June 2016 - Smethwick – Multicoloured Orb Photograph

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report

Author: Dave Hodrien

Release Year: 2016

Last Updated: 03/10/2025

Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used and precise address details have been omitted

In September 2016 a man who I shall name “Simon” got in touch to ask for information about BUFOG’s monthly meetings. He also informed me that he had recently seen and taken a photograph of an unusual glowing object, which he decided to send me to analyse.

Sighting Details

Simon lives on Smethwick, Birmingham, near to Thimblemill Library just North North East of Warley Woods.

Aerial map indicating Thimblemill Library (A) and Warley Woods (B)

On either 11^th or 18^th June at 10:10pm he was out on the front garden and about to head out to Smethwick Labour Club & Institute for a drink. It was a dry and clear night with the stars visible. He happened to look out to the South South West in the direction of the woods and noticed a spinning multi-coloured pulsing light.

It appeared to be a main glowing orb of light with other pinpricks of white light flashing irregularly around it. The main orb was pulsing many different colours including red, yellow, green and blue. It was hovering motionless in the sky. He initially thought it was a police helicopter searching for something. But it remained static in the air for far too long.

Simon estimates it was roughly twice as high a police patrol helicopter would usually fly at, possibly 1000 feet up, at a 50 degrees elevation from his position. He believes it was about twice as big as a helicopter (roughly 90 feet across)

Intrigued by the object he watched it for between 5-10 minutes before deciding to quickly nip back inside to grab his Olympus X-42 camera. Returning to the garden he found that it was still present.

Checking his camera he realised that it was almost out of battery power, so decided to quickly snap a photograph while he still could. However, due to the distance it just looked like a jumble of coloured lights when he zoomed in on it. He did attempt to photograph it though, and after taking the image used the camera’s lighting auto fix function on it.

Below is the auto-fixed image which Simon sent to me (Currently he has not sent me the original un-fixed version):

After taking the photo he continued to watch the object for a further 20-25 minutes. He did not attempt to walk closer to it because it was in the opposite direction to where he was planning to head. In the end he was forced to depart for the labour club to ensure he got there before last orders. He left with the object still hovering in the sky.

Simon says that the sighting of the object freaked him out a bit, but since seeing it he has become fascinated by sky watching after dark in the hopes of seeing something else. He showed his wife the photo but says that she didn’t take much notice of it.

Photograph Analysis

Exif metadata is lots of hidden information stored behind photographic images and videos. It varies significantly between different makes of camera, but can be used to find out interesting details including make and model of camera, date and time the image was taken, and sometimes other useful information such as geographical position or compass direction. It can also be used to detect whether any tampering has gone on using image editing software.

However, metadata usually only remains intact with original images extracted directly from the camera they were taken on. Copying the photo to computer or social media such as Facebook Messenger can often remove most of this information, making analysis of this type largely pointless.

I was made aware by Simon that the image he sent me was not the raw original image off the camera. With this knowledge I still decided to run the image through an online Exif metadata viewer just to see if any metadata had been preserved. Unfortunately, as expected, most of the normal expected values are no longer present:

The fact that the Primary Platform metadata value reads “Apple Computer inc” means that Simon has downloaded the image to his Apple computer/tablet, and in doing so a lot of the metadata has unfortunately been lost. However I have no reason to doubt that this is a genuine image which has only been ran through the light level fix functionality of his camera.

Unfortunately, the image is not clear enough to really state what it may or may not have captured, a fact Simon is well aware of. It is clearly a luminescent object of some kind. It has orange, green and blue tints in it, although these colours could be down to the way the camera has picked up the light during the enhancement process, not the actual colours it was at the moment it was taken.

Sighting Analysis

This is an intriguing sighting with aspects that could be considered unusual. It was clearly not an aeroplane because of the fact that it remained stationary for around half an hour. This also tends to rule out a hot air balloon being flown after dark, or other lit inflatable, which would certainly have drifted.

I did ask Simon f he thought it could possibly have been a bright star or planet, as these can sometimes seem to flash different colours extremely rapidly. He said absolutely not, he was personally convinced that this was an object in the atmosphere rather than out in space. Also the image looks wrong for an out of focus and light enhanced star/planet

There are elements which do not fit with it being a distant helicopter. As Simon pointed out, half an hour is a long time for a helicopter to remain hovering in one position for. It appeared, at least to him, to be too large in size for a helicopter. Lastly there is the multi-coloured lights observed. Usually helicopters have red static, red strobing, white static, white strobing and green lights on them, as indicated by the below navigation lights diagram:

Simon witnessed yellow and blue coloured lights alongside these other colours, tending to suggest it was not simply a helicopter hovering over the woods. Similarly, drones tend to have singular coloured lights rather than a mix of flashing colours, although neither a helicopter can be entirely ruled out.

At present, this sighting, and the photograph supporting it, remain a mystery. If you have any information which could help identify it please get in touch.

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2025