I was operating on Foel Fenlli, NW-051 yesterday afternoon in the 2m Backpackers Contest and when I returned to the car pack I got chatting with a bloke in a campervan parked near me.
He had been walking on Moel Famau, NW-044 earlier and said he saw a UFO above the Jubilee Tower! Oh yeah I thought!
He then popped into his van and came back with his camera and sure enough he had a photo of a fuzzy spherical object hovering above the Tower.
The only explanation I can think of is that it was ball lightning as I had heard a few static crackles while I was operating. Weather was dry all afternoon with a light breeze, medium cloud and plenty of sunshine.
Could it be an Iridium flare. These last for a very short time and are very bright; caused by the sun being reflected by the satellite’e solar panels. I have seen one and it was very impressive.
In reply to GW4EVX:
There is not enough detail: did he see the object or just find it on his photo? Was it stationary or moving, and if moving how fast and in what direction? What was its angular size? Was its shape constant or changing?
A couple of possibilities: if he found it on his photo, an internal reflection in the lenses of the camera. If actually seen, a weather balloon or even a kids helium balloon, a mock sun (parhelia), a reflection off a distant aircraft…there are so many possibilities.
Indeed, we are talking about an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) but with good detailed observation most of these objects can be shifted to the category of Identified Flying Object. The trouble is that the average person is a really poor observer! One hopes that if some of these objects are genuinely carrying little green men, the little green men are good observers or they might go away thinking that they have found another civilisation!
Yes. The ephemeris you link to gives magnitudes of -7 and -8 which is up to about 25 times brighter than Venus at its brightest.
I have seen Venus high in the sky in broad daylight in summer, so it would be perfectly possible to see a bright Iridium satellite reflection “flare” in daylight.
However, the ephemeris says no Iridium satellite was visible from the area at the time (if it’s complete).
Like Brian says though, there are many possible explanations for this without invoking aliens! - and I second the comment about observers!
If we space aliens can travel billions of light years across space to visit this little green/blue planet does anyone seriously think we would zoom around in spacecraft you can see?
By the way has anyone got a spare quantum flux capacitor so I can fix my sub-space transporter and get back to Alpha Centuri.
I wonder has Area 51 has relocated to the Deeside Industrial Park?
