Discussion Forum
UFO sighting Boxing Day

From Ralph Eatough
Saturday, 27 December 2008

Did anyone see two "orangish" lights (one followed 5min after the other) moving east to west directly over Hebden Bridge and Heptonstall on Boxing Day? Again I am not suggesting anything like Aliens but it was quite unlike anything we have seen before.

Some more details:

  • Unfortunately we did not note the exact time. It was roughly between 6.00pm and 7.00pm.
  • The first light actually descended into the valley near Mytholm but we eventually lost sight.
  • The second light appeared 5mins later and was travelling in almost exactly the same direction but gained altitude until it went out of sight above Mytholm.
  • In both cases there was no sound and the lights were travelling at about the speed of a helecopter.

-We were actually playing with a telescope I had just purchased and managed to catch a glimpse of the second light through the view finder. It appeared to be an orange point source.

If anyone else saw these lights or could offer an explination please let me know!

Cheers,
Ralph


From Delia B
Friday, 2 January 2009

This is in response to Ralph's post. I saw the exact same thing, well as you described last night (new years eve) at around 12.10am. They flew from the hill across from me, near the school up Birchcliffe and headed toawrds my house near the old fire station. I was filming the fireworks across and thought it was some random burning embers at first floating in the sky, (i have them on film but you cant make anything out just a light) then I noticed they were travelling quite a distance and not going out and what was strange was, as you said, there was no noise at all. I thought maybe a 2 microlites then maybe 2 hot air balloons, but as they flew over, I couldn't see any sign of anything like that, just 2 glowing lights.... Does anyone know what they were??


From Danny Thompson
Friday, 2 January 2009

These sound like balloon lanterns - which seem to crop up here in Dorset every few months: see this page


From Mary I
Monday, 5 January 2009

I missed these but I too saw something like this last New Year's Eve 2008 and at around the same time. I had been watching fireworks on the Mytholmroyd hillside, when I saw 2 lights rise up from the ground in some woods behind where the fireworks were coming from. They rose pretty quickly and seemed to travel against the light prevailing wind towards Hebden. At first I thought they were flares but they rose up then levelled out and travelled along, weaving slightly, about the same height as the Heights Road. They eventually semed to fade into the cloud base above the Mount Skip. This took several minutes. I wondered if they were a kind of lantern, or even a kind of "earth light". They did however seem more ground related than other unusual lights that I have seen in the past.


From Jack Hughes
Monday, 5 January 2009

I happen to know that the New Year's Eve UFO flap was indeed caused by Chinese lanterns - three in number - which were released from the vicinity of Melbourne Street, HX7. I suspect that the Boxing Day sightings may have a similarly mundane origin, but who knows?


From Jacob G
Wednesday, 7 January 2009

They were indeed sky lanterns, readily available on the internet for £19.99 for 10. Is this a reasonable price to pay to be able to drop litter miles away from your home?