Unidentified Flying Object!

[alan nagsworth]

I was just out in a car with 3 of the lads parked up on some street, we were chatting away and one of us catches sight of something in the sky, so we all had a look to see what it was. We watched a ball of fire floating about 50 metres in the air, about the size of a beach ball. It was hovering round in circles for about 2 minutes, then it floated off for about half a mile before we lost sight of it. It was clearly aflame the whole time and everything.

I've just got home and searched my local paper's website for similar sightings and came up with this: http://www.tamworthherald.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=159453&command=displayContent&sourceNode=159436&contentPK=18175056&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch
which explains some other sighting, and then goes on to talk about someone else witnessing bright orange lights. I'm currently trying to find the letter about that incident, but just wanted to post this up. I'm fascinated!

[alan nagsworth]

Fucking hell. I've just found this: http://ufologie.net/press2/tamworthherald9sep2004.htm

LAST Wednesday night, at around 11.35pm, I was walking along the river walk near Tamworth's bowling alley when I noticed three balls of fire in the sky. Has anybody reported seeing anything similar?

There was no sound and I couldn't see any clear shape.

They came over the castle, not moving very fast, and turned right and climbed steeply upwards, eventually disappearing from sight.

Is the army carrying out tests on anything? Was there any hot air balloons flying in formation?

There were two other people sitting on a bench, who I told about it. They also saw this.

I will be interested to hear any comments in the near future.

This is exactly what I saw...

EDIT: I should mention the Tamworth mentioned in the above quote is the Tamworth where I live.

[Benevolent Despot]

Meh, it's probably just ball lightning - the rather boring as-yet-unexplained natural phenomenon of super heated balls of plasma wandering randomly around the atmosphere.

That or it was a very hot little spaceship.

Wikipedia page that probably contains more reliable sources somewhere on it - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning

[alan nagsworth]

Hmm, I'm not sure. That does clear a few things up, but on that Wikipedia page, it says

It is sometimes associated with thunderstorms, but unlike lightning flashes arcing between two points, which last a small fraction of a second, ball lightning reportedly lasts many seconds.

There no evident signs of a thunderstorm, it's been boiling all day, and this was a lot more than "many seconds". it was a good 5 minutes in total. I'm not saying this isn't ball lightning, but it still intrigues me a lot.

[Eight Taiwanese Teenagers]

"waspy's wife is a very hot little spaceship" - hilarious!!


My guess about your UFOs is that they are flying lanterns that someone's setting off - like this http://www.ribbands.co.uk/prdpages/lantern.htm

[Viero_Berlotti]

I saw a flying bin-bag once, and I was on drugs. Do I get 50p?

[alan nagsworth]

No, no, no! It wasn't a flying lantern. They just keep going up, and I don't know if it's synonymous with all flying lanterns, but some burn up and release sparks like a firework. This thing was in the same spot, going round in a little circle, for a good couple of minutes before floating off until it was a speck, and then it disappeared behing some houses.

[chocky909]

Hopefully someone caught them on video. Check Youtube over the next couple of days. Didn't you have a mobile on you?

[alan nagsworth]

Yeah, but we were gawping at it for ages, I went to get a video and took a photo by mistake that wasnt zoomed in, and the image quality was shit anyway. You could make out the light but not the fire or anything, so I didn't bother...

[Santa's Boyfriend]

Is there a military base nearby?

[Eight Taiwanese Teenagers]

No, no, no! It wasn't a flying lantern. They just keep going up, and I don't know if it's synonymous with all flying lanterns, but some burn up and release sparks like a firework. This thing was in the same spot, going round in a little circle, for a good couple of minutes before floating off until it was a speck, and then it disappeared behing some houses.

Yes it was. It was just weird wind/thermals that made it go in a strange pattern.

[SetToStun]

Yes it was. It was just weird wind/thermals that made it go in a strange pattern.

That's just not logical, I'm afraid. Why invent completely unlikely "thermals" and "winds" when it can be explained away by perfectly simple means of unknown alien species with intergalactic propulsion systems who have no wish to either hide from us or contact us and then vanish behind some houses. In Tamworth.

[ersatz all folks]

Maybe you saw the burner of a hot air balloon - although I doubt anyone would fly one at night unless they were lost.

[alan nagsworth]

Psh, you science types. Trying to prove there's no god, and they you go and blame a bizarre phenomenon on all of god's laws?! J'accuse!

Honestly though if someone told me they had seen something like that I would laugh, but I knows what I saw. If it was a flying lantern, it would have kept ascending, even if it stayed in relatively the same position like I said it did. There's no wind blowing completely vertically down to stop things from floating away. I wish you weren't all so skeptical, this has got me pretty intrigued.

[Mr. Analytical]

Can I just point out that the term is "sceptic" or "sceptical", not "skeptical".  That's the way the Americans spell it.

[alan nagsworth]

Wowzer! You just saved me from total humiliation. I can't think of an apt way to thank you for such a feat, so I won't.

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

Wank him off with a poo covered hand.

[alan nagsworth]

What? What the fuck does that even mean?

[hencole]

Chineese lanterns are always the answer to VW UFO sightings. Slow moving on air currents, orange in colour, seen alone and in groups. Disapear off into the sky.

[Uncle TechTip]

If these things were really alien visitors then surely that proves there is no God, unless we want to recalculate the amount of time he spent creating the universe. There's no mention of aliens in the Bible which, if they do exist, is a bit remiss of Him

[surreal]

If these things were really alien visitors then surely that proves there is no God, unless we want to recalculate the amount of time he spent creating the universe. There's no mention of aliens in the Bible which, if they do exist, is a bit remiss of Him

Actually the Book of Ezekiel contains references to wheels of fire in the sky, regarded by some ufologists to be the first documented ufo sighting.

[Huzzie]

Yes Surreal!

The bible can completely be re-read as a "hello" from Alien life. As can many religions. The Dogon tribe are the most recent and possibly most interesting.

Anyway, this was obviously just some greys fucking Steve Fossets head

[Charles Charlie Charles]

Cheers. Nagsworth, you could've posted this in the moribund Science/Speculative Science/Sci-Fi thread I started.

Storms off board, stage left

[biggytitbo]

Yes Surreal!

The bible can completely be re-read as a "hello" from Alien life. As can many religions. The Dogon tribe are the most recent and possibly most interesting.

Can it? We pretty much know who wrote the bible, why, when, and the political and historical context in which it was written. What have aliens got to do with it? Many of the ancients were amongst other things phenomonaly good astronomers and just as clever as the most brilliant people alive today. We don't have to invent far fetched extra terrestrial explantions for their knowledge, our ancestors were incredibly clever people who may well have known far more than we have tradionally given them credit for, but as an explantion for this knowledge, Aliens are by far the least convincing.

It's a well known fact that the modern UFO as alien spaceship myth was largely created and nurtured by the US military as a smokescreen for their top secret cold war experiments. People are still falling for it 50 years later.  Hasn't this been more or less admitted now?

As for the fireball, could it have been a pigeon on fire?

[Charles Charlie Charles]

could it have been a pigeon on fire?

The best question asked so far in this thread. Sir, I salute you!

[Huzzie]

Good post Biggy. I was flippent in my own, I wanted to come back to it a bit later, more seriously. Please let us just have my tea and I would like to reply to you.

[Catalogue Trousers]

You didn't spot any of these guys, did you?



If you did, do a quick count of your internal organs and holler for SHADO!

[nixon]

You didn't spot any of these guys, did you?



If you did, do a quick count of your internal organs and holler for SHADO!

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/lol.marcus/ufo.mp3