Expert: Tom Whiting - 4/5/2010

Question
QUESTION: Hi Tom,
I have just spotted interesting activity within the sky, I am located in Dulverton, Somerset, UK and spotted the activity moving West to East over Exmoor at around 10.30 pm. To begin with there was the odd large Orange dot moving at a similar speed to a plane, the dots increased. When at one point there were over 30 of these spots moving accross the sky in a linier formation, there was no sound and it is unlikely to be aircraft as within a 30 minute period there would have been in excess of 100 objects. I have done some reserch and believe it may be activity related to the Lirids Meteor shower, is this correct? I must also add that I found this site after googleing the incident finding a question you have answered, listing a similar incident on the fith of April a fe years ago, which is of course ironic? I do have a picture showing the end of the moving object which i would be happy to send to you if required? Thank you for your assistance in advance.

ANSWER: Hi Peter,
Your subject line should read, "Orange Lights" and not orange stars. (Stars don't move relative to each other.)  These were not meteors from the April Lyrid meteor shower, active from April 16-25... 10-20 meteors per hour from near the bright star Vega when it rises in the NE around 10 pm local time. In fact, your "orange lights" don't act like any meteor at all.
I've had several questions lately about distant orange-colored lights at night in the past,
and I'll offer you the same answer... all these appear to be large flights of helicopters way
off in the distance (so there is no sound)... initially coming right toward you head on from
some 30-50 miles distant, then turning to reveal the linear extent of the entire formation.
Also this always seem to happen on a weekend when the various Army Reserve troops are holding
their monthly get together's at the various USA and UK bases. Weekend night-time helicopter maneuvers are not unusual in both countries. The orange or reddish colour comes from all the atmospheric dust reddening over that distance, rather then a bright yellow or white headlight.
Typically helicopters at night are lit up like Christmas trees!
The dates are co-incident, and not unusual at all... as both are "weekend" dates of possible Army or National Guard (or UK equivalent) Reserve military training maneuvers.

So don't need the picture, but thanks anyway.  Lights at night are the most deceiving, I mean
we can see stars from light-years distant, so it's not unusual on a clear night to see any kind of flying aircraft lights out there 50-100 miles distant. Not that unusual, and in 99.9% of the
cases, that's exactly what it turns out to be.  Also, just like stars and meteors, we (our eye)
cannot distinguish distance, size, or velocity... we only "see" brightness and that's all.
(Which we report as apparent magnitude... Venus -4th, Mercury +1, the star Vega is zero, etc).
We cannot tell, just by looking, the distance to a star (or any other single or group of lights)
or their size or their true velocity.  It generally takes multiple location sightings and triangulation on an object at night, to do that.   That's my opinion, which is what you asked for.
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA USA






---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Tom,
Thankyou for answering my question so quickly, I do believe your theory is valid although after discussing this with a pilot today, a likely theory is that the lights were Chinese lanterns which may have been released from a wedding that was taking place upwind of my location. On googling this option it turns out that the majority of orange lights within the sky moving as they were in the UK, have been identified as Chinese lanterns. I thought this option maybe of interest to you. Again thankyou for your help.

Answer
Hi Peter,
Thanks for the information... I'd never thought of a Chinese wedding with paper lanterns with
candles in the paper bag.  (Isn't that kind of a public fire hazard, especially if you've had
recent dry conditions?)  But that all makes sense for your unusual sighting.
Oh, BTW you WERE discussing it with a pilot; I had 180 combat missions in NAM, with USAF, I retired after 20 years in the Air Force.
Well, that's a good one; have to keep that one in mind if we get any more orange lights at night.
My other guess was going to be flares with little parachutes on them as sometimes the military
uses those, a whole string of them, at night to illuminate the country-side.
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting, Major, USAFR (retired)
Erie, PA USA