amber lights on slow moving UFO in Cambridge last night
Lyndsay
amber light move across the sky, I thought aircraft had re/green
flashing lights on wingtips. I think it was going West.
Other people in another part of Cambridge also saw it.
Did not seem to have the form factor of a Chinese lantern, as was
moving in a straight line.
What might it have been?
Lyndsay
Tim Ward
news:2b08df81-8691-43cd...@t16g2000vbi.googlegroups.com...
> We were in the Old Spring pub about 9pm and noticed a very slow moving
> amber light move across the sky, I thought aircraft had re/green
> flashing lights on wingtips.
Nope. And different types of flying machine have different sets of lights -
this is all in the Air Law text books, and I'm sure there will be a site
with pictures somewhere.
Once Upon A Time I saw a patter of lights over Cambridge which I thought,
according to the text book I was learning for the exam at the time,
"according to the lights that's an airship, which has got to be nonsense".
Next day there were newspaper reports that an airship has flown over
Cambridge the previous night.
--
Tim Ward - posting as an individual unless otherwise clear
Brett Ward Limited - www.brettward.co.uk
Cambridge Accommodation Notice Board - www.brettward.co.uk/canb
CWatters
How could a chinese lantern (or glow stick in a helium balloon) not move
in a straight line?
Lyndsay
wrote:
There was almost no wind last night, and the object was smoothly
ascending vertically, it appeared to be under power.
But you might be correct.
Lyn
Espen Koht
<2b08df81-8691-43cd...@t16g2000vbi.googlegroups.com>,
Lyndsay <sens...@gmail.com> wrote:
> We were in the Old Spring pub about 9pm and noticed a very slow moving
> amber light move across the sky,
We saw a very brilliant and distinct pass of the International Space
Station just before 9.30 last night, but the direction was W to E, and
although this was quite high in the sky and quite a long pass, I
wouldn't call it slow (think 'commercial jet speed'), or confuse it with
a Chinese lantern:
<http://www.heavens-above.com/PassDetails.asp?lat=52.21076&lng=0.11304&lo
c=Cambridge&alt=0&tz=GMT&satid=25544&date=40654.8526913426>
Theo Markettos
> We were in the Old Spring pub about 9pm and noticed a very slow moving
> amber light move across the sky, I thought aircraft had re/green
> flashing lights on wingtips. I think it was going West.
You sure it wasn't the police helicopter? That has a tendency to hover, and
cast yellowish light in different directions depending on which way they're
pointing the searchlight.
Theo
Lyndsay
wrote:
Hi Theo, the police helicopters make a lot of noise. This was
something in flight with no noise detected on ground, so caught my
attention and also friends.
Still mystified.
lyn
Espen Koht
<b6d88c28-d5b7-44ab...@e8g2000vbz.googlegroups.com>,
Lyndsay <sens...@gmail.com> wrote:
Lyn,
We saw the ISS again tonight just before 10 tonight (confirmed on
heavens-above.com) followed by two distinctly amber lights at a 5 minute
intervals at similar speed in roughly the opposite direction, matching
your observations from yesterday shortly thereafter. Weird.
tony sayer
Espen Koht <eh...@cam.ac.uk> scribeth thus
Video at all?.
--
Tony Sayer
Jules Richardson
> We saw a very brilliant and distinct pass of the International Space
> Station just before 9.30 last night, but the direction was W to E, and
> although this was quite high in the sky and quite a long pass, I
> wouldn't call it slow (think 'commercial jet speed')
Yes, I watched it go overhead a little while ago, chased by the Shuttle -
I was quite surprised at how quickly it was moving.
cheers
Jules
Fevric J. Glandules
> Hi Theo, the police helicopters make a lot of noise. This was
> something in flight with no noise detected on ground, so caught my
> attention and also friends.
AFAICWO, if a helicopter is quite high up, and the wind's going the
right way, you don't hear anything.
They used to keep tabs on major "players" in Northern Ireland,
using choppers with high-power scopes, and a bunch of cars
being driven at lunatic speeds, according to:
The Operators: On the Streets with Britain's Most Secret Service, James
Rennie, 2004
The aim was that the surveillance remained undetectable.
Espen Koht
tony sayer <to...@bancom.co.uk> wrote:
No, not something I would considering video-worthy to be honest.
Lyndsay
> In article <2nbO3tPnyqsNF...@bancom.co.uk>,
> tony sayer <t...@bancom.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > In article <ehk20-F241EA.00541723042...@nnrp.chiark.greenend.org.uk>,> > ><b6d88c28-d5b7-44ab-9d32-fc8521155...@e8g2000vbz.googlegroups.com>,
If I had thought at the time it was noteworthy would have captured it
with iphone 4 video , logging time, GPS location and direction my
camera was facing , but I didn't.
Still very curious.
Lyn
Alan Braggins
>"Lyndsay" <sens...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>news:2b08df81-8691-43cd...@t16g2000vbi.googlegroups.com...
>> We were in the Old Spring pub about 9pm and noticed a very slow moving
>> amber light move across the sky, I thought aircraft had re/green
>> flashing lights on wingtips.
>
>Nope. And different types of flying machine have different sets of lights -
>this is all in the Air Law text books, and I'm sure there will be a site
>with pictures somewhere.
>
>Once Upon A Time I saw a patter of lights over Cambridge which I thought,
>according to the text book I was learning for the exam at the time,
>"according to the lights that's an airship, which has got to be nonsense".
>Next day there were newspaper reports that an airship has flown over
>Cambridge the previous night.
My father-in-law said that when he was in the Navy the exam question
on lights which almost no-one got had the correct answer "a seaplane,
flying upside-down".
Chris Shore
"Alan Braggins" <ar...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote in message
news:slrnird4v...@chiark.greenend.org.uk...
> My father-in-law said that when he was in the Navy the exam question
> on lights which almost no-one got had the correct answer "a seaplane,
> flying upside-down".
Or my personal favourite - "you see two orange lights, one ahead and one
astern, flashing
isophase. Where are you?" The answer is "aground, on a zebra crossing."
Chris
Bob
On a related concept, I have been caught out in the past when sailing on
the Solent thinking the Southsea to Ryde hovercraft was bearing down on me
when a JCB was driving along the Ryde seafront after dark.
Robin
John Aldridge
19a7fd...@t16g2000vbi.googlegroups.com>, sens...@gmail.com says...
I saw something matching that description from Queen Edith's Way around
9:04 this evening (except there were two such lights, about 5 degrees
apart, one following the other). The yellowish colour was notable.
Fairly low in the sky, to the east, moving south. Faded out (perhaps
behind low haze) after a while. Moving about the speed of an LEO
satellite or aircraft. I got the impression that the lights weren't
quite point-like, but can't be certain.
I also saw the ISS pass a couple of minutes later, so it wasn't that!
--
Cheers,
John
John Aldridge
no....@jjdash.demon.co.uk says...
> I saw something matching that description from Queen Edith's Way
around
Er, Sunday evening. This post stuck in the outbox for two days, sorry.
--
Cheers,
John
T.J. Fitzmaurice
> In article <2b08df81-8691-43cd-b30d-
> 19a7fd...@t16g2000vbi.googlegroups.com>, sens...@gmail.com says...
>> We were in the Old Spring pub about 9pm and noticed a very slow moving
>> amber light move across the sky, I thought aircraft had re/green
> I saw something matching that description from Queen Edith's Way around
> 9:04 this evening (except there were two such lights, about 5 degrees
> apart, one following the other). The yellowish colour was notable.
> Fairly low in the sky, to the east, moving south. Faded out (perhaps
Just as an idea, at one do at the rugby club several people put up these
chinese lanterns that you open up, light and let drift away on the wind
with a burning tealight providing the hot point. I have seen these things
being launched more frequently recently
The descriptions above match how the ones I have seen look once they get a
distance away from you. Perhaps it was some of those - a birthday party
or something?
Tim
Espen H. Koht
<alpine.LSU.2.00.1...@hermes-2.csi.cam.ac.uk>,
"T.J. Fitzmaurice" <tj...@cam.ac.uk> wrote:
I was working on the assumption they were Chinese lanterns; and chalk it
up to an odd coincidence that they came by just before or just after the
ISS passed overhead, two nights in a row.
Chris Shore
"Espen H. Koht" <eh...@cam.ac.uk> wrote in message news:ehk20-
> I was working on the assumption they were Chinese lanterns; and chalk it
> up to an odd coincidence that they came by just before or just after the
> ISS passed overhead, two nights in a row.
Maybe they're dropping them from the ISS?
Chris
Tony Finch
>
>Or my personal favourite - "you see two orange lights, one ahead and
>one astern, flashing isophase. Where are you?" The answer is
>"aground, on a zebra crossing."
I don't think Belisha beacons are in isophase.
Tony.
--
f.anthony.n.finch <d...@dotat.at> http://dotat.at/
Bailey: Southwest 6 to gale 8, occasionally severe gale 9. High. Wintry
showers. Moderate or good.
rosen...@cix.compulink.co.uk
Finch) wrote:
> "Chris Shore" <chris...@arm.nospam.com> wrote:
> >
> >Or my personal favourite - "you see two orange lights, one ahead and
> >one astern, flashing isophase. Where are you?" The answer is
> >"aground, on a zebra crossing."
>
> I don't think Belisha beacons are in isophase.
If isophase means flashing together as I took it to do, then that is a
part of the legal specification apparently. They have to dig a trench
across the road to lay a cable to make them do so too. It's another albeit
small example where a requirement that is of limited benefit causes
disproportionate additional costs.
--
Colin Rosenstiel
Ben Harris
Tony Finch <d...@dotat.at> wrote:
>"Chris Shore" <chris...@arm.nospam.com> wrote:
>>
>>Or my personal favourite - "you see two orange lights, one ahead and
>>one astern, flashing isophase. Where are you?" The answer is
>>"aground, on a zebra crossing."
>
>I don't think Belisha beacons are in isophase.
"Isophase" means spending the same amount of time turned on as turned
off. The alternatives for navigation lights are "flashing" (mostly off)
and "occulting" (mostly on). I think that describes most Belisha
beacons (though the Regulations just say "flashing").
--
Ben Harris
Ben Harris
<rosen...@cix.compulink.co.uk> wrote:
>In article <cXr*b5...@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>, d...@dotat.at (Tony
>Finch) wrote:
>
>> "Chris Shore" <chris...@arm.nospam.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >Or my personal favourite - "you see two orange lights, one ahead and
>> >one astern, flashing isophase. Where are you?" The answer is
>> >"aground, on a zebra crossing."
>>
>> I don't think Belisha beacons are in isophase.
>
>If isophase means flashing together as I took it to do, then that is a
>part of the legal specification apparently.
I can't find any such requirement in the Zebra, Pelican and Puffin
Pedestrian Crossings Regulations and General Directions 1997. They just
(relevantly) say, "illuminated by a flashing light or, where the
Secretary of State so authorises in writing in relation to a particular
crossing a constant steady light".
Of course, it's possible that earlier regulations were stricter -- I've
not got convenient access to them.
--
Ben Harris
Tony Finch
>d...@dotat.at (Tony Finch) wrote:
>>
>> I don't think Belisha beacons are in isophase.
>
>If isophase means flashing together as I took it to do, then that is a
>part of the legal specification apparently.
Apparently not. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1997/2400/schedule/1/made
>They have to dig a trench across the road to lay a cable to make them
>do so too.
Or simply to supply electricity?
Tony.
--
f.anthony.n.finch <d...@dotat.at> http://dotat.at/
Bailey: Southeasterly 5 to 7, decreasing 3 or 4 at times later, and becoming
variable for a time in northwest. Moderate or rough. Occasional rain. Good,
occasionally poor.
rosen...@cix.compulink.co.uk
Finch) wrote:
> rosen...@cix.compulink.co.uk wrote:
> >d...@dotat.at (Tony Finch) wrote:
> >>
> >> I don't think Belisha beacons are in isophase.
> >
> >If isophase means flashing together as I took it to do, then that is a
> >part of the legal specification apparently.
>
> Apparently not.
> http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1997/2400/schedule/1/made
It's what I've been told in the past. Odd.
> >They have to dig a trench across the road to lay a cable to make them
> >do so too.
>
> Or simply to supply electricity?
Unlikely. Most pavements have electricity mains in.
--
Colin Rosenstiel
Robin Fairbairns
they weren't even trying! just think -- they _could_ have insisted that
all belisha beacons, everywhere in the country, flash in phase with one
another,
(i had a bee in my bonnet about this one, when i were but a slip of a
lad; i envisaged winning the foopball pools and giving the £75 000 to
the council for such a project.
in fact i never got as far as learning to waste money on foopball pools,
and my father convinced me that all the lights flashing in phase, like
that, would have undesirable hypnotic effects on drivers.)
--
Robin Fairbairns, Cambridge
my address is @cl.cam.ac.uk, regardless of the header. sorry about that.
Richard Meredith
rosen...@cix.compulink.co.uk () wrote:
> If isophase means flashing together as I took it to do, then that is
> a part of the legal specification apparently. They have to dig a
> trench across the road to lay a cable to make them do so too. It's
> another albeit small example where a requirement that is of limited
> benefit causes disproportionate additional costs.
In marine navigation isophase means that the on and off times of the light are
equal, as opposed to occulting (on time longer than off time ) or flashing (off
more than on).
RobertL
> We were in the Old Spring pub about 9pm and noticed a very slow moving
> amber light move across the sky, I thought aircraft had re/green
> Other people in another part of Cambridge also saw it.
> Did not seem to have the form factor of a Chinese lantern, as was
> moving in a straight line.
Iridium flare?
RObert