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poliphiloLast night I saw something quite extraordinary.
I'd stepped outside the door at around 12.15 to perform a first footing- a quaint northern English custom where you ensure your luck for the year by making sure the first person to enter the house is a friend- in this case myself- when I noticed a very bright orange light coming towards me from the north. It didn't look like the lights of an airplane, it wasn't on any recognised flightpath and it was entirely silent. Then I noticed there were others. They kept coming up over the northern horizon- not in any obvious formation but all on the same trajectory, north to south. Our house faces north so some of them seemed to be making directly towards me. Others were following the same straight course across a wide stretch of sky to the east. There were none visible to the west. As they passed the zenith they disappeared- I looked out the back window and there was nothing to see- which suggests they were craft with a light at the front- which became invisible as soon as their backs were turned. I watched them for about 20 minutes- and during that time there was always one in view and sometimes there were as many as four. I should have counted them but I was too excited to do anything quite so methodical- so I can only estimate their number. Twenty perhaps- maybe thirty- and of course there could well have been others that flew over before I started to take notice. They travelled fast. I estimate they covered the mistance between horizon and zenith in about a minute. I have no way of estimating their height .
They weren't fireworks- there were plenty of fireworks going off at the time to compare them with- I'm pretty certain they weren't meteors or anything like that- and they weren't like any kind of plane I've ever seen.
I'd stepped outside the door at around 12.15 to perform a first footing- a quaint northern English custom where you ensure your luck for the year by making sure the first person to enter the house is a friend- in this case myself- when I noticed a very bright orange light coming towards me from the north. It didn't look like the lights of an airplane, it wasn't on any recognised flightpath and it was entirely silent. Then I noticed there were others. They kept coming up over the northern horizon- not in any obvious formation but all on the same trajectory, north to south. Our house faces north so some of them seemed to be making directly towards me. Others were following the same straight course across a wide stretch of sky to the east. There were none visible to the west. As they passed the zenith they disappeared- I looked out the back window and there was nothing to see- which suggests they were craft with a light at the front- which became invisible as soon as their backs were turned. I watched them for about 20 minutes- and during that time there was always one in view and sometimes there were as many as four. I should have counted them but I was too excited to do anything quite so methodical- so I can only estimate their number. Twenty perhaps- maybe thirty- and of course there could well have been others that flew over before I started to take notice. They travelled fast. I estimate they covered the mistance between horizon and zenith in about a minute. I have no way of estimating their height .
They weren't fireworks- there were plenty of fireworks going off at the time to compare them with- I'm pretty certain they weren't meteors or anything like that- and they weren't like any kind of plane I've ever seen.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 10:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 10:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 11:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 12:17 pm (UTC)Still, you've sown a seed of doubt.
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Date: 2010-01-01 12:50 pm (UTC)Anyway, given that hundreds of people were letting them off last night (like these guys, for instance), it does seem the most logical explanation, doesn't it? I'm afraid people often mistake them for UFOs, as the comments on this video also show.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 02:04 pm (UTC)They didn't pass behind clouds because the sky was clear, but I suppose they could all have conked out at the same distance from their launching point.
Are the things on those videos the things I saw last night? I need to get hold of some ballons myself and conduct an experiment....
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Date: 2010-01-01 04:51 pm (UTC)http://www.forteantimes.com/strangedays/ufofiles/2374/fires_in_the_sky.html
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Date: 2010-01-01 09:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 10:01 pm (UTC)They're not commonly available in the US; I keep trying to build my own with dry cleaning bags, soda straws and birthday cake candles. No success yet.
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Date: 2010-01-02 10:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 11:47 am (UTC)Happy new year to you too xxx
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Date: 2010-01-01 12:22 pm (UTC)I don't think these were ballons- for two reasons. One: they didn't float, but travelled in a straight line at speed. Two: They disappeared as they passed over head- suggesting that the light was only visible at the front of the object- which wouldn't be the case with balloons.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 12:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 12:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 12:28 pm (UTC)(I have stuff to say about this, but I can't quite find the words. I DO believe there is life 'out there' and that we may well be watched. I also think we may well be found disappointing and immature.)
Happy New Year.
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Date: 2010-01-01 12:48 pm (UTC)I believe in "life out there" as well.
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Date: 2010-01-01 01:30 pm (UTC)Like you, I do believe that there are other worlds out there where intelligent life is likely to exist, and I do believe that if we do not destroy ourselves first there will be a future contact either here or there or somewhere in the space between.
I gather that you are feeling better after being under the weather - Wednesday was it?
Happy New Year to you.
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Date: 2010-01-01 03:43 pm (UTC)Yes, I had a 24 hour stomach bug but I'm better now.
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Date: 2010-01-01 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-02 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 03:58 pm (UTC)I've never seen the Chinese lantern balloons, so I have no basis for comparison, but I'm hoping that there isn't so mundane an explanation.
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Date: 2010-01-01 06:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 06:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 07:19 pm (UTC)Thank you for clarifying a line in Dave Goulder's "Boy in Winter." I had always heard "First footing friends begin the day," but I assumed it was a mondegreen; I was unfamiliar with the custom. Now I know.
Visited or unvisited by stranger guests, Happy New Year!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-01 09:24 pm (UTC)Happy New Year!
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Date: 2010-01-02 05:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-02 10:57 am (UTC)UFOs
Date: 2010-01-02 05:56 am (UTC)Isn't it cheating to go first-footing into your own door? And aren't you supposed to carry a lump of coal?
Re: UFOs
Date: 2010-01-02 10:59 am (UTC)Yes, it is cheating to do it yourself. As a Southerner I'm afraid I don't take the tradition very seriously.
Re: UFOs
Date: 2010-01-30 09:10 pm (UTC)This link for you!
Date: 2010-01-05 01:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-30 09:10 pm (UTC)