From:      skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu
To:        skunk-works-digest@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu
Subject:   Skunk Works Digest V3 #77
Reply-To:  skunk-works-digest@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu
Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu
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Skunk Works Digest         Thursday, 15 July 1993       Volume 03 : Number 077

In this issue:

	Sighting in UK

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From: hausner@qucis.queensu.ca (Alejo Hausner)
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 93 11:38:05 EDT
Subject: Sighting in UK

I noticed this article in sci.astro.  Does the description fit
anything you guys might have heard about?

Alejo Hausner (hausner@qucis.queensu.ca)

- --- article follows ---

>    From: s126@uea.ac.uk (Peter Saward)
>    Subject: What did I see????
>    Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1993 14:30:41 GMT
> 
> Last Friday night (or, rather, early hours of saturday morning July
> 9/10th) at about 00:45 BST, I let the dog out and took a turn around
> the garden, which I often do if it's a fine night and take the
> opportunity to do some naked-eye astronomy.  It had been a wet day,
> but the clouds had broken in the evening, and the sky was fairly clear
> by this time. The Moon was about 30deg. in the south-east and just
> entering the last quarter. The southern sky was obscured by heavey
> cumulus, while to the east was a scattering of broken stratus I'd
> estimate at between 5000 - 10000 feet. The Northern and western sky
> was clear to my horizon. The air was still.
> 
> I was looking just north-west of zenith when 2 small yellow blobs of
> light entered my field of vision from the south-west, and travelled in
> a straight line north-eastward until they were obscured by the stratus
> cloud in the east, reappearing once briefly through a gap in the cloud
> when about 30 deg above the horizon. I say "blobs" of light - they
> weren't point sources, they had a definite size, about 1/4 moon
> diameter, but an indistinct edge. They were slightly less than 1 moon
> diameter apart, and moved quite fast, taking about 3 seconds to cross
> my field of view. They were a distinct yellow colour, like tungsten
> lighting seen through a distant window.
> 
> My immediate reaction was that I was seeing the cabin lights of a
> passenger aircraft - a fairly common occurence as my house is under an
> approach path to Norwich airport, about 9 miles to the east. However,
> there was no sign of the usual red and green wing-tip lights, nor the
> fore and aft strobe lights, normally shown by an aircraft. Nor was
> there any engine noise.  Also, it went behind the clouds, which would
> put it at an altitude above the normal approach path.
> 
> It could have been the exhaust glow from the engines of two military
> aircraft - these are also a common sight around here - but to have
> seen the exhausts as having a definite size would have meant they'd
> have been low enough to be extremely audible! Also, military aircraft
> around here always show very bright strobe lights.
> 
> So, what did I see? I don't believe it was an aircraft - high altitude
> craft would have taken many seconds (10 - 30 say) to cross my field of
> view, and would appear only as a point of light. Anything low enough
> to be readily visible at night would also be readily audible. Was it
> some piece of space junk making re-entry? I can't think of a natural
> phenomenon to account for it.
> 
> (And, please, nobody tell me I saw a UFO or alien spacecraft or
> whatever....  I saw a man-made or natural phenomonon, something
> unusual enough to make me curious....)
> 
> Peter Saward, Communications Specialist
> Computing Centre
> University of East Anglia
> Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.
> s126@uea.ac.uk
>

------------------------------

End of Skunk Works Digest V3 #77
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