Dont panic!!!

[titch]

I am releasing some Chinese lanterns tonight,so if there are any reports of an alien invasion of north London tonight dont worry,its just the natives having some fun.

 

[GNC]

Ah, but surely it's too cold for Chinese lanterns to stay alight and airborne? I say it's the Zargon invasion fleet!

 

[Analogue Boy]

I saw some in my local petrol station...£5 for a pack of 5.

With the right wiring, that's a triangular UFO and two satellites.

They had LOADS of them as well.

 

[Anome]

Seems somewhat reckless to have them at a petrol station. Naked flames and all that.

 

[titch]

Well they all went off with no trouble,but sadly there was no alien invasion panic,they are very pretty but i fail to see how anybody would mistake a lantern for an alien spacecraft.maybe its the most haunted viewers turning sky watchers?

 

[eburacum]

With the right wiring, that's a triangular UFO and two satellites.

You don't have to wire them together, they arrange themselves into triangles automatically (three points can only ever form a triangle or a straight line, of course).

 

[Analogue Boy]

With the right wiring, that's a triangular UFO and two satellites.

You don't have to wire them together, they arrange themselves into triangles automatically (three points can only ever form a triangle or a straight line, of course).

On paper they'd form a 2d triangle but up there, they'd cross at different altitudes and occlude themselves. Besides if you didn't wire them up, there's no guarantee they'd stick together. And I like my triangular UFOs to be nice and equilateral like the real ones.

 

[eburacum]

What tends to happen is that the lanterns only move relatively slowly with respect to each other once they are high enough; they will only 'cross at different altitudes and occlude themselves' where the air is turbulent, which usually happens near the ground, soon after launch.

Once they are at height they are effectively fixed with respect to one another, and three lanterns will always form a triangle; no matter how scalene the triangle actually is, there will be a tendency for the observer to assume it is an equilateral or isosceles triangle seen from an odd angle. Even three lanterns in a straight line can be seen as an eqilateral triangle seen edge-on.

Our minds tend to look for regularity where none exists.

 

[linesmachine]

I saw a UFO over North London on the night of the 20th, it resembled many burning orange lights forming complex, intelligent led, patterns in the....oh, sorry, I see.

 

[coaly]

The ufo I saw, had a large George Cross on it. It flew gently upwards, then horizonta.... Oh... yeah.

 

[paulsamotis]

On the evening of 18th December there was a planned launch of 100 chinese lanterns planned from the Downs in Bristol- only the snowfall prevented it happening I think. Would have sparked off ufo invasion fears!

 

[Analogue Boy]

no matter how scalene the triangle actually is, there will be a tendency for the observer to assume it is an equilateral or isosceles triangle seen from an odd angle. Even three lanterns in a straight line can be seen as an eqilateral triangle seen edge-on.

Our minds tend to look for regularity where none exists.

Good point. Hence the pictorial depictions of the constellations I suppose.