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Dancing Lights In The Night's Sky

Newt

Newt

Devoted Cultist
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May 3, 2019
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173
Last night at 1am, hubby took the dog out for his last pee, and came running back, saying there were lights in the sky and I had to come look.
So, I jammed my feet into a pair of boots and went to look. In my pyjamas.

We live in a rural area. And to the south we overlook a valley with a high horizon, so there isn't much that cam be seen beyond, but there are no major habitations until the coast.

It took a while for my sight to adjust, but he was right, there were white spots of light dancing around on what seemed to be a layer of cloud. They stayed in the same general area, and sometimes it looked like there were shafts of light going into the sky. At other times it looked like there were shafts of light rotating in the sky.

We watched them for a while, and I said I reckoned they were some kind of lights being projected from the ground, like search lights. Maybe something to do with D Day. (We saw the flyby the day before, they were almost overhead, very impressive)

I said that I would google it, sure that an explanation would be easy to find. It wasn't.
There were no reports of anything like that happening in the relevant area (Hastings). No reports of other people seeing these very clear, and often bright, spots of light dancing on the clouds.
Also no reports of night clubs with lasers, or anything of that nature.

Most nights he gives the dog a last walk along that path, and has never seen anything like it before.
I walk the dog there around 6ish most days, and although I have seen many strange planes overhead (especially in winter when its dark) I have never seen anything like that before.
 
^ rotating lights and beams go pretty far back; there are two old articles in the article thread that mention them --and I think from 19th century or early 20th, and some later. There is also a 19th century account of a big black cloud with lights going in and out of it -- that could be a natural phenomenon.
 
GNC said:
Yeah, I've seen those, they're big spotlight projections, like the Bat Signal if you remember that. Usually used in celebrations (or raves).
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When I was a child (southern USA; 1950's) such spotlights / searchlights were commonly used for:

- aviation beacons (e.g., on mountain tops)
- airfield beacons (usually on the control tower or near it)
- attracting attention to a visiting circus
- attracting attention to a business (e.g., a grand opening) or special event

When operated for these uses, these intense lights would typically rotate continuously.

The intense light beams would naturally reflect off any haze, clouds, or general cloud strata above. Such reflections could be seen for many miles in all directions.

This would result in a large ovoid / circular / elliptic glowing shape in the sky. When the searchlight was rotating (as it commonly did) this illuminated disc reflection would skim across the visible sky. If there were a continuous cloud layer the apparent glowing ovoid would race in a long curving path all the way from horizon to horizon.

Of all the UAP's I've ever witnessed, such aerial searchlight reflections most closely resembled flying discs zipping overhead.
 
GNC said:
I suspect your circuses' modern equivalent (yes, I know they're still around) are the culprit here. It was D-Day yesterday, and I also suspect a celebration.
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Agreed ... Such searchlight (or equivalent) displays are relatively rare nowadays, which would make them relatively remarkable / mysterious compared to past eras.
 
EnolaGaia said:
Agreed ... Such searchlight (or equivalent) displays are relatively rare nowadays, which would make them relatively remarkable / mysterious compared to past eras.
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Shows you don’t live round here! There’ll be one tonight for a local night club. I don’t know specifically which one it is but I will be able to see the lights from my garden.
 
Yes, that's exactly what I thought. Spot lights, for D day.

But there doesn't seem to have been anywhere advertising that they were doing that. Nothing in local news or anything like that.

You would think that if they were going to do that, it would be advertised or known about, like the fly past was.

It was just weird and interesting, and a bit spooky.
 
I suppose the progressive propagation of light pollution in the urban / suburban areas to which populations have increasingly flocked helps to explain why searchlights aren't widely used any more. If you can't see the nighttime sky, they'd be relatively useless for attracting attention.
 
Update!!!

He saw them again last night. That's twice, both on Fridays.

We are assuming some club night or something, that has lasers or spotlights of some kind.

So sad. Was exciting when I thought it was the ghosts of d day in the night sky..
 
Newt said:
So sad. Was exciting when I thought it was the ghosts of d day in the night sky..
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Ah I understand how you feel. Reminds me of the time I was getting the washing in after dark and looking up saw a line of fuzzy lights right over my house.They were stationery but one or two of them would sometimes disappear for several seconds only to reappear later and brighter. I watched them for several minutes and then they just as suddenly all disappeared together.

'mmm' thinks I, 'this needs reporting', so I rang the local rag to see if anyone else had reported them. 'Oh' says blokey, all interested, nose for a storylike, 'do you think you've seen a UFO?'

Well actually I thought I had, but not willing to give myself away, merely said 'oh no no, not I, but I'm thinking that its the sort of thing that people could think was one and I'm just wondering if anyone else had seen them'. [Asking for a friend syndrone lol]

Anyway transpired it was the university Physics Atmospheric research department using their new toy .... a strong thin laser light which on this particular night was going through the clouds and illuminating them! Doh. I later met one of the bods working on the data and told him how disappointed I'd been! Which I had been ... bitterly. Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself!

Sollywos x
 
Newt said:
there were white spots of light dancing around on what seemed to be a layer of cloud
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This may-well be just a mundane unnatural phenomenon that you're witnessing (cf ground-based laser light shows) but it would be interesting trying to do a 2D triangulation against the apparent visualisation point, followed by a 3D triangular back-interpolation, to see if a potential source can be postulated.

If I was in front of a real computer just now (as opposed to a post-imaginary phone), I'd be looking up UK NOTAMS (NOtices To AirMen) with some geo-relevant filters. Light-shows &etc should be getting registered via such an official notifications system

Also...This might even be a non-mundane poorly-understood natural phenomenon that you're witnessing. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_flash

Crown flash is a rarely observed weather phenomenon involving "The brightening of a thunderhead crown followed by the appearance of aurora-like streamers emanating into the clear atmosphere".The current hypothesis for why the phenomenon occurs is that sunlight is reflecting off or refracting through tiny ice crystals above the crown of a cumulonimbus cloud. These ice crystals are aligned by the strong electro-magnetic effects around the cloud, so the effect may appear as a tall streamer, pillar of light, or resemble a massive flash of a searchlight / flashlight beam through the clouds. When the electro-magnetic field is disturbed by electrical charging or discharges (typically, lightning flashes) within the cloud, the ice crystals are re-orientated causing the light pattern to shift, at times very rapidly and appearing to 'dance' in a strikingly mechanical fashion.[/QUOTE]
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Thank you! That is really fascinating. I have never heard of a crown flash before.

I have bookmarked the NOTAMS site, and if we see them again I will check there.

Thank you very much!
 
Oh wow I'd never heard of that either thanks for the info Ermintruder :). I want to see it now, although I did once see the green flash as the sun sets so perhaps I'm all out of getting lucky with unusual atmospheric phenomena lol

Sollywos x
 
Ermintruder said:
This may-well be just a mundane unnatural phenomenon that you're witnessing (cf ground-based laser light shows) but it would be interesting trying to do a 2D triangulation against the apparent visualisation point, followed by a 3D triangular back-interpolation, to see if a potential source can be postulated.

If I was in front of a real computer just now (as opposed to a post-imaginary phone), I'd be looking up UK NOTAMS (NOtices To AirMen) with some geo-relevant filters. Light-shows &etc should be getting registered via such an official notifications system

Also...This might even be a non-mundane poorly-understood natural phenomenon that you're witnessing. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_flash
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Hi 'Ermintruder:' I also have never seen this effect - but it does remind me of the 'Sun-Dogs.' See them fairly frequently in my area.
 
Another thanks for posting that fantastic video of crown flashes, Ermintruder! :D
 
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