to gusts of wind catching some and not others. I'm sure all these sightings are lanterns.

dubmess · 30-10-2009 12:16pm

Definitely lanterns, saw another couple overhead last night, and one actually landed in our back garden overnight, like a previous poster said, I'm glad it wasn't alight when it landed. They're not like normal lanterns though, more like a balloon type thing and it seems it's a kind of firework that inflates it, it's something that burns quite aggressively.
I also agree that these things seem to be quite dangerous, I'd imagine they're illegal.

zidewayz · 30-10-2009 12:38pm

dubmess wrote: »

Definitely lanterns, saw another couple overhead last night, and one actually landed in our back garden overnight, like a previous poster said, I'm glad it wasn't alight when it landed. They're not like normal lanterns though, more like a balloon type thing and it seems it's a kind of firework that inflates it, it's something that burns quite aggressively.
I also agree that these things seem to be quite dangerous, I'd imagine they're illegal.

At a wedding in carlow, we were brought outside later in the evening to light these lanterns. Small round wick that we lit to make them rise. So many going skyward that some collided igniting the lanterns with some falling on roofs of nearby houses. Dangerous. I presume they might be dangerous to low flying aircraft.

Mz Lazy · 30-10-2009 5:31pm

Hi guys, was googling chinese lanterns n this came up: http://www.herald.ie/national-news/city-news/is-this-a-ufo-flying-over-south-dublin-1842572.html I'm not saying I beleive this as I've seen things in the sky which could not be chinese lanterns nor planes IMO but I could be wrong. So just posting this as it mentions the lanterns giving people the ideas of UFOS. any whos, hopefully we'll get it all explained at some stage

The Bishop Basher · 31-10-2009 7:33am

Was out stargazing last night and saw one of these "orange balls of light". Have to say it was a spectacular sight, heading East between Bray and Greystones towards the sea. I stood there with my jaw open for about 10 minutes in disbelief before concluding that it was a lantern. Glad to see my suspicions are confirmed

skeetabix · 31-10-2009 1:25pm

At 23:30 last night there was 2 of these orange lights in the sky. At first I thought it was a firework of some kind because it was a fiery looking ball of light, orange with a hint of red and it appeared to be flying low. We saw 1 coming from the north very close to Dublin airport above Poppintree and within a minute a second 1 came from the same direction many miles apart. When our attention was drawn to the second one, the first dissapeared instantly. We watched this second orange light fly across the sky for a further 3-4 mins until it went from the size if a 1 cent coin to a tiny star sized object and disappeared. Looked as if it flew further away upward, beyond our atmosphere. Strange! Will be watching the skies more often. Surely air traffic control in Dublin airport spotted them too!

zackersetu · 31-10-2009 11:59pm

Just saw it myself travelling South over Eircom building, Heuston station and onward. Far too bright to be a lantern as it seemed very high ... therefore it would have to be one big bright lantern!! Very intriguing! :eek:

m8 · 01-11-2009 12:01pm

Anyone get a photo or a video of these?

zackersetu · 01-11-2009 12:22pm

saw about 5 or 6 more after posting! but only an iphone to work with so no photos! i'd love to know what they are!!!

thebman · 01-11-2009 12:24pm

m8 wrote: »

Anyone get a photo or a video of these?

Yeah

http://xmb.stuffucanuse.com/xmb/viewthread.php?action=attachment&tid=4119&pid=12084

:P

tubos · 02-11-2009 11:26am

zackersetu wrote: »

saw about 5 or 6 more after posting! but only an iphone to work with so no photos! i'd love to know what they are!!!

http://www.gstore.ie/products/Flying_Chinese_Lanterns

(I have no affiliation with gstore.ie)

aphex™ · 02-11-2009 12:49pm

Are these lanterns not really dangerous?

I mean, I've been up the mountains the odd time and seen whole mountainsides of gorse on fire. Now you can buy your own flying bomb to set the whole thing in motion?

Franko73 · 02-11-2009 8:51pm

I seen one of these things in Celbridge on Halloween night..... I put it down to some kind of firework but it was very weird looking..... very high up, very very bright and moving very fast.... didnt seem like a lantern to be honest, it did not dim at all and flew in the direction of weston airport. I was tempted to call them to find out if it was a plane or something but felt a bit stupid so I left it..... weird

Tony255 · 25-11-2009 1:03pm

Hi Guys,

To put your mind at easy these were probably our halloween version of the flying lanterns we sold a lot of them to customers in Dublin.

Best Regards
Tony

Calibos · 25-11-2009 2:27pm

In terms of Chinese Lanterns and a lot of posts here about same, the attitude of many seems to be...

'if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck it's a.....pig'

Is everyone who says what they saw couldn't have been a lantern because of how it looked or moved experts in a range of disciplines which helps them reach this conclusion? Are they experts in meteology and have ruled out atmospheric pressure altitude gradients with different layers of wind traveling at different speeds and directions depending on altitude causing the orange lights change in speed and trajectory. Are they experts in human biological optical organs, the visual acuity of the eye that can see a single candle from a mile away. Are they experts in psycho-optical interpretation mechanisms in the brain where a small bright close object can be interpreted by the brain as something larger further away moving at great speed...blah blah blah.

These things are always ducks....I mean Lanterns.

DonnaOlivia · 19-09-2010 2:47pm

Hi,

I'm so glad I'm not the only one seeing these and I honestly don't think they're chinese lanterns. The first time I saw them was with my sister and niece on our way back from the comeragh mountains, it was just starting to get dark and we noticed a circle of five orange lights moving quickly across the sky. We watched it until it basically disappeared. It wasn't very high up and was easily visible at dusk.

Then last night on our way back from Dublin with my nephew in tow, driving down the M9 we see one coming towards us and it flies over us - again a circle of five orange lights. We thought "that's weird, that's the second time we've seen that thing and we can't explain it." So we get back to Waterford and are stopped at a shop in Ferrybank when we see 3 separate orange lights coming up from the direction of the river followed by two more and two more and another one, 8 in total. We tried to take pictures but the street lights made it impossible so we drove towards Slieverue and when we were passed all the street lights we stopped and looked up. Only three of them were visible at this stage, two passed by and one seemed to hover a bit and then went very quickly up towards the clouds and disappeared. We got pics but its impossible to make out what they are. But chinese lanterns? I think not!

maninasia · 20-09-2010 2:41pm

What you described are classic sightings of.....Chinese lanterns. Just do a youtube search and you will see. They follow the wind currents, can speed up, slow down, hover in one place for minutes, reach quite high altitudes and burn for 20 minutes sometimes. They can look like they are travelling in formation but that's because they are following the same wind current and have been let off together.