UFOs over London

[Analogue Boy]

Builder snaps stuff that wasn't there when he took the photograph....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ondon.html

 

[rynner2]

Despite this:

Mr Burden, from Luton, said the lights are not any kind of reflection, claiming he took the picture outside with no office lights behind him

my first thought on seeing the pic was 'reflection in window of ceiling lights'. The similarity and alignment of the objects supports this view.

(Plus the fact that you'd have expected a few more reports if real stuff was in the sky over a big city... )

So either Mr.B. has misremembered how he took the photo, or he's telling porkies...

 

[Analogue Boy]

That was my thought too. Especially as there is a halo effect above the lights as if the ambient is bouncing off a ceiling and not dissipated through a cloud.

 

[Cavynaut]

But if we assume that he is not lying, and that the photo was not taken through a window, is there any other explanation?

 

[Jerry_B]

Seems safe to assume he is lying, given how the photos look startling like a bunch of reflected lights.

 

[ElishevaBarsabe]

Seems safe to assume he is lying, given how the photos look startling like a bunch of reflected lights.

Ah, give the guy a break: looks like ceiling lights that he didn't notice at the time.

 

[Analogue Boy]

Seems safe to assume he is lying, given how the photos look startling like a bunch of reflected lights.

Ah, give the guy a break: looks like ceiling lights that he didn't notice at the time.

....and then he thinks 'Hmmmm. Maybe I can make some money out of this..or at least pull the wool over the eyes of some gullible folk'.

 

[rynner2]

UFOs may be light show
A group of UFOs spotted hovering over London may have been a laser light show, locals claim.

By Sarah Knapton
Last Updated: 10:33PM GMT 23 Mar 2009

Derek Burdon was left stunned when he took a scenic picture of the UK capital then noticed four flying saucers on the far right of the picture.

Mr Burdon took the photographs 16 floors up on the roof top of Orion House in Covent Garden in the morning.

The 40-year-old, of Leverington, Cambs, said: "I have not tampered with it and you would not be able to fake it. It was taken on my mobile and I guess I am just lucky to have it. These shapes were not visible to the naked eye so it's not as if I was looking for them."

But Paolo Adami, who lives on the 10th floor of flats in Paddington says they lights can be seen every night and are projected from [n]ear Parliament Square.

He said: "I see those lights every night; they are four projection lights located between Embankment and the Big Ben. They play light games for many hours a night. In that particular picture the light hits the clouds and the 4 projected light have a shape of a UFO but that is just a coincidence."

However, Mr Adami's explanation does not explain how the lights were seen in the daylight or why they were not visible to the naked eye.
...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... -show.html

 

[ProfessorF]

It's Venus innit?

I'd be inclined to toss my hat into the 'Reflected office lights' theory.
Simplest way to find out would be, of course, to track down the building in question and see if they don't mind furnishing someone with a trip to that window - sorry - balcony.

 

[rynner2]

There are enough recognizable landmarks in that picture that anyone with good knowledge of central London, a large scale map, and a ruler and pencil could quickly triangulate where the view-point is.

(Even I recognize the London Eye and Big Ben Tower! 8) )

I'm going out now - I expect to see the answer here when I return...

 

[rynner2]

There are enough recognizable landmarks in that picture that anyone with good knowledge of central London, a large scale map, and a ruler and pencil could quickly triangulate where the view-point is.

I later realised that this exercise is similar to one I've done recently, identifying places I photographed on my cruise last autumn, so I decided to try it myself. Using multimap.co, Google, and an old road atlas that doesn't even show the London Eye , I soon narrowed the area down to somewhere north of Big Ben - only to realise that the OP link mentioned it was near Covent Garden - Doh!

Pressing on, I identified the white spire with the blue clock as the church of St Martin in the Fields, by Trafalgar Square. This was useful, and a few pencil lines on the map narrowed the target down further. Viewing aerial photos, there seemed to be only one building of the required height in the area - Orion House, on the west side of Upper St Martins Street. Result!

Googling for more info on Orion House, I found a link to a UFO story....

...and it was the Daily Telegraph story that I posted here earlier today!!! Doh!^2

Ah well...

You know my methods, Watson - and at least they work! 8)

 

[eburacum]

I like the projected lights theory.

I've seen some projected lights which could have been mistaken for UFOs. If they were moving about, he might not have noticed them, any more than someone notices a bird when taking a picture. And since it was morning, the sky looking westward might have been quite dark, dark enough for projected lights to show up.

 

[rynner2]

I've seen some projected lights which could have been mistaken for UFOs. If they were moving about, he might not have noticed them, any more than someone notices a bird when taking a picture. And since it was morning, the sky looking westward might have been quite dark, dark enough for projected lights to show up.

In fact, the view is looking pretty well due south (my researches were not entirely wasted! )

It's also possible that the lights were only on very briefly (for some technical check-up or other) and so would would not normally have been noticed.

However, the cloud layer looks to be too high to reflect lights as suggested - the 'UFOs' look too low in the sky.

 

[rynner2]

Here's Orion House (from Multimap.com):

Seems the photographer was on the roof as suggested, or on one of the balconies just below. Which seems to rule out the reflection theory...

 

[Cavynaut]

Nice bit of detective work there Rynner!

 

[eburacum]

If the lights were coming from Parilament Square, they would be emitted very near the Victoria Tower, which is about 100m tall. The lights look to be maybe 3 times as high as that - making the cloud cover ~300 metres above the ground. That is quite low, but it is higher than the Canary Wharf tower, so is not entirely unfeasible.

The colour looks a little strange though, if the beams are supposed to be coming from 'lasers'; white lasers are a bit difficult from a technical point of view, I would have thought.

 

[Ringo]

IMHO, it does look like a reflection from the office lights and the spotlight/laser theory may just be a coincidence. They certainly don'ät look like spotlights projected onto the clouds.

Maybe he was standing on the balcony, but took the photo through the window section of the open door without realising?

 

[Timble2]

This image shows the inset top floor, a bit more clearly. There's the handrail you can see in the bottom of the image, he could have taken it from inside.

Skyscraper News, Orion House

 

[Analogue Boy]

Debunked on the bad ghosts site....

http://badpsychics.co.uk/badghosts/modu ... toryid=101

 

[rynner2]

Debunked on the bad ghosts site....

http://badpsychics.co.uk/badghosts/modu ... toryid=101

When a voice with a harsh Skeptic accent tells me something is NOT as weird as it seems, I tend to bristle up with anger at what seems to be another case of forcing a Fortean phenomenon into a skeptic box.

This image was not taken from the roof of the building, it was taken from the top floor. The rail you can see does not surround the rooftop, it is a private balcony.

But all the pictues we've seen so far do seem to suggest there's a rail round the roof too. (And that would seem to be a jolly sensible idea, IMO - architects, take note! )

We need a Bat-fortean to scale that building, and compare the rails on the roof and the balcony!

 

[eburacum]

At a guess, I'd expect the top rail and the lower rail to be identical.

Hmm; if indeed the chap took this photo in good faith, he might have been mistaken, and honestly thought he was on the roof when he was on the floor below. There are several reasons why that may be so, mostly to do with back- formation of memories.

To determine whether the photo was taken on the roof or on the floor below would require someone to visit the building to do some detailed triangulation. I really, really wouldn't recommend going round there to bother the people of Orion House just to check out a theory.

 

[Analogue Boy]

Only on this site could we get sidetracked on the reality of railings when there's supposed to be a flotilla of alien craft hovering over London.

 

[rynner2]

Only on this site could we get sidetracked on the reality of railings when there's supposed to be a flotilla of alien craft hovering over London.

Well, railings are reality (as far as we know), while flotillas of alien craft are still hypothetical! 8)

 

[eburacum]

I'm sorry to bang on about this, but I've just noticed something about the photo which seems particularly interesting.
Here it is again;

Note the shadows on the handrail. If the rail was really on the top of the building, I would expect it to be illuminated fairly evenly all round.
Instead the rail has a very noticable shadow on the side facing the photographer -as if the photographer was in shadow. That is entirely consistent with the photographer being on a balcony, presumably behind the window; that allows the lights in the sky to be reflections.

Note as well that the rail is lit from above and below but not from behind. To my mind, that can only be explained if the photographer is standing in a relatively dark place.

The balcony theory is looking quite plausible...

 

[ProfessorF]

A slight departure to the present subject, but UFOs-Over-London nonetheless:

UFO fleet menaces east London
Track this topic Print story Post comment
Street View sighting rocks Bethnal Green
By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 30th March 2009 10:25 GMT
Free whitepaper – Learn how to connect and collaborate from any location
The Sun has mobilised a crack team of hacks and ufologists to probe a sensational sighting of a formation of extraterrestrial vehicles swooping over the mean streets of Bethnal Green:

"Baffled" expert Nick Pope, who apparently "used to investigate sightings for the Ministry of Defence", described the visitation as “truly fascinating”. He said: “It appears to show nine objects flying in near perfect formation. About the only thing I know that can do this is the Red Arrows - and it’s not them. I’ve run through the list of possibilities that normally explain these things, but I can’t find an answer.”

Shaken locals shared Pope's bafflement, with one telling an on-the-spot Sun reporter: “This is definitely the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in Bethnal Green.”

Source

 

[rynner2]

Original Sun story here:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... 348570.ece
(not that it tells us much more...)

But I agree that the picture is baffling.

(I'm a long way from London, but there's been some unusual air activity down here recently. Helicopters are a common sight as there's a RN Air Station near Helston, but they normally fly singly. Yesterday, however, a line of three flew overhead, and I wished I'd had my camera handy. But this morning a line of FOUR went past! :shock: )

 

[rynner2]

Daily Telegraph:

Nine mystery silver discs can be seen above a bookmaker's shop in an image of Bethnal Green, east London, taken last year.

They appear to be flying in neat formation in three rows, attracting the attention of several passers-by, in the photograph of Wolverley Street.

One man can be seen craning his neck to look at the unidentified objects passing overhead as he strolls down the road.

It is the latest in a series of bizarre apparitions caught on camera since the British version of the Street View service was launched.

.....

Residents of Wolverley Street were perplexed by the sighting.

A spokesman for Google said that a series of strange "blobs" had been reported since the service was first offered in Britain earlier this month.

"For us it just shows how Street View is an interesting tool for users," he said.

The UK version of Street View, which accompanies Google's mapping service and satellite imagery provides photographs of 22,360 miles of roads across 25 cities around the country.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... okies.html

 

[Pete Younger]

Here's a close up, what could have caused that?

[/img]

 

[rynner2]

Possibly the Cornish helicopter activity is related to this:

The aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious will play a central role in celebrating 100 years of British naval aviation this year.

This week her crew also celebrated the return of their Harrier jets after a year’s absence on operation in Afghanistan.

The ship’s captain, Ben Key, said that having the ship’s Naval Strike Wing back had given his crew a boost.

In May Illustrious will be at the forefront of the Fly Navy 100 commemorations in Greenwich, southeast London, marking the centenary of the Admiralty placing an order for a £35,000 airship, which led to the creation of the Fleet Air Arm.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 005461.ece

And now I hand you back to London...

 

[Dr_Baltar]

Trooping the Colour flypast. It took me less than a minute to find this picture. Nick Pope shows his usual thoroughness. The man's an arse.