Saw Something 12/2/2012

Hello all,

As fascinating as I find the story's of UFOs I would not consider myself a believer, However I spotted something while going to work today that I can not explain and because I was driving I could not take any pictures and the fact that it was only for an instant did not give me time to anyway.

I was driving to work at about 6:30 pm heading east into Burnley in Lancashire UK when all of the sudden up on the right of my windshield it was like someone had turned on a light bulb, it was instantaneous that it lite up and just sat there for a couple of seconds then in a 45 degree angle or there a bouts it just took off like a bat out of hell and it did not appear to be getting further away but just smaller until it disappeared.

now I have made a gif of what it looked like somewhat. as close as this is to what it looked like when it took off was actually about a 10 times faster.

Oh and the grey area at the bottom of the picture is about where my dash was... You have to scroll right on picture to see what i saw.


this gif to me looks like it is going away from me but when I saw it it just looked like to me it was actually just getting smaller until it was gone.

If anyone was around Burnley at that time and saw this let me know. The grey area at bottom is about where my dash was.

Looks like a passing car's tail lights reflecting off your windshield.

i live in colne which is round 10 minutes from burnley and i have seen these things on a number times and i find it strange myself as to what they are. I am a bit of star gazer and love to point out which stars are which to my two daughters at night.

reply to post by Sakrateri


is the gif color accurate? it was an orange-red orb?

reply to post by Sakrateri

it did not appear to be getting further away but just smaller until it disappeared.

Disregarding the odd wording... Would you say this indeed was "going away" from you, or actually getting smaller?

And it went very, very fast? Good eye.

So deep red / slightly orange maybe? Very interesting. That exact shape?. Would you liken it to maybe a jellly bean, or more of an oblong sphere?

My girlfriend saw something very similar. I saw your gif before reading your actual thread, and got excited until I realized the white dots were stars and not other UFOs.

Anyway, glad you were lucky to spot something like this.

Welcome to the club.

something about the dash is odd.... looks like a heavy flash was on. if so, shouldnt there have been a reflection in the window?

As has been mentioned, alluded to and even suggested, a big problem when witnessing any strange lights in the sky while inside a vehicle, a building, or any structure where one is viewing the event through glass, internal window reflections need be considered.

At night, depth perception is not as precise as in the day.
Add to this, many people driving in the evening are tired, coming home from a day's work.

It sounds ridiculous that someone might mistake a common internal window reflection from another passing auto, or some other light source for something up in the sky, but, it is indeed a mistake that people make.
Due that depth perception impairment at night that all people suffer from, it's not uncommon to mistake a close reflection on the interior surface of the windscreen or whatever glass you're looking through, for something up in the sky.

You may very well have seen something very interesting. We won't know for sure.

If you happen to witness something similar again, please, by all means, do a simple check by lowering your side windows, and looking out with no glass between you and what you see.
If inside a house, go outside to confirm it's not a trick of the window glass.
Whatever the case and situation might be, ensure there is no glass between you and the event you are viewing.

If you wear prescription lenses, tilt them forward and back to change the reflection and refraction angle such that if they are the culprit, then, you'll notice the immediate change from angular adjustments.

reply to post by Socrato


if that was the case then the light reflection would go down
i do drive

looks like an 8-bit game haha. but yeah red ships? interesting.

Hi again, It was indeed an oval egg shape and it did have a yellowish center, the red was pulsing and the yellow was steady from what I could see,

I wasn't tired as I work at night and was on my way to work not home.

as I was coming to an exit traffic was slowing and immediately seeing this I stopped and my first thought was maybe a tail light so i looked back into the other lanes and there was no traffic that looked close enough to produce the lights or even close enough as the lanes are separated by four lanes then a barrier and then the opposite traffic. Not saying it was not but do not see how.

this was defiantly getting smaller not further away until it just disappeared.




And to the one that said should see a reflection on my windscreen from the camera, way to be with the program!

Originally posted by bknapple32
something about the dash is odd.... looks like a heavy flash was on. if so, shouldnt there have been a reflection in the window?

I hope that was a joke

I saw two solid red lights flying across the sky silently a few years ago. I finally put it down to it being two planes of some sort but there were no strobes or pulsating lights so in the back of my mind there is still some uncertainty as to what I saw. The GIF reminded me of that although your description is different to what I saw.

Originally posted by fiftyfifty

Originally posted by bknapple32
something about the dash is odd.... looks like a heavy flash was on. if so, shouldnt there have been a reflection in the window?

I hope that was a joke

I saw two solid red lights flying across the sky silently a few years ago. I finally put it down to it being two planes of some sort but there were no strobes or pulsating lights so in the back of my mind there is still some uncertainty as to what I saw. The GIF reminded me of that although your description is different to what I saw.

It was, Im glad someone got it.