Chippenham, Wiltshire-30th December 2008-Updated
Location of Sighting: Chippenham, Wiltshire
Date of Sighting: 30th December 2008
Time: 8.15pm
Witness: Harold Lutener
UK-UFO Update:7th January 2009 Feedback received from Jay re chiness lantern video-see comments.
Witness Statement : I was in our kitchen and about to let our dogs out into the back garden, I looked out of the kitchen window and saw a bright orange light travelling towards our house from a north east direction and very high in the sky, the visability was clear with some sight cloud.I called to my wife and we went out outside to have a further look but watched the object travelling it looked at first like a firework, my wife said to go and get my camera but then saw it almost come to a stand still then went directly up until not visable. Time of sighting 8.15pm
Source:Direct request on UK-UFO
Comment : If you can provide further information on this or other possible UFO sightings in the Chippenham or surrounding area then please leave a comment or send details through our “submit sighting” form.
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:07 pm
also saw same light on 01 01 09 just after midnight on my way home from a new years party it was orange ,moving very slowly traveling south to north over chippenham and meet another light over chippenham
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:59 pm
I also saw the lights over chippenham on new years eve, my fiancée, mother and father also saw them that night, I was able to take a photo of the lights but only on my phone, my fiancée managed to zoom in and take a photo. On the ground it looked like two orange lights, when zoomed in each light looks like it was made up of a number of smaller orange lights in a row. We also rang the local RAF base as the orange lights were in the flight path and was told that nothing flys after 10:30pm. I would love to get more info on these lights.
4th January 2009 UK-UFO have asked Jay if she can review the chinese lantern video to see if this could offer an explanation for the sighting.If it doesn’t we have asked Jay if it possible to send in the photo taken by her fiancée.
7th January 2009-UK-UFO recieved the following update from Jay.
Hi
thank you for your email, i’ve been looking at the clip you sent me and i can honestly say that if they are lanterns in the clip, then this wasnt a lantern that i saw on new years eve. in the clip it looks like they are flickering due to the flame, but the lights we saw was a constant bright orange glow, it was the same brightness as a street light (same colour too) another strange thing is that once it was zoomed in the one bright light consisted of two rows of smaller lights, once i have got the photo off the camera i will send it to you asap. I would love to find out more info about these as its the strangest thing i’ve ever seen!
Kind regards
Jay
January 5th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
me and my daughter saw very similar new years eve about 11.30
over south oxfordshire.
my first thought was that is was a large fire work but it just kept going and didnt explode.
all we could see were what looked like a plume of orange red flames. it moved up and across the sky I think in a north west direction for about 1 minit and then it seemed to slow right down and then go stright up so the orange plume looked like a round, circular shape of orange red shimering flames or lights. this just seemed to go higher and higher until out of sight. ive looked and chinnese lantern video and it bears no resembelance what so ever. i can only describe it as what youd expect to see if it were a space rocket.
UK-UFO Update-This sighting has also been posted separately in the Oxfordshire section of the website.
January 8th, 2009 at 10:17 am
I also saw this exact light roughly 5 mins past midnight in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. It stayed stationary then moved very quickly then disapearing. It then reappeared in the previous position before travelling extremely quickly out of my sight towards the horizon.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
CHIPPENHAM, WILTSHIRE – 1st January 2009 (approx 12:05am)
Thank God I’m not the only one who saw this on New Years Eve (well actually 12:05am on New Years day to be precise!). We thought we were going mad. Left our neighbours house at 12:05am to come home and saw in the sky a glowing orange light moving steadily across the sky from I think East to West. We thought it was a firework to start with because of the glow but then realised quite quickly that it wasn’t when it didn’t burn out and continued to travel at a steady pace in a straight line from left to right for a period of time. It then slowed down and almost stopped with a slight ‘wabble’ (sorry best way I can describe it) and then went straight up. I am so relieved that others have seen it. I would love to know what it was. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life before!
January 9th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
OMG i am so glad aswell… me and my friends were on a hill in marlborough and wee all saw EXACTLY the same thing as this! we all thought we had had tooo much WKD but maybe not! Three orangy lights traveling across the sky and we thought it was a helicopter when they came ubuv us with a light like a stop light.. then they flew away from us and dropped like fireworks or a distress signal… we were really freaked out by it!
January 10th, 2009 at 8:16 am
31st December 2008
I was in the garden having a cigarette when I saw the fist light in the distance to the north. I watched for approximately 30 minutes and watched bright orange lights ranging in distance and height and no more than 2 at a time. They moved horizontally for a considerable distance then disappear upwards into the gloomy night, I looked at the lights through binoculars but they were to distant to get a clear image of, the lights were not flickering and were a constant glow, the movement of the lights led me to eliminate balloons as they would travel to fast and then stop moving completely, also they moved in different directions where as the prevailing wind would have caused them to all drift in the same or similar way. I have read that Chinese lanterns is the favoured explanation but I am sure the movement of these lights and their speed was beyond the effects of the weather on a balloon…
January 10th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
I have just seen two orange balls of light flying over Bath! 9.55pm to be precise. I was sat outsideon my doorstep in the cold having a cigarette, when one light came over the rooftops from the south (twerton) area and headed North over Locksbrook cemetary towards Lansdown. I examined it for indicators or other signs/noise of an aircraft and found none. Plus it wasn’t on the flight path.
I decided this was unusual and a bit odd but thought it was probably easily explained, except it was followed seconds later by another!
This followed a similar path though slightly wider.
They were soundless, bright orange balls of light, not particularly high in the sky, moving fairly quickly in a straight line.
My mum saw something similar last week in Wiltshire whilst driving. Except this one hovered and shone into her car. She had three witnesses to this occurence. Any suggestions?
11th January 2009 UK-UFO : This comment has also been posted as a seperate sighting report for Bath-Gloucestershire.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
I live in Shepton Mallet in Somerset – Mike and I were taking the dog for a walk at exactly 10 minutes past ten at night on Saturday 10th January. we looked up and saw an orange light moving across the sky we watched it for a good 10 to 15 minutes trying to figure out what it was. It seemed to be heading toward the mendip hills. There was no sound at all – just an orange glow like a street lamp colour. It was moving smoothly across the sky and did slow down or stop at any point, nor did it leave a trail like a plane often does. I am amazed to see that so many others have also seen it.
January 13th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Hello
I also seen a strange light in the sky on new years eve over chippenham. We were travelling into cepen park south around 11.45pm . It did look like a bright burning orange light , disappeared very quickly too. Very strange !
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:16 pm
as a avid ufo fan i would love these to be true but i can only attribute this to chinese lanterns especially at new years we had 4 fly over swindon during the evening. i make and regulary fly laterns and the speed and track of the objects observed can only point to this .if observed from a distance the flame does not appear to flicker just a bright orange light and on a clear evening i have timed flights well into 15 minutes and they climb to well over 2000ft in a matter of minutes then just disapearing as the flame burns out .i really dont want to judge what people saw but all logic is pointing to the lanterns i sincerly hope im wrong!!
February 11th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Hi
Have a look on my site at the article http://www.sufor.org.uk/article-009-ufo-over-swindon.htm
This perhaps may help?
Also, you could try the video link from the Swindon UFO case 028 – which is a video of the orange light in the sky.
http://www.sufor.org.uk/suf-cse-028.htm
Best wishes,
Chris, Swindon UFO Research.
August 6th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Sorry I’ve been a while getting round to posting this, but in all honesty I’ve only just realised how much interest there has been in the ‘lights’. I have no answer or even theory as to what they are but I do have a slight variation on the typical stories. I live in Bath and first saw the lights on New Years day. Now were as most people report seeing 2 or 3, I saw over 30. The first one came over my house travelling Easterly, roughly toward Bathampton and then was followed by a couple more continuing to grow in a kind of piramid formation. Once they reached the corner of the hills (don’t know their mames!)the lights took a sharp change of direction on a similar berring to that of the air traffic from RAF Lyhnam (no, I’m not suggesting anything..)Oddly enought I’ve seen 2 separate single light since this happened including tonight all travelling towards the same direction after changing direction, but coming from different starting positions. Now I don’t like the whole I’m this so you had better listen thing, but I have worked with aircraft and have years of experience of working around military airfields, and I have a strong scientific background. On the back of this I do not believe these are Chinese Lanterns, though if they are I would find that truth as impressive as any other.
August 11th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
saturday the 8th august 2009 10pm chippenham wiltshire approx i saw what almost looked like a flaming ball in the sky it went over my head slowly i had been drinking so i went strait home and told my wife to look at the sky to check i was no seeing things she saw it aswell by this time its was quite a distance away but still visible defenatley was not a plane any ideas what it was
September 27th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
I saw the orange lights in the sky on 26/9/2009 at about 9:30pm and they didn’t look like anything I had ever seen before. They came one after another before stopping near each other, and they sort of moved around each other before fading out. Three other people I was with saw them too.
September 29th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
So glad i’m not going crazy!!! On Saturday 26th September 2009 at aprroximately 9.30pm I was strolling around my house trying to calm down my new born baby when I noticed a strange light outside of the upstairs window. It was a flaming, Orange ball like object, that seemed to be floating by as it did so I could see another one a little further away, they just calmly floated into the distance. I did quickly snap a pic on my mobile phone. Does anyone have any idea what they are? My sister and her husband saw something very similar about 3 weeks previously, also on a Saturday evening around 9.30pm.
September 30th, 2009 at 8:40 am
I was in the car with my partner, her son and his friend, driving back from Fairford on Saturday night. It was gone 10pm, probably about 20 mins past, when my partner’s son spotted a bright orange light in the sky. At this point we pulled the car over on one of the Cricklade back roads and stopped to have a look. It was a bright orange sphere which moved slowly upwards until twinkling out. The sky was cloudless and starry and this light stood out for being so unusual. I certainly hadn’t seen anything like it before. I assumed it may have been the afterburners of a rocket or something, a missile launch perhaps. Others have suggested a chinese lantern, but the orange ball seemed to be too large for a lantern. It was certainly most unusual. But I am open-minded to answers, be they earthbound or extra-terrestrial!
October 26th, 2009 at 1:43 am
Me and two other mates was at new wine camp this year (2009). I aint christian parents dragged me along and me and mates went for a walk down to the bottom of the camp site. we also saw a f*ck load of orange lights and we onestly thought it was a city with street lights but then i looked closer and it alot higher then this hill and it was all in the sky?
wtf!!!!
November 1st, 2009 at 10:45 am
Two more spotted over Bath around midnight 30th october. Came in from the east over odddown/oldfield park before turning north over the city and vanished.Bright orange in colour and not flickering, no sound of aircraft what so ever. Not on the flight path to bristol airport either. Whatever they were they were in formation as they both changed direction at the same point one after the other.Also changed speed form near stop to very fast.
January 3rd, 2010 at 10:15 pm
Saw these over lyneham a few months back. Simply lanterns that had been let off near by.
February 1st, 2010 at 10:42 am
Also saw orange light and just before that a paler one while driving through West Sussex…..very clear sky around, 8.20 pm ….amazing?