Something Unusual Over Exeter

[bugmum]

I am not jumping to any conclusions here. However, last night I went up to bed at about 11pm, and, as is my wont, peered round the bedroom curtains as I brushed my hair. Our bedroom faces roughly south; the weather wasn't totally clear, though I could see some stars directly overhead.

Suddenly, a moving light caught my eye, travelling approximately west to east. I thought it might be a meteor, and focused on it; I have a long-standing interest in astronomy and used to live near the Lincolnshire RAF bases, so I'm familiar with a lot of the lights that appear in the night sky. However, this was something I had never seen before. It was reddish-gold in colour, and appeared almost hazy; thinking about it, it was shaped rather like an arrowhead. It moved across the sky quickly and smoothly for about 5-6 seconds before I lost sight of it due to the edge of the window frame. There were no flashing lights on it to suggest an aircraft, and anyway, aircraft at night don't glow in my experience. I got the impression that it was quite high up although it was probably only 20-30 degrees above my line of sight. The window was partly open, and I heard no sound. In fact, a moment after I lost sight of it, a flashing light came into view, coming from the east, but this was obviously an aircraft of some kind.

Any thoughts, or anybody seen anything similar? I do remember, in that precise moment, thinking that this is what a dragon would probably look like if you saw one flying at night! I was definitely awake and not hallucinating...

 

[GNC]

I suppose the obvious answer is it was a meteor big enough to leave a trail like an "arrowhead". But I've never seen one like that, not even on a video. Has anyone else?

 

[kamalktk]

if there were separate lights in an arrowhead pattern, and the object were far enough away, would the lights blend together into one "arrowhead" light?

 

[eburacum]

The reddish-gold colour suggests a sky lantern, to me; long-term readers of this forum might not be surprised at that. But the shape is a puzzle. Perhaps this was a non-standard lantern; maybe even a custom-built one. Or maybe it was half-collapsed or partially inflated or something.

 

[Cherrybomb]

Just an idea but, sky lanterns come in various shapes now: http://www.nightskylanterns.co.uk/ - might have been an unusual shaped lantern? Or one burnt up in a way to make it look like an arrow head?

 

[bugmum]

Thanks for your thoughts. I must say, if it was a meteor, it would have been enormous - more like a fireball, and I would have expected some comment about it locally!

The sky lantern idea is interesting, however, how are they propelled? This thing was moving fast although it was not a particularly windy night. I suppose it could have been at a height where there was a wind of which I was not aware, but would a lantern like that get that high?

 

[markrkingston1]

The sky lantern idea is interesting, however, how are they propelled? This thing was moving fast although it was not a particularly windy night. I suppose it could have been at a height where there was a wind of which I was not aware, but would a lantern like that get that high?

Sky lanterns are propelled by the wind. I've seen several here (NW London) and they do move surprisingly fast (although probably no more than 5 or 10 miles an hour in reality) at an altitude of a couple of hundred feet, even when there is no noticeable wind at ground level. In other words, it only takes a slight breeze to move them at what subjectively seems quite a high speed.