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My first UFO

Cuddles

Penultimate Amazing
C
Joined
Jul 28, 2006
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Well, I never thought I'd be making a thread like this. I actually saw my very first UFO last night, and it really has me stumped. It was at about 2230 (on 11/11) and I was driving south on the M40, near about Banbury. It was quite a clear night with plenty of stars visible and not many cars around to block them out.

What has me confused is an extremely bright, white light I could see in a vaguely southwest direction, about 3 degrees above the horizon. It was around magnitude -5 or lower, certainly brighter than any star or planet. It also seemed to be larger than a point, maybe 0.05 degrees, although it was hard to judge exactly since I was looking through a windscreen and it was a bit fuzzy. It didn't appear to be moving at all with respect to the stars, although I could only see it for about 20 seconds before it went behind a tree so it could have been moving very slowly. I didn't see it appear or disappear, I noticed it when it was already fully visible and it was hidden before it faded, if it did. By the time I got home half an hour later I couldn't work out if I should have been able to see it or if it would have been hidden, so I couldn't tell if it was still around.

I've checked all the obvious things to check. There were no planets in that direction, and only Mars and Uranus would have been visible anyway. There were no Iridium flares, the ISS wasn't visible and there weren't any other satellites around. It certainly didn't look like a planet or satellite, and since my father is a bit of an amateur astronomer I really shouldn't get caught out by that sort of thing. A comet would have been possible, but the only one currently visible is Holmes which is at magnitude +3, and in the wrong direction. The only things left that I can think of are helicopters and planes, but it didn't look or move like any that I've ever seen, especially since they normally have red and/or green and flash rather than being plain white. They also shouldn't be that bright unless it was actually shining a spotlight at me, which seems unlikely given that I was travelling at over 70mph and could see it for around 20 seconds and it would have had to follow me.

So, any takers? Or should I assume that I was abducted by aliens and the NWO have wiped my memory? I did forget to wear my tinfoil hat, which could have been a mistake.
 
Aircraft landing light.
They are easily visible at over ten miles on a clear night. If it was a small aircraft moving towards you at that sort of distance, you would not see the navigation lights.

If you were doing 70, it would be impossible for you to tell if it was moving, unless it was travelling at a significant angle to your heading.

You were looking in the direction of the whole London conurbation. Lots of aircraft activity, civilian and military. If it was a ufo- of any sort- it would be all over the news today.

ETA- Or it was a street light.
 
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I agree with Sam, aircraft landing lights is a plausible explanation. When the plane is heading directly to you, it gives the strong impression that it is a hovering and stationary light.

Take a look at THIS video (filmed in Santiago). Although Mr. Maussán is mystified watching alien ships, they are actually planes with landing lights on. Note that the lights seem to appear out of nowhere; it's just the planes making a turn towards the observer's position.

EDIT

Also, THIS POST by Outback Jack explains a lot about these kind of sightings.
 
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Possibly another alternative is that it may have been a planet or star that was magnified by the horizon, i.e. the harvest moon effect. You said it was on the southwestern horizon and in the time it took you to drive home it may not have been visible or below the horizon.
 
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As Cuddles said, Mars was the sole visible astronomical body remotely like his description and it would have been in Gemini, east of the motorway from his POV.

ETA- I once watched a similar light from a moving car in Saudi Arabia. We had it in sight for at least ten minutes, maybe fifteen. It was the landing light on a light aircraft overtaking us slowly- it was probably doing about 120mph, but we were doing 60 , so it took a long time to catch us. For much of the time it seemed to be standing still, but it was just perspective.
 
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Sadly, I'll probably have to accept the little green men plane explanation. I used to live near an airport and it really didn't look like any plane I've ever seen, but there's really nothing else it could have been.

I think it's actually rather nice that I've seen this. I've always stuggled to understand how people can be confused by simple things like planets and aircraft, but even though I've spent a lot of time studying astronomy, it was still pretty much impossible to tell what this was. I now have a lot more sympathy with people who think they've seen something unexplainable.

Edit:
Big Les said:
Could it have been comet 17P/Holmes? It recently exploded and got really bright (although I haven't seen it myself).
Click to expand...

No, I checked that. Holmes was only about magnitude 2 at it's brightest, and would have been east rather than west at that time.
 
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I remember my first UFO like it was yesterday. The green little guys with their big heads and black eyes -- the cold of that stainless steel anal probe -- the bright lights of the ship -- the skeptical look in the detectives eyes as I recounted my story after my safe return.

Welcome to the club!
 
Cuddles:

What you described sounds exactly like the aircraft landing lights I've seen. Specifically, the lights from Air Force C-130s coming in to the nearby air base. The landing lights are bright, they're like spotlights on the front of the plane. And even at moderate distances, they appear to be sitting still if they're coming towards you. It's an odd effect, and one that would make me wonder as well if I wasn't experienced with it :).

They fly around here fairly often; it's been a while since I've seen them, though (haven't travelled by the base in a while). I'd offer to get you a video, but I doubt I'd remember to bring the camera next time I head that way. I'll try to, though, just because it might be useful for others, later.
 
Sometimes UFO'S appear where there is a large amount of tectonic activity such as Volcanoes or earthquakes. I've observed newsreels of UFO'S comming out of a volcano near mexico city and scientists think they are a form of energy called plasma. Not extraterrestrial in origin.
 
Cuddles said:
Sadly, I'll probably have to accept the little green men plane explanation. I used to live near an airport and it really didn't look like any plane I've ever seen, but there's really nothing else it could have been.*snip*
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Excuse me, what do you mean, not like any plane you have seen? All you saw was a distant light. How do distant landing lights usually look, in your opinion?

I live (and drive to work) in one of the approach paths to CPH airport, and I see these things all the time. When they come straight at you, they seem to hover for long periods of time. And of course, they come on suddenly, either because the plane turns towards you, or because they actually turn on the lights. From experience when flying (I do a lot of that, these days), they may often turn on the landing lights when 15-20 minutes out, and as these lights are quite powerful, you will be able to see them from a considerable distance (30 miles wouldn't surprise me at all).

Hans
 
Cainkane1 said:
Sometimes UFO'S appear where there is a large amount of tectonic activity such as Volcanoes or earthquakes. I've observed newsreels of UFO'S comming out of a volcano near mexico city and scientists think they are a form of energy called plasma. Not extraterrestrial in origin.
Click to expand...
Plasma is not a form of energy. It is a gas where molecules are stripped of (most of) their electrons.

However, there can be certain light phenomenons connected with volcanic activity.

Hans
 
Huntsman said:
Cuddles:

What you described sounds exactly like the aircraft landing lights I've seen. Specifically, the lights from Air Force C-130s coming in to the nearby air base. The landing lights are bright, they're like spotlights on the front of the plane. And even at moderate distances, they appear to be sitting still if they're coming towards you. It's an odd effect, and one that would make me wonder as well if I wasn't experienced with it :).
Click to expand...

Actually, this sounds very plausible. There's a military airport (Brize Norton) to the south west of the M40 which would fit Cuddles's description pretty closely.
 
Blue Bubble said:
Actually, this sounds very plausible. There's a military airport (Brize Norton) to the south west of the M40 which would fit Cuddles's description pretty closely.
Click to expand...

VC-10 and Tristar tankers? Check. Hercules transports? Check. Recently entered-service, gigantic C-17 transports with whacking great landing lights and very low-speed (STOL) capability? Check and check.
 
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Sounds like a plane to me, too. I've had a very similar experience and had a somewhat similar reaction to the phenomenon. In my case, however, the light (instead of passing behind a tree) resolved itself after several minutes into a regular aircraft (as I could eventually tell by the red and green wing lights), and a propeller-driven aircraft at that (as I could tell by the sound). What was strange about this was that the lights from the aircraft were very bright, as though the aircraft were landing... yet the craft was not landing at all and was not heading in the direction of a landing strip.
 
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