Has anyone seen anything like this before ... ?

[beachphotographer]

The thing I find important and intriguing is how once the object has finished bouncing around it always meets the exact same trajectory it was on before OR is that just camera trails from the long exposure combined with the earth's movement and actually the object is completely stationary during the long white trails?

Is that even possible? For a satellite or any object to make such high speed movements over a number of miles within a 10-15 seconds then stop dead, completely stationary?

[barkis]

If this phenomena is earth based, it probably will be repeatable.

I doubt there is anything in space that would account for the crazy gyrations that are taking place, so I would rule that out.

Of course that's only what I think, I'm sure others will have a different take on it. Certainly a puzzler, and I hope you get to the bottom or top of it.

Ron.

[beachphotographer]

I think you're right when you say it's probably not space based. I think it was in our atmosphere.

Repeatable? Maybe, I've looked for it tonight, thought I saw something similar but it was too cloudy and my camera didn't pick it up in time.

I hope I get to the bottom of it too! I've never been so intrigued by something. Stranger things have happened, I would just love to know what it is.

[greenkat]

WOW, this is great, I love this kinda thing

I enlarged one of the images using a program called photozoom pro, excuse the watermarks, its only the demo version, had a play in photoshop to see if anything could be enhanced.

No idea what it could be but would love to know .

I think it has some structual feel to it, only because I want it to be alien

[dobserver]

This is fascinating.....

I have absolutely no idea what it is you have seen, but well done for capturing it on camera. So many times people say 'I saw this weird light in the sky' and try to describe it, but you can actually show us ! Fab

Looks like you got everyone stumped, too !!

[greenkat]

Same shaped "dumbell" ?

[beachphotographer]

Thanks for working on the images Greenkat. I think you're definately right. The image shows some sort of consistent structure.

I notice the shape too, strange ...

[mba007]

Looking at my starmap, it is located exactly where Sirius should appear. If the motion (rather than scintillation) was visible to the naked eye then that is purely bizarre. My gut feel would be simplest explanation: camera shake which is picked up only with the brightest object in the frame, i.e. Sirius. One experiment you could do is to use the same imaging set-up pointing towards a distant but similarly bright street lamp. This would confirm or deny the idea of camera shake.

The fact that a couple of the images have the 'shakey loops' at the start of exposure also points to shutter shake ... If your camera can be set-up with mirror lock-up for a couple of seconds prior to exposure that would also be worth testing.

Very interesting all the same

[beachphotographer]

mba007, I can absolutely guarantee you this wasn't camera shake. It's just not possible. I saw it with my own eyes, as did my brother. If it was camera shake the other light trails would be affected but they're not.

I'm no astronomy expert but I can recognise Sirius every time. When I first saw the light, Sirius was about 20-30 degrees to the right.

They were two separate lights in the sky at the same time.

Good call with the idea of repeating the experiment. I tried last night for about half an hour. Got nothing even close.

[greenkat]

Ok, can you tell I'm bored at work ?

Maybe seeing things but could this "dumbell"/"headphone" shape thing be spinning ?

[Doc]

Did this light just disappear after a while or did it move across the sky or was stationary.

[beachphotographer]

Hey Greenkat & any one else who wants to probe the images further:

I've uploaded the shot you just edited in Raw format. You may need to get a small update to view Raw files, these can be found pretty easily through Google.

Here's the link - be warned it's pretty large (10MB)

RapidShare: 1-CLICK Web hosting - Easy Filehosting

This site only lets 10 people download before creating an account, If more people want to download it, just say and I'll create an account.

Thanks

[beachphotographer]

Doc,

To the naked eye it was stationary for long periods of time.

Over 1 hour, it went from the position it was in during the first shot (the one with the town lights) and settled about 20 degrees to the right of that much closer to the horizon, then it went out of view.

I'm not sure if this means it's position generally didn't move and that it only went of view because of the earth's rotation?

Every time it did a huge jump, it flew backwards and looped, etc but always ended up pretty much on it's original plane. Not exactly, but pretty much.

[Doc]

Have you checked local papers, news, websites etc to see if anyone else saw this.

Also check out weather reports to see if their were any high swirling winds as maybe a weather balloon very high up caught it some turbulence, hence the up and down movements and the sun causing the the different colour lights shining off it.

[dave1978]

It looks very very similar to a UFO that was featured on a recent sky discovery chanel programme. I cant recall the exact details, place etc but it was a modern sighting and a chap in his 30's got some pics of something very similar, almost identical to what you have pictured. It was in the US and they used all types of investigation kit and analysed the photos but could come up with nothing.

Im currently scouring the net for more info on this and trying to find pics from the programme.

[astoc]

Maybe it's TV's 'Alf'.

[iamjulian]

Interesting. The image where we see the land and the fishing boat, the light highlighted is definitely Sirius - no question. The problem with the camera shake theory is that none of the other stars are demonstrating the same shake.

[PeterMammoth]

If the moving light is an object then it would require a force to enable it to move in a circular way. If it's a satellite then it could be some gas/fuel escaping?

Alternatively, it could be some extreme turbulence in the atmosphere. No idea what would cause it, but it could account for the motion and change in hue.

[Cornelius Varley]

Sirius is very bright, any camera shake would show up more intensely on Sirius than the dimmer stars around it. Disregarding camera shake completely as a probable cause for what you photographed is a mistake. The wide angle photograph shows Orion on the right edge of the picture and your "weird light" is Sirius.

Download a copy of Stellarium and confirm for yourself the position of Sirius.

Peter

[sgazer]

this is truly bizzare. There could be some simple explanation, but no idea what it is. It looks like something is moving in space (or we are moving relative to it) then it ejects something which spins around near it for a bit, flies off before one last spin.

However, as this object also moved around in the sky for near an hour, I have no idea what it is.

[Doc]

The more I look at this and compare it to Sirius's position in both Stellarium and CduC the more I think it's Sirius hence the slow motion and dipping down towards the horizon after about 1 hour that you described.

So with this in mind I think either the camera was knocked and due to the intensity of Sirius the streaks show up as they have.

Or there is some unxeplained atmospherics surrounding the light coming from Sirius that has given you this lovely colourful show.

[PeterMammoth]

If it's Sirius then it must be an atmospheric phenomenon, especially as it changes between several different colours. In fact the change in colour rules out any camera shake. You'd expect the whole squiggle to be the same colour if that was the case.

I just found this similar image on Google, from six months ago in Manchester:

Newall Green, Wythenshawe, Manchester-18th August 2009 | UK UFO Sightings

[greenkat]

Sirius ? not alien ? dohhhhh, please dont tell me there isnt a father christmas either

I agree, the position is spot on for Sirius, ok, I give up on the flying dumbell theory but was good while it lasted

[beachphotographer]

Hi,

As one or two of you have said the light I highlighted in the wide angle shot may have been Sirius, I may have highlighted the wrong one. Because when I think about it and when I asked my brother we both said the light started directly in front of our house and Sirius was way to the right.

It may be some weird refraction or reflection of Sirius on a satellite or a cloud or weather balloon.

But all I know for 10000% is that it was definitely, definitely not camera shake. I can't be any more certain of this. I saw this with my own eyes, as did my brother. The camera images just back up what we saw.

While I may have highlighted the wrong light in the wide angle photo, I remember that there was the really bright light in the telephoto photos and separately Sirius was way to the right, closer to the town lights. They were definitely two separate lights, I can guarantee that.

Also, I haven't seen anything in the news about it. I don't know where to find information on lost weather balloons though.

[PeterMammoth]

If it's atmospheric then it's likely that you were the only ones to see it as you were lucky enough to have Sirius directly behind it.