Subject: Re: Croxteth, Liverpool, UK Earth Light
From: "billbimson1" <billbimson1@...>
Date: 06 Apr 2006 23:11
Sean wrote: >Welcome! Rather a prestigious introduction, if the Dave Clarke you mention is the one that I'm thinking of.> It was the evil Doktor as some people Jokingly call him, but I am afraid the prestige is unwarranted because he invited everyone on the UFOlogy in the UK web forum http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ufologyinuk Sean wrote: <My initial reaction was that the behaviour sounded like a flare, which is not something that you have on your list of interpretations. The slow downwards motion, three minute duration, and bright orange colour are consistent with that that; as is the slow lateral movement and eventual demise around the horizon.> I had assumed that a flare would have drifted down much further over a period of 3 minutes. It was only just above the horizon when it was first spotted, so if it is a flare, I am surprised that it lasted so long, but this will become more obvious when you see the video (which I will send). Sean wrote: <But there are also the characteristics of shape and colour shift, and the periodic variability in brightness, which may be inconsistent with that interpretation. The latter, the flashing of the object, may be a film artefact--did you test, for example, the moon as a reference object to see if it exhibited the same behaviour on the film?> The short answer is no Sean, but there was certainly a good shot of the moon which didn't exhibit any flashing characteristic like the BOL that was obvious. The witnesses also describe it as rotating because of the variability and that includes those who were not looking through the viewfinder. Sean wrote: <As for the shape and colour, I'm not sure how vivid these characteristics were since I've not seen the film, so it would indeed be great if I could see it. But even then, the observer reports would probably be more helpful: did they feel that it behaved in such a way which is inconsistent with a flare? If so, how so? Have they seen flares before in the area? Have they seen any flares before at all?> It was pretty dark at the time (end of dusk) so the camcorder has compensated for the dark and made the BOL look white, the film won't tell you any more about the colour, so we have to rely on witness statements for that. As far as I know, the witnesses have never seen flares before. Sean wrote: <I think there are generally two important things that can be done with amateur sightings of possible earth lights. 1) Record the event as well as possible and then submit it to as many cumulative anomalous incident databases as possible, rather than letting it be a standalone; and 2) possibly conduct further research in the area to see whether the event was sporadic or not, using as much equipment as possible to record further events in the latter case.> In 1) above, please tell me where to submit. This would be applicable to other UFO reports I have!=20 In 2) above, it is probably not safe to do so. The particular area has a problem with drugs and I wouldn't be happy roaming the area with expensive equipment at nighttime and slightly nervous during the daytime. There is also a practical limit on how long you can do this for. If what you are looking for is a BOL and it happens only once per year, there is no way that the average researcher can capture that by waiting for it to happen. If there is other research that can be done apart from sitting in the area with Trifield meters camcorders and the likes, please let me know what I can do. Sean wrote: <Another thing that I would do, if it were a friend of mine that had made the sighting, is go back and ask again and again for more information extracting every possible detail that they can recall. Wind direction, approximate location, any irregularities with the camera, past observations by the same witnesses, the direction of the lateral movement, and so on, are all useful to know: the more info, the more value.> They weren't my friends Sean. Much of what you ask above is self evident in the video and I have weather reports. The only thing I didn't go into a lot of detail with is past observations. Sean wrote: <Anyway, thanks for posting this sighting and I hope my feedback has been of some use. I'd like to see the video if I may, especially if you can post a digitised version of that online somewhere. And welcome again to the mysterylights list!> I ain't done with you yet buddy! I am on Yahoo mail and I am not sure what the maximum size of attachement is that I can send, but I think it is probably around 5-10 MB and with a 3.5 minute video, you are not going to get much quality, but I am happy to send you whatever you can receive and what I can transmit. A more practical solution is for me to send you a CD or DVD of the footage but I would need your snail mail address for that. Feel free to contact me off-list if you prefer on billbimson1@... with your address. Cheers, Bill Bimson -- Sean B. Palmer, mysterylights.com