UKC

I have a memory of seeing an object and lights in the sky as a youngster. Typical cigar shaped thing and coloured lights like most fantasists would imagine. I was slightly surprised recently when I met an old school friend who I hadn't seen for 30 years asked 'do you remember the night when we saw a UFO?'

I suppose it was Unidentified (to us) , Flying and an Object.

No ghosts.

In reply to estivoautumnal:

I saw a UFO and a ghost once but that doesn't answer your question.

In reply to estivoautumnal:

Many years ago I saw a large lit object flying over houses at night. It was about a mile away. It was totally silent - no sound at all. I still don't understand this*.

PS I had not been drinking or imbibing any other substances that night.

*Edit, it was moving far too fast to be a balloon. And it was far too large to be a glider.

In reply to estivoautumnal:

I was once involved in the hunt for the Welsh bigfoot...

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/episode-8-does-uk-have-bigfoot/id110637...

(And I can never see Dulyn bothy in the same way ever again)

In reply to bouldery bits:


George Boole would disagree.

In reply to estivoautumnal:


That's the definition of a UFO.

In reply to richprideaux:


Without listening to the podcast what's the story there?!

In reply to estivoautumnal:

i have seen both ufo the tv series from the 70s and ghost the film from the 80s not sure which was best

In reply to estivoautumnal:

Watching Radiohead at Glastonbury I noticed 5 bright lights hovering over the crowd before moving slowly over the stage.

I was convinced that aliens had come to watch the music as it was so good. I imagined that the aliens were a kind of super rich hipster alien species who had come to see their favourite earth band. Or that Radiohead, and that moment, was of such musical brilliance, that it was resonating across the galaxy.

Or they were Chinese lanterns.

In reply to XXXX:

Or the drugs were good?

In reply to estivoautumnal:

This pisses me off. Loads of people have seen a UFO, there's a clue in the name. Haz anyone seen an alien spacecraft? That's a different question.

In reply to estivoautumnal:

Saw some interesting lenticular clouds the other day. And once had the crap scared out of me by a rosebay willowherb fluffy seed head one moonlit night.

In reply to estivoautumnal:

I saw a UFO once. It was a few years ago as an undergraduate physics student in Leeds. I was out one night using the observatory on top of the department. I was looking out of the slit in the dome while someone else was programming it when I saw a shiny orb hanging low over the city. As I watched it started to move, slowly at first then accelerating at an incredible speed and vanishing.

Since I was up in the dome in the first place, it must have been a clear night, so it couldn't have been lights on low clouds. And it definitely had some volume to it, it wasn't just a point of light.

In reply to estivoautumnal:

When I was a kid, I saw a flaming ball of fire streak low across the sky. I assumed it was a meteorite. It looked like it was only a quarter mile distant and very impressive, with a trajectory that would put it on the ground within a couple of miles. It was literally over in a flash and no-one else around seemed to have noticed it.

In reply to jezb1:

Escorting two presenters from BBC Wales. One a fervent believer (and a member of Goldie Lookin' Chain) and a PE teacher turned comedian who is much more skeptical.

All thoroughly nice blokes and a great night recording in and around Dulyn Bothy (with agreement and donation to MBA).

I've worked with them before - tracking big cats...

In reply to estivoautumnal:

Yes, I have seen UFO's.

One year while on the shoreline at dusk, I saw four round bright lights changing in colour like the kind from jet engines, travelling in a straight line. They were moving at considerable speed and did not make a sound. These lights were moving faster than observable satellites and did not have any blinking lights that planes use at night.

It was a very impressive sight which I can not explain.

In reply to estivoautumnal:

I've heard transmissions in Russian from Mir

In reply to JLS:


The thing with flying objects, even those you know well with well known performance, relatively close in is it's *really* hard to accurately judge where they are relative to you, how high they are, how fast they're moving and often even in which direction. More than a few miles out (or if the object's scale has been misjudged) then we're reliant on reference to other known objects like clouds and the horizon which can be very deceptive and our expectations which can really lead us astray. At night when they're twinkling spots of light it's basically impossible. Our brains play all sorts of tricks with perspective and our expectations.

For example, when you're looking out for hot air balloons a stray child's helium balloon can appear and disappear across your canopy in an flash creating a moment of terror because it's not an innocuous helium balloon your brain flags up in that first instant it catches your attention, it's what you've been looking for, what you're expecting to see a bloody great big hot air balloon, suddenly much too close for comfort!

Pretty much the same goes for 'ghosts', our brains constantly do a hell of a lot of gap filling based on expectations and imagination, mostly it doesn't matter a jot, if something moves or catches our attention we focus on it and fill in the blanks better. That they should occasional get it wrong and create anomalies we give meaning to is to be expected.
jk

In reply to jkarran:
Yeah, I appreciate it was difficult to judge the scale/distance of my fire ball.
The texture I could see gave me the impression it was something relatively close but like you say, who knows...

PS. It was around tea time pre-dusk.

In reply to estivoautumnal:

If by UFOs you mean alien spacecraft and by ghosts you mean the spirits of dead people, then both are bunkum.

If by UFOs you mean something you couldn't put a name to, then fair enough; but aliens, no. And the spirits of dead people walking the earth would be big news if it could be proven but despite many efforts it hasn't been. Ghosts don't exist beyond the imagination of people who are nervous, anxious, have a particularly lucid imagination or are generally attention seeking.

T.
Today's sceptic, it seems.

In reply to estivoautumnal:

No, nobody has ever seen a ghost and a UFO is only such until it has been identified.

In reply to estivoautumnal:

Never seen a ghost but the best ghost story I heard concerned some people who visited my friend's game lodge at Waterval Onder in South Africa. Near the lodge my friends discovered a cemetery, which contains graves from a train crash on the nearby railway and some British graves from the Boer war. They are in the habit of taking visitors to look at the graveyard and on a recent visit, a boy aged about six was with his mother and asked her: "Mummy, what are those soldiers doing?" No soldiers could be seen so the Mum asked her child what they looked like and he described a British Boer war uniform in detail. When she asked the child what the soldiers were doing he replied that two were sitting under the tree smoking and one was standing and they looked as if they were waiting for a friend. Nobody has been able to explain that one.

In reply to Robert Durran:


Bet you're fun at seances.

In reply to estivoautumnal:

I'm always amazed that people have time to turn off the auto focus function on their cameras, so they can then produce a blurred image of said ghost or ufo.

In reply to summo:

I don't need to switch anything off to get results like that

In reply to estivoautumnal:

I live right beside a graveyard, never seen anything remotely like a ghost.

However, last Autumn I was fishing late into the night on the river Dove near Tutbury castle. 100yds behind me was a well lit road. During the night the mist came down and every time I glanced behind me there appeared to be someone standing in the shadows of the street lights watching me. The mist lifted, they were gone. This went on for most of the time I was there.

In the end I'd had enough and I packed up and walked towards the car, which meant I passed where the person watching me had been standing. Turned out it was the life belt holder.

In reply to estivoautumnal:

I remember many years ago, I was probably fourteen or so (back in NZ). We were at my friend's uncles place out in the country, and we weren't drinking or smoking anything (i.e. all sober, no 'imagination enhancers' used). The night was clear and dry. We lit a large bonfire just as it became dark 8pm or so, and burned it out within an hour. Anyway I think we went for a walk much later at night - 11pm or so, and I saw a circular light, white but with rainbow overtones, very far away (at least a kilometre it seemed) - it was a bit smaller than the size of your pinky fingernail held at arms length, moving erratically in the sky - never stopping. It was there a few seconds, and then I think it was gone (I can't remember how it disappeared). It felt very profound to see it. To this day I have no idea what I saw.

Another time when I was studying at university - occasionally I'd go off for a walk at night up the volcano near my house to think about things. I had taken some 'imagination enhancer' ( ). Anyway as I was alone on the volcano, walking through the trees - I saw bright white lights, very round and fading towards the edge, through the clouds, also moving erratically, but then pausing as it reached extremes. I was absolutely bewildered and astounded - the lights kept moving, and were no trick of the eye - they were 100% real. My heart was pounding as if I was about to face down death. I couldn't believe it though - that on this night I had seen a real alien presence. How my life would be different after this day. I kept climbing the volcano - and eventually reached a viewpoint where I could see better - the lights were not aliens after all, they were newly installed spotlights shining from the Sky Tower onto the clouds!

In reply to SenzuBean:
It's fairly reassuring to know that some...err.. sensible folks have all had similar experiences. About fifteen yeas ago when on holiday abroad I saw a light moving rapidly across the horizon -I initially assumed it was a cars headlights on the distant hilltop.It then went vertically up at speed and slowly down at an angle. This repeated itself about ten times in a sawtooth pattern and then spiralled into the distance at tremendous speed. I have no idea what it could have been - a helicopter maybe - it travelled so fast I doubt it. I am not one who believes in Mork, but so many things seem to defy explaination. My wife and I have both seen comet like 'balls of flame' on separate occasions-they were comets weren't they?gulp

In reply to arch:
My ex's father in law had a scare wading for sea trout on the Dart at night - a cow came up behind him without making any noise. He sensed something, turned round and shat himself when two eyes a foot apart lit up in the beam of his torch in the middle of the river!

In reply to Toerag:

It's amazing what you miss when you're concentrating.


I was fishing slightly downstream of the "Life belt stand" Again last back end. It was about 9:30pm and it was dark. I could hear what sounded like someone fishing in the next swim upstream, I hadn't passed them on the way in. I could hear their rig hit the water, SPLODOOSH. It is a sound unlike anything else. I saw what I thought was their headtorch flash across the far bank as well. This went on for few hours.

I needed to be back home earlyish because I had work the next day, so packed up around 12 ish and walked up to see if they'd had any luck. I walked up to where they should have been, and there was no one there.............

In reply to aln:


Calm down. If you don't like it go somewhere else.

If you want to ask your question start your own thread.

In reply to Pursued by a bear:


It's a light hearted thread. I think we all know ghosts don't exist.

In reply to aln:


That was kind of the point of the comment.

In reply to estivoautumnal:

I don't need to calm down, I'm already calm. I saw a big green light going across the sky in the 80's, I think it was widely reported at the time. My uncle saw a load of hovering lights above some trees in the 50's.

In reply to estivoautumnal:


It was just in keeping with the spirit of the thread

In reply to arch:


So they left just before you..

In reply to abseil:


I came home from work one evening at about dusk. As I parked the car I saw a very bright light some distance away, maybe half a mile or so. It was stationary, but as I watched, it suddenly started to accelerate and passed nearly overhead and disappeared out to the west. Hard to estimate a height but maybe 100'. It didn't seem to have a shape, just a very intense light. There was no sound at all and the rate of acceleration was dramatic. Like you, I hadn't been drinking and I've never been able to explain it. Must have been early 1970s - I say this as it rules out technologies that might now account for it. I did tell people at the time but I got the same response as I did when I told my grandmother I'd seen wallabies at the Roaches!

In reply to aln:


That's right - In their spaceship.

In reply to arch:


So that's not a UFO...

In reply to estivoautumnal:

A good few years ago I was going to meet my brother who was fishing down at the local reservoir (there seems to be a fishing theme to a few stories on this thread). It was dusk, getting quite dark and gloomy; and the track through the woods is overgrown where the canopy forms a tunnel of overhanging branches. I'm half way along the track in the darkest bit, more looking at my feet trying not trip over stuff, when something catches my eye. I look up and out of the gloom comes a white circle with two black dots, like eyes, coming straight towards me, silently and at speed. No sooner than I'd seen it, it was right in front of me.
It was only after it swooped over my head that i realized it was a barn owl. The bastard thing had just dived at me out of the treetops - I nearly ended myself.

In reply to estivoautumnal:
I saw UFO twice in the 80's.

Unfortunately it was post Michael Schenker days, though Tommy M was still pretty good.

In reply to estivoautumnal:

Many years ago i took my telescope up on the moors behind my house to look at Jupiter, it was as it often is the brightest and biggest object in the sky at the time. While i was setting up the telescope another bright object appeared in the sky, bigger than Jupiter that i could still see and it continued to get massively bright, not moving at all until it gradually faded away again, all over in about 30 seconds. Almost like a star had gone supernova but in far too short a timescale.

In reply to jonathan shepherd:

you see things like that from the A66 if you drive early in view of the Catterick training area, or late at night past Warcop. Could it have been a parachute flare? Or a helicopter with light travelling in a straight line towards you?

Camping in borrowdale we were overflown by three unlit C130s at very low altitude. We also get unlit chinooks flying over the village - two spent a few minutes not far overhead in the cloud perhaps trying to see where they were? They sometimes pass the bottom of the village lower than our roof, quite loud.

In reply to jon:


Where was home then?

Many of these rapidly accelerating light stories are likely explicable by considering the geometry of something moving broadly toward you then making a relatively close pass. Judging distance to a point object accurately by eye is nigh impossible, it's easy to be many orders of magnitude out. With a near head-on closing trajectory for a long time there is next to angular motion in your field of vision and the object remains apparently small, as it gets closer it suddenly grows and more obviously the motion across your field of vision accelerates very rapidly as it passes. You see it all the time flying with aircraft on head-on closing paths having no apparent motion for quite a while then very late 'accelerating' incredibly as they get close and pass.

What causes the light? Harder to say: reflections off glass or water, fireworks, meteorites, flares, inaudible aircraft, drones, meteorological equipment, space debris burning up, lightning, birds insects or aircraft catching light, reflections off wind borne debris or weird met' like airborne ice clouds, atmospheric reflections of car lights, lighthouses, concert lights...
jk

In reply to Trevers:


One would hope a Physics degree teaches the difference between volume and area; all that you could say is that it had some definite cross sectional area.

In reply to estivoautumnal:
Slightly off topic, but there is an epic thread* on bushcraftuk.com on the subject of "fear of the dark" with some worrying supernatural reports ("I fully recall staying wide awake all knight sitting smack bang in the middle of my Akto facing the door with knife in hand..."). Not sure how much of it is people winding each-other up, though, as they seem to be a strange lot over there.

* http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43184

In reply to estivoautumnal:

I've seen a ghost in a UFO, do I get a prize?

In reply to jkarran:


Knowle, Warwickshire, not all that far from what was then Eldom Airport, now Birmingham Airport. We lived on the edge of the village with no habitation for maybe a mile in the direction of the light. Come to think of it I'd been aware of the light for a short time before actually parking and getting out of the car, so it must have appeared stationary to me. I understand what you say about the apparent rapid acceleration of an object as it gets closer. But the height was certainly much lower than any aircraft I'd ever seen over the village though as I said, difficult to estimate. And it was completely silent so not an aircraft, and its trajectory was horizontal and not falling like a meteorite.

In reply to estivoautumnal:

I was a PFC on a search patrol huntin' Charlie down
It was in the jungle wars of '65
My weapon jammed and I got stuck way out and all alone
And I could hear the enemy movin' in close outside
Just then I heard a twig snap and I grabbed my empty gun
And I dug in scared while I counted down my fate
And then a big marine, a giant with a pair of friendly eyes
Appeared there at my shoulder and said "Wait!"
When he came in close beside me he said "Don't worry, son, I'm here"
"If Charlie wants to tangle now they'll have two to dodge"
I said "Well, thanks a lot", I told him my name and asked him his
And he said "The boys just call me Camouflage"

Well, I was gonna ask him where he came from
When we heard the bullets fly
Comin' through the brush and all around our ears
And then I saw that big marine light a fire in his eye
And it was strange, but suddenly I forgot my fears
Well we fought all night and side by side, we took our battle stance
And I wondered how the bullets missed this man
'Cause they seemed to go right through him just as if he wasn't there
And in the mornin' we both took a chance and ran
And it was here the river bank when the ambush came on top of us
And I'd thought it was the end and we were had
Then a bullet with my name on it came buzzin' through a bush
And that big marine, he just swat it with his hands
Just like it was a fly!

And I knew there was something weird about him
'Cause when I turned around he was pullin' a big palm tree
Right up out of the ground
And swattin' those charlies with it from here to kingdom come
When he led me out of danger, I saw my camp and waved goodbye
But he just winked at me from the jungle and then was gone
And when I got back to my HQ I told 'em about my night
And the battle I'd spent with a big marine named Camouflage
When I said his name a soldier gulped and the medic took my arm
And led me to a green tent on the right
He said "You may be tellin' true boy, but this here is Camouflage"
"And he's been right here since he passed away last night"
"In fact he's been here all week long"
"But before he went he said 'semper fi' and said his only wish"
"Was to save a young marine caught in a barrage"
"So here, take his dog tag son, I know, he'd want you to have it now"
And we both said a prayer for a big marine named Camouflage

So, next time, you're in a jungle fight
And you feel a presence near
Or hear a voice that in your mind will lodge
Just be thankful that you're not alone
And you've got some company from a big marine
The boys call Camouflage

In reply to wintertree:

Poor choice of language... the way the light reflected off it made it look like a sphere.

In reply to estivoautumnal:

years ago, camping as a scout, we pitched our tent in a field directly in front of an old metal gate into a small private graveyard (like old houses might have, a walled cemetery with maybe 6 graves). Our tent was an army canvas tent with 3 big wooden poles to hold it up (one at either end and one in the middle), probably 1.5" in diameter. During the middle of the night we all suddenly woke up due to a sound, turning on our torches we found that the middle pole was completely snapped in half. Anyway we went back to sleep, nothing else happened. Still makes me wonder.

In reply to estivoautumnal:

another time, my twin and I went to bed after watching some vampire movie. Our bedroom was the top floor with a skylight window over our bed. Again woke up and heard some scratching sounds, it was coming from the skylight, obviously a picture of a vampire trying to get in or get our attention immediately came to mind. One of us eventually got out of bed, stood up and slowly pulled the curtain back, there as a crow walking across the glass, so back to sleep. The house was rather old and at night you could hear mice running through the walls etc.

In reply to RX-78:

the crow probably had a smirk and threw a glance at the group of crows nearby just out of your sight as if to say "He He, I told you I could get them up out of bed!"