UFO sighting, Scotland 20/02/09

Hey everybody.

I wasn't going to bother posting about this, but since I've read other threads recently mentioning an 'orangey' UFO over the UK I thought I might as well add this sighting to the record. I've tried to provide as much detail as I can but I only managed to get one photo before the object went out of sight (I was trying to switch to video mode but I was flapping a bit) and it's honestly not the best pic ever, but you might as well check it out...



The photo was taken in Newmachar, Aberdeenshire, Scotland on Friday 20.02.09 at about 7:30pm.

Here's the image zoomed in...



Doesn't really show much I'm afraid, but here's some more details. Thanks to Google Earth here's where the photo was taken and it's flight path...



Google Earth co-ordinates: Latitude: 57°15'56.43"N, Longitude: 2°11'25.94"W



and a link to the untouched (large!) image...

i5.photobucket.com...

The object made no noise whatsoever and looked like a naked flame skimming across the sky at about the height at which a helicopter would fly. I know that some of you will cry "Chinese lantern" but I don't think it was. There didn't seem to be any structure/membrane around the 'flame', you could quite clearly see it. I thought at first it was perhaps a hot air balloon but there was no sign of anything above the flame (as you would see the bottom of a balloon as the hot air is blasted into it). I can also be 100% certain it wasn't an aeroplane or a helicopter. Aberdeen airport is about 4 miles from Newmachar so I see (and hear) lots of planes and choppers on a daily basis. This was neither. I wasn't the only one who saw the object as there were a couple of neds (chavs) standing across the street from me (under the lamp-post in the foreground of the pic if I remember correctly) and they were taking pics too. I didn't speak to them about it though, as they were neds and I like not having any stab wounds on my body.

So that's it, I can't think of anything else to add except sorry it's not a better pic and it definitely was NOT a helicopter or aeroplane!

Thanks for your time

huh,

very interesting

you say it looked like an orange naked flame?


how long was it visible?


congrats on getting a decent shot


2 years ago, in central cal, while i was riding my MC to see a friend, i saw what i could only describe as a flame off in the distance.
I was in a rural area with rather uninhabited mtns in the background, and against the blackness of the farm lands and mtns i saw a pulsating orange "flame".

I thought it might be a fire in the mtns and it was fire season, but they were still 40 miles away and it would have to have been a rager to see from that distance.

I watched it for about 20 minutes as best I could, it was on my left side and I was riding down the freeway.
One thing about it, was that it didnt seem to be changing in perspective or direction as I rode north, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.
I lost sight of it when the freeway went under a rail line and jogs around a little.
When I rode home early the next morning I looked to see if I could see the smoke from the fire, because it should have been big one.
But there was no sign of smoke.
And I didnt read or hear about any fires in the over the next couple of days and forgot about it.

Your avatar is distracting, it reminds me so much of the owner of a guitar store in my town

Anyway, nice effort to make a clear and concise opening post.

One question though, and don't take it the wrong way.

Could it possibly have been Venus? How fast did it move across the sky?

sotp...thank you for this. Great opening post and information. I'm not that far from you actually, as I'm on Deeside, so I will be watching with interest. I'm often thought that there must be lots going on here that I'm just to scared to look for, and we have really dark skies as well. I know that someone suggested it might be Venus, but if it was moving that quickly, probably not. Can you give us a time frame roughly for the distance travelled? Any estimate of height? I know that might be difficult...I wouldn't have a clue!

Thank you!

It may very well have been a satellite. The straight trajectory is a bit of a give away. In fact there are so many up there you can see them drifting overhead on most nights.

Hey thanks for replying folks...

punkinworks09 - it was only visible for about 15-20 seconds before it passed out of sight. I was standing right beside the local shop looking across the street as it passed over, it was already about halfway across my field of view (assuming it was travelling in a straight line) when I spotted it. Interesting account you have there. The same/similar object? Perhaps. Thanks for the comment about a "decent shot" but that's not true is it? It's terrible! It just looks like an orange dot on the photo, you don't really get the sense of closeness. It seemed an awful lot nearer than the pic suggests, to my memory.


fooffstarr - Sorry about my avatar, but I wish I owned a guitar store! Anyway, no offence taken, but it was definitely not Venus or any other celestial body. As I said in my opening post it was at the height I would normally see helicopters in the area flying at (I see them a lot as Aberdeen airport is where most traffic to the UK's North Sea oil rigs leaves from) well within the Earth's atmosphere. It was travelling way too fast for a planet, and it was at too low an altitude to be a satellite. That makes me think I should also point out that the 'naked flame' was flickering upwards, not in a 'tail-like' fashion, so I don't thin it was space debris re-entering either!


caitlinfae - Deeside eh? If you see the Big Yin going around tell him I said Hi! I'm afraid I'm utterly useless at judging speeds so I can't really say exactly how fast it was going. A bit faster than a helicopter I suppose but with no sound. I'll try and illustrate for you...




Between the points on the 'flight path' marked with an 'X' took about 15-20 seconds I think.

I know I keep saying things about helicopters, and 'Occam's razor' would lead most people to say that's what it was but I see helicopters flying over here several times a day - it wasn't one! I'm sure the neds who saw it have seen plenty of choppers too, otherwise they wouldn't have been photographing the thing!

reply to post by Smugallo


Thanks for your reply, but it was flying waaaaay too low to be a satellite. I always see lights in the sky, and of all those lights this is only the third one (in 20+ years of looking) that I can't dismiss as a plane/helicopter/satellite/ISS/celestial body etc. If I thought for even a second that there was the possibility of it being one of those things I wouldn't have posted about it at all.

We see them everyday.
Its hard to get decent pics of them, without high quality photographic equipment.
I know this.
Thanks for posting this for us to look at.
Another Lights in the sky phenomenon.
Thanks for your effort in posting buddy

reply to post by sotp


its a decent shot because its off the cuff, at night and you got the buildings in it and they give some sense of perspective.
And youve captured the color, there isnt much in the skies that is that orange.

what direction was it going in relation to the prevailing wind direction.

I had completely forgotten about the odd orange light i saw till i saw your pic.
I even looked for the fire the next day, and it should have been still going but wasnt.

must be a glitch in the matrix




[edit on 1-3-2009 by punkinworks09]

reply to post by sotp


Ha! The Big Yin! I forgot he lives around here somewhere....I will say hi for you if I ever run into him.

As for speed of the object...thank you for the information, and I was trying to work out how much ground it had covered in the 20 seconds or so...let's assume the road is about 10 metres wide, maybe a little less. My best guess would be about 60 metres overall distance in 20 seconds, between the two red X's...so...if I get this right, it works out at about 11km an hour at this rate. I hope I got the arithmetic correct! That's kinda slow for an aircraft. Just thinking out loud.

SOTP,
Well done for getting a shot off in such a short period.
For what it worth here is my opinion.
Helicopter - very low chance....ABZ choppers at Dyce dont normally fly at night and dont fly over the town either.
Satellite, doubt it very much as they travel in straight orbits around the earth and at high altitudes, I saw your photo with the house top for scale and you would not have even seen a satellite on that same photo.... far too far away to show up on the camera image.
Anyway like I said, well done.... you deserve a medal for getting your camera out in front of them chavs......


PEACE,
RK

This is by far one of the most excellent, straight to the point and positive vibed reports i've come across. I admire your eye for detail and I can actually trust in what you describe. I have also seen something along the lines of what you've witnessed here in South Wales.

I was dropping my girlfriend home and decided to take the country lanes, this was roughly 9:35pm. It was a fairly overcast night (as usual here in Wales) when we saw this bright orange, almost flame-like object in the sky. It was visible for roughly 15-20 seconds but however appeared to decend and zig-zagged at about the same speed as you'd expect to see a helicopter travel. It decended behid a could and that was the last we saw of it.

I'd pulled over and we both got out of the car, the object made no sound. I didn't think to get my phone out and take a picture as I was still trying to work out exactly what I was seeing. I am a major aviation enthusiast and believe me, that was nothing I am familar with.

It is possible that it is a weather balloon.

We do occasionally launch orange balloons as well as the ordinary white balloons. The speed and trajectory make sense, but its hard to say what it is with certainty

reply to post by punkinworks09


I don't think there was much of a breeze at all. At least I don't remember any, seemed like a nice night to be honest


reply to post by Rigel Kent


Thanks RK! Yeah that's kind of what I thought too. I don't know what it was but I'm fairly certain I know what it wasn't! And the chavs around Newmachar are more 'chav-lite' that regular chavs, they probably would have run if I shouted "BOO!" at them, but why take the chance?

reply to post by Shuzitzu


Aw dude yer making me blush!
Thanks for your kind words. I've seen many a sub-par report or photo over the years. Bearing that in mind I just tried to post as much information as I could think of. If only I got more photos or video! Glad to see you've had a sighting yourself. Shame you didn't get a photo but to be honest I'm surprised I thought of grabbing my phone at all and didn't just stand there gawking at the thing!

reply to post by OzWeatherman


A weather balloon? I'd seriously laugh my ass off if it turned out to be something so cliched!
It may well have been a weather balloon but I didn't think those had flames, and as I said I didn't see any kind of membrane or structure, just the flame itself.

Great picture.

Several people I know have seen such UFOs. I am positive if more people bothered looking up at the sky instead of being so self-absorbed and absent-minded, the number of UFO sightings would skyrocket.

Greetings

[edit on 2-3-2009 by TheWriter]