This ain't a meteor, damnit...
Doc
Jan 5 2010 by Sarah Bunney, South Wales Echo
Police visit grandad to see his 40-second tape of 'flaming UFO' flight
A GRANDFATHER rushed to grab his video camera after seeing what he thought
was a UFO racing through the skies above Pontyclun.
Brian Howells, 64, caught just under a minute of film on Sunday evening in
his back garden.
After locking up his summer house, he turned around to walk back into his
house - and was startled by the sight of a strange shape in the sky.
Mr Howells, who lives with his wife Mary and son Stephen, saw what he
thought was orange flames coming from the object.
He said: "I looked up to the sky and couldn't believe my eyes.
"It was about 5.50pm so it was fairly dark, and I saw this big ball of fire
moving quite quickly and silently.
"I called Mary to have a look and then grabbed my video camera."
But as the couple had just returned from a holiday in Belgium, there was
only 40 seconds left on the tape to capture any film.
"First of all, we thought it was a plane on fire," said Mr Howells, a
retired manager at an upholstery firm.
"We are on the flight path from Cardiff Airport, so it's nothing unusual to
see planes coming overhead.
"But as there were flames coming out of the side and back, Mary and I
panicked and thought the plane was in trouble."
So he phoned Cardiff International Airport to ask whether there had been any
emergencies in the area.
The security department had not had any reports, but told him to try South
Wales Police and ask them.
A local police officer visited Mr Howells to see the footage, and got in
touch with RAF Kinloss in Scotland, which tracks all objects in the sky.
They identified it as a meteor.
When Mr Howells told his 10-year-old granddaughter Jessica, who lives with
his daughter Angela and her four-year-old brother Jack in Hereford, the
young sci-fi fan didn't believe what her grandad was saying.
He said: "Jessica is mad on Doctor Who, and she kept saying, 'You're fibbing
Bamps!' - she was gobsmacked."
But despite the spooky goings-on above his garden, Mr Howells said he was
sceptical about there being life in outer space.
"I think there's always an explanation for UFO sightings," he said.
"I've got a telescope and I often have a peep out of it at the stars, but
this is the first time I've seen anything like this. I believe in God, but
not aliens."
A spokesperson for South Wales Police said: "At around 6pm on January 3,
South Wales Police received a call from a member of the public in Pontyclun
reporting a large ball of fire in the sky.
"Officers contacted the RAF who confirmed there has been meteorite activity
at the time of the call from the member of the public."
Meteor showers are quite common in the first days of a New Year. Quadrantid
showers occur on January 3 and 4 every year and are quite visible to the
naked eye.
Brian Spink from the Swansea Astronomical Society said: "They are very sharp
showers and for amateurs to see them they'd have to be somewhere without
street lighting."
Secretary of Cardiff's Astronomical Society, Dave Powell said that meteors -
or shooting stars as they are often known as - are shards of debris burning
up in the atmosphere at great speed and can often been seen up to 100 times
per hour.
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skypoetone wrote:
There are lots of things absurd about this report, I will highlight a
few of them; firstly Mr. Brian Spink of the Swansea Astronomical Society is
correct - shooting stars are very small to the naked eye and seen as streaks
of light which fade in seconds. not "big ball of fire" or looking like "a
plane on fire" with "flames coming out of the side and back", thus Cardiff
International Airport would surely have known the difference between the
two. (?)
I'm sure Mr. Howells is a very intelligent man but he made a
contradiction in terms: "I believe in God, but not aliens". 'God' is the
ultimate alien. He also stated that he was "sceptical about there being life
in outer space". Mr Howells - We ARE life in outer space.
6/1/2010 1:46 AM GMT on walesonline.co.uk
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steven1 wrote:
i also have seen the same light around the same time,i filmed it with
my mobile phone, there was 3 orange lights going the same direction,its not
the first time i have seen them,i saw one real close, it was just in one
place then started to move off and being followed by a helicopter at 3am on
26/12/08,i reported it to my local paper,i wasn't the only person to see it.
6/1/2010 10:56 AM GMT on walesonline.co.uk
Hogwash from the police. A fireball would not be in sight for more
than a few seconds at most. This thing apparently moved much slower,
inviting a comparison to a plane approaching.
Somebody's hiding something here.
Doc
◙ Wally☻☺☻
Hang on a mo there, Gary. Iz there a link so we can all see the
thing ?!??!
Ta ~! ☻
HOOROO
WALLY
▬
Doc
"◙ Wally☻☺☻" <sgde...@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
news:39f5cb92-370f-4ad0...@k19g2000yqc.googlegroups.com...
Ta ~! ☻
HOOROO
WALLY
▬
Naaah...no video...at least, not yet anywhere. But, here's the link I
forgot...
A fireball would be out of view so quickly that a guy wouldn't have enough
time to go and grab a camera and no meteor stays in sight 40 seconds. You
can tell from the description this wasn't a meteor, yet here, as usual, we
have an 'expert' from some sceptical astronomical group making a ridiculous
statement, and the cops not knowing a meteor from a 4th of July sparkler.
Doc
Werewolfy
> "◙ Wally☻☺☻" <sgdec2...@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
>
> A fireball would be out of view so quickly that a guy wouldn't have enough
> time to go and grab a camera and no meteor stays in sight 40 seconds. You
> can tell from the description this wasn't a meteor, yet here, as usual, we
> have an 'expert' from some sceptical astronomical group making a ridiculous
> statement, and the cops not knowing a meteor from a 4th of July sparkler.
>
> - Show quoted text -
Another Welshman....left his sheep and his beer. Never believe a
'Taffy'.
Werewolfy