09/12/2013 – Moorside, Oldham – White Orb Sighting

Birmingham UFO Group Report

Forwarded by UFO Info

Author: Dave Hodrien

Release Date: 09/01/2014

Last Updated: 30/05/2025

Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used

Sighting Details

At around 6.15pm on the evening of 9th December 2013, Paula went to the door of her house in Moorside, Oldham to have a cigarette. It was a clear and still evening with only light cloud. Due to the time of year it was already fully dark. Paula stared up at the stars overhead. She noticed a star-like light begin to move slowly across the sky to the North West. It was travelling in a Southern direction. Suddenly the light began to shine extremely brightly. At first she thought it was an aeroplane at high altitude with its lights shining on the front. However there was something about it that didn’t look right.

She ran into the house to get some binoculars, and also called for her children to come outside and take a look. Returning to the door she again looked at the object through the binoculars. She could see it getting brighter then darker, and watched it for several minutes. Then without warning the object became extremely bright. After this it suddenly shot straight upwards at an extremely fast speed and was lost from sight!

At the time of the sighting her Paula’s husband was out visiting his father in hospital. When he arrived home, before Paula could tell him about her sighting, he excitedly told her that on the way to the hospital he had seen a bright light moving across the sky which suddenly glowed extremely brightly and shot straight upwards! He was amazed when Paula informed him she and the children had seen the same thing.

Sighting Analysis

Most of what was seen during this sighting could easily be explained away as a satellite crossing the night sky. Satellites usually appear just like moving stars. However if they are rotating as they move they can sometimes catch the sun’s rays which causes them to increase in brightness suddenly. Sometimes this rotation will cause them to constantly get brighter then darker as reflective surfaces either come into or move out of the light. Even the sudden disappearance of the light could be put down to the satellite changing angle as it passes round the Earth, or even getting hidden from view behind a cloud.

However both witnesses at separate locations saw the object suddenly shoot straight upwards at high velocity. If just Paula had seen this you could put it down to a trick of the light, but it is very unlikely that both witnesses would have seen this same thing occur. And if they really did see it suddenly ascend vertically this means it cannot have been a satellite at all, and must have been a glowing object within the atmosphere. Satellites never change their course of movement or speed, and as they are in orbit would never increase or decrease is their distance from the Earth.

As a satellite can be ruled out in this particular circumstance due to the facts of the case, it is very hard to explain the incident in mundane terms. Because of the speed of vertical ascent a distant aircraft/helicopter, LED balloon, other lit inflatable and radio controlled model can all be dismissed. It appears that the object was under direct control and able to perform advanced manoeuvres. Unfortunately neither witness was particularly close to the object so at present we have no way of knowing whether the entire UFO was glowing or whether there were bright lights on it which merged at a distance into a single glowing orb of light.

Due to the brightness of the UFO and the fact that both Paula and her husband independently saw the object it is likely that there were other witnesses to it who have yet to come forward.

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025