Birmingham UFO Group ReportAuthor: Dave HodrienRelease Date: 10/10/2010IntroductionPhil Wright from Coventry is a keen astronomer and enjoys taking photographs of the sky, planets and stars. Over time he has both seen and photographed a number of interesting UFOs. He has come to realise that there are certainly strange objects flying around our skies, and for the last five years has regularly scanned the skies with his telescope and camera in the hopes of seeing them. He does this from the back garden of his home on William Bree Road, Eastern Green, Coventry. This report covers each of his UFO sightings and contains photographic analysis of the images he has managed to capture.Aerial map showing location of William Bree Road, from where the photographs in this report were taken:04/02/2007 - ORANGE ORB UFOSighting DetailsAt 1.46pm on the 4th February 2007, Phil was out in his back garden and trying out his new Canon eos400d camera with Sigma 105mm ex telephoto lens. The weather was quite cloudy, but there were still patches of blue sky. He suddenly caught sight of a very fast moving bright yellow/orange orb of light. It was moving much faster than a low altitude fighter jet would fly at, and heading on a straight course to the West. It was at an angle of about 20-30 degrees from his position.Luckily the camera was set up on the tripod and pointing towards the object, and Phil quickly snapped three frames over one second. The object was visible for a further 3 seconds in which time it had covered the entire skyline and disappeared into the horizon. He did not expect to have caught the object due to its speed, but when he checked he found he had managed to capture it on the first two of the three photographs.Bizarrely, the object appeared at exactly the same position on both the photographs. Phil finds this aspect of the incident very hard to explain - it was almost as if for a fraction of a second the object had halted, perhaps to allow itself to be photographed! He is certain that the two photographs were both genuine and that one was not a copy of the other.Unfortunately Phil has currently only been able to locate the first photograph of the three, but if he manages to find the others he says he will send them to me for inclusion here.Photographic AnalysisHere is the first photograph which captured the object. The intense glowing light coming from the object can be easily seen:Zoomed view of the UFO:Zoomed view of the UFO with edge find:Sighting AnalysisThis is an interesting sighting that defies many explanations. The appearance of the object was very similar to how Chinese lanterns appear. However the object was moving much too fast for it to have been a lantern, even if there was fast wind conditions (Which there wasn't at ground level). It was also moving too fast to have been a conventional aircraft/helicopter, and as it was the daytime the shape would have been visible. It is possible that it was an earth light, although these would not generally move so fast or travel right across the sky as the object did. Perhaps it was a daylight sighting of a meteorite burning up in the atmosphere. This is probably the most logical explanation for what was seen and photographed. However this does not explain how it appeared at the same position on two separate photographs, unless there was a temporary issue with the camera. There is still a chance it was something much more unusual travelling on an intentional course.17/03/2007 - METALLIC FLOWER-SHAPED UFOSighting DetailsIt was 2.30pm on 17th March 2007, and Phil was once again out in the back garden of his house checking out the sky. It was a mild sunny day, with patchy cloud and a light breeze. He sighted what looked like a bright glinting dot in the sky moving from the South West to the North East. Aiming his camera towards the object he started to take photographs at a rate of 1 a second. Through the telescopic lens he could see that the object appeared to be metallic silver in colour. It was shaped like a flower, with a rounded central section surrounded by petal-like appendages radiating outward. As he watched, these appendages appeared to change position and angle in an unusual way. Within a minute the object had been lost from sight to the East.Photographic AnalysisSadly Phil lost most of the photographs he took of this particular object when his laptop stopped working. However he had luckily managed to save a couple of them beforehand. Below is the first photograph:Zoomed photo of the UFO:Zoomed photo of the UFO with edge find:In this second zoomed photograph, the edge appendages look a little different and less pronounced. Phil says that the other photos showed similar differences as if the outer edges of the object were moving and changing in some way:Sighting AnalysisPhil admits that the object could have been a balloon, however he did find the apparent movement of the outer sections of the object to be very unusual. This could however have been merely a trick of the light. I agree with Phil, it is certainly possible that the object was a decorative balloon of some kind, although the shape is extremely odd. It was certainly not a conventional aircraft of any kind. It did not perform any interesting manoeuvres which would suggest it was under any form of control.29/05/2007 - WHITE FLICKERING UFOSighting DetailsOn 29th May 2007 Phil was to witness another strange looking object. It was a very clear day with only light fluffy clouds. At 5.52pm Phil caught sight of a bright, erratically flickering UFO in the sky. The object was moving from South West to North East and appeared to be at very high altitude. It looked like it was white in colour and a very strange shape which was hard to describe. The flickering coming from it was extremely bright and reminded Phil of a welding arc. It was travelling on a straight course at a steady speed similar to that of an aircraft. Phil had his camera at the ready and started taking a photograph every second until the memory card became full. As the object flew towards the North East horizon, it appeared to get even brighter for a moment, and also seemed to "hang around" for a moment, which suggests it was at very high altitude. Phil has often seen low flying aircraft leaving from Birmingham International airport, and when these reach the horizon they vanish straight away.Photographic AnalysisHere is a time-lapsed video sequence that Phil has made from the photographs. This clearly shows the odd shape of the object and its rotation: Sighting AnalysisThis is a truly bizarre looking object. I feel that the most likely explanation is some kind of lightweight material that was caught in an air current and drifting across the sky. Perhaps it was even space debris that was in orbit just outside of the atmosphere. It does not look like a balloon, but neither does it seem to have a definite shape or structure to it which would indicate it was some kind of craft. Phil says it appeared white and had flickering light coming from it. There is the possibility that it was reflecting sunlight at certain angles which would have created this effect.26/07/2008 - SPINNING DISC-SHAPED UFOSighting DetailsLate on the evening of 26th July 2009, Phil saw and photographed a strange disc-shaped object in the sky. He first sighted it through binoculars and it appeared as a tiny metallic looking object, with a shape very reminiscent of a "classic" flying saucer. It was not visible with the naked eye due to the distance. It appeared to be at very high altitude and was hardly moving. Phil took about 40 photographs of the object, but when he tried to find it again with his binoculars he had lost sight of it. It had probably headed to the South away from him. When he checked the photos, it appeared that the object had been rocking back and forth and also possibly rotating anti-clockwise.Photographic AnalysisBelow is a time-lapsed video of the object, showing the rotation and erratic rocking movement: Sighting AnalysisI feel that the most likely explanation for this particular object is some kind of balloon/inflatable. It appears to be silver in colour. The rocking motion and possible rotation could well be caused by the object being blown in the wind at high altitude. It looks nothing like a conventional aircraft, and did appear to be in the atmosphere, albeit very high up. I do wonder if in fact the object was similar in shape to the UFO Phil saw on 17th March 2007, with a more flower-like shape, but with the appendages beings viewed from the side. The central area of the UFO does not appear smooth, and suggests that it could be oddly shaped.21/02/2009 - OVAL UFO WITH RED LIGHTSighting DetailsThis sighting occurred around lunchtime on 21st February 2009. It was a moderate temperature with a mostly clear sky, except for a few fast moving clouds. Phil was sweeping the sky with his binoculars when he came across a small intense red light, at an elevation of about 60 degrees. The object appeared to be stationary, with the intensity of the light slightly changing every few seconds. Phil used his William Optics Megrez72 apo camera with 1.4x Teleconverter and took 25 photographs at 1 second intervals. After about a minute, some high level haze appeared and blocked out the object from sight.When he checked the photographs on his laptop, Phil could then make out a dark oval-shaped object behind the light. It appeared that the red light was emenating from this object, possibly even coming from an opening in it. It was also possible to see that the object was rotating in an anti-clockwise directionPhotographic AnalysisBelow is a time-lapsed video sequence of the object, showing it's shape and rotation: Sighting AnalysisAs Phil has stated, this could well be a balloon/inflatable with LED light attached. It's constant rotation could be caused by the object drifting in air currents. This is not a definite though, and the rotation of the object could be entirely intentional. The object is clearly not a conventional aircraft of any kind, and it does not look like atmospheric phenomena. If it was some kind of structured flying model it is unlikely it would have been rotating. The most probable explanation is a lit inflatable of some kind.23/04/2010 - GLOWING ORANGE CYLINDRICAL UFOSighting DetailsAt 5.22pm on 23rd April 2010, Phil caught a glimpse of a stationary flickering amber coloured light to the North from his back garden. It was a clear sunny evening, and the glow coming from the object was immediately apparent. It appeared to be extremely far away as even through his binoculars he could only make out the intense light. He snapped 30 photographs of the object using his telescope and camera setup.Later when he checked on his laptop, it became clear that the object was cylindrical in shape. Also he found that it appeared to be rotating on the spot.Photographic AnalysisHere is a time-lapsed video sequence, which clearly shows the clockwise rotation of the object: Sighting AnalysisI feel that the most probable explanation for this sighting is an internally lit balloon of some kind. The object appears too long to be a conventional Chinese lantern, and also these do not tend to rotate completely even if caught in a breeze. However the fact that it was a glowing amber colour and occasionally flickering lead me to believe it had a flame inside of it. It performed no manoeuvres which suggest that it was under control, and its rotation could easily have been caused by it being blown around in an air current. As with most of the other sightings here I cannot give a definite answer to what was seen, but this is the most likely explanation.09/05/2010 - METALLIC UFO WITH VAPOUR TRAILSighting DetailsOn the afternoon of 9th May 2010, Phil was out in the back garden of his house. It was 2.15pm and a clear, warm day with a slight breeze and some white cloud cover. He was out with some binoculars and Pointed Handheld Celestron 5 telescope with attached Canon 550d slr camera attached, and was doing a scan of the sky to see if he could spot anything out of the ordinary.As he looked through his binoculars, he came across a distant object glinting in the sunlight to the North North East. It was hard to judge the size of the object, but it appeared to be high in the atmosphere, at least at airliner cruising altitude. It was at about 45 degrees elevation from his position. It was too distant to visually notice any detail, so he began taking photographs of it through his telescopic camera. He took 25 photos, but then thought to himself that the object was nothing more than a balloon and put his equipment down. A minute later he noticed that the object had moved slightly higher in elevation, so decided to take a further 15 photographs, after which he lost sight of it behind some clouds.Phil was curious as to what the object could have been, but assumed that when he scanned the photos into his PC it would turn out to be nothing more than a balloon. However he was surprised to find that the object was something much more interesting! It looked like a metallic silver hexagonal or star shaped structure, with a central domed area and a number of appendages sticking out from it. These appendages appeared to have blue lights at their tips. Surrounding the object was a strange looking white vapour trail which appeared to have a particle-like structure to it. Phil had never seen anything like this before. Throughout the 40 photos that he took, the object appeared to be morphing and moving into and out of this trail, perhaps suggesting that it was being emitted from the whole object rather than a specific place on it. The trail appeared to be directly behind the object. Phil has a lot of experience of observing jet aircraft and knows how their trails appear at different angles. The photographs suggest that the object was possibly changing shape or morphing relative to the trail, although it could have just been rotating to different angles.Soon after the incident, Phil sent some of the images to UFO researcher Martin Slough to see what he thought of them. Just like Phil, he had no idea what the object could be and agreed that it looks extremely unusual. In June 2010 Phil sent me all the high resolution photographs he had taken of the object. Some of these photos are analysed and discussed below.Photographic AnalysisHere is a time-lapsed video of the UFO showing it's bizarre shape and actions: Sighting AnalysisThe object that Phil photographed on this occasion truly is an anomaly. The photos taken are the most bizarre set of UFO photographs that BUFOG has yet received, and I find this sighting completely fascinating. Without his telescopic camera, this would have been nothing more than a tiny dot reflecting light. Many high altitude UFO sightings end up like this, with no way of knowing whether the object is something mundane or out of the ordinary. But thanks to the equipment available at the time of this sighting, we instead are left with many photos of a highly unusual structured object. It clearly looks to be solid, and looks like it is emitting a vapour trail of some kind. It looks completely different from any conventional aircraft. It is unlikely to be a remote controlled model due to the high altitude it appeared to be at. Also it looks nothing like an inflatable object or a bunch of balloons tied together. LED balloons do feature small glowing lights, however balloons do not emit a visible trail behind them. If you have ever seen anything similar to this or know what the object could possibly be, please do get in touch. For now it remains an intriguing mystery.ConclusionOver the last few years Phil has managed to capture some very interesting objects on camera. While some of them may well have mundane explanations, all of them certainly look very unusual, and display characteristics different to many normal aerial objects. I am certain that he will continue to watch the skies over Coventry, and will continue to film UFOs, and if he stays in touch this report will be updated with these further sightings.Copyright Dave Hodrien 2010
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