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14th August 2011 – Wokingham – Orange Orb Sighting

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report

Author: Dave Hodrien

Originally forwarded by Richard Hall

Release Date: 16/08/2011

Last Updated: 23/01/2025

 

Sighting Details

 

Around 10pm on 14th August 2011 Gillian Flynn, her husband, daughter and son-in-law were out in the back garden of their house on Moor Close in Finchampstead, Wokingham, Berkshire. It was quite a clear still night with only scattered cloud. The moon was visible in the East and stars could be seen through the gaps in the clouds.

 


The family were looking out for meteorites as it was the clearest night in quite a while. Suddenly Gillian and her daughter noticed an orange orb of light moving towards them from the West. It looked spherical in shape and quite large in size. It appeared to be travelling quite fast. The base of the object appeared to be more blurred. Gillian’s daughter said that the shape reminded her of a manta ray.

 

As it got closer to their location, Gillian’s husband also started to watch it. A moment later the object suddenly turned sharply to the North/North East. It then continued on its way and was lost from sight behind a large holly tree.

 

Gillian’s daughter thought it may have been a Chinese lantern but Gillian feels that it was not due to the high speed of movement and the right angle turn that it seemed to make. Her husband used to work on Air Traffic Control at Heathrow airport and agreed that conventional aircraft would not be able to turn in that manner.

 

Sighting Analysis

 

Despite the fact that the object seemed to move fast and performed a sudden sharp turn I feel that the most likely explanation for it was a Chinese lantern. Sometimes lanterns can get caught in fast air currents, making them move at quite a speed across the sky. Perhaps there were two intersecting air currents moving in different directions and as it moved into the new one it immediately started drifting in the new direction.

 

The appearance of the object certainly fits with it being a lantern. These appear as spheres of orange glowing light at a distance. The fact that the object appeared more “fuzzy” or blurred at the base could be due to the fact that this is where the heat source is situated. I cannot say for definite that it was a lantern, but this does seem to be the most likely explanation in this case.

 

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025

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