News

UFO alert! Did you see moving orange light?

By Mike Pyle
July 09, 2010

Did you see a ‘UFO’ hovering over Bullbrook last Friday night?

Zdravko Nanev thinks he might have seen extra-terrestrial activity from the balcony of his flat in Kelvin Gate, looking in the direction of Chavey Down and Ascot at around 11.30pm that night.

The 30-year-old said: “At first I thought it was a helicopter because there are a lot of police helicopters that fly over this area but the light was bigger than usual and there was no sound – I expected that if it was a machine there would be a great sound.

“Then I thought it might be a meteorite or fireball but I have seen shooting stars before and they move very quickly. This had more constant, controlled speed and it was moving sideways rather than down.

“It was an orange blob and it was glowing – like a lightbulb, for example.

“It was there for no more than 15 or 20 seconds at most and then it became a small dot.”

But he says he knows it was not a Chinese lantern.

“I have seen Chinese lanterns before and they drift upwards and move with the wind.

“This was completely different.

“It wasn’t moving with the wind.

“I’m not usually the sort of person who believes in flying saucers but I don’t know what this was.

“And I wasn’t drunk or anything.”

Stargazers have been in touch since the story was posted this site to say what Zdravko saw could have been a satellite.

The US space agency NASA publishes information as to when satellites can be seen above towns and cities.

According to the NASA website, a satellite could have been seen above Bracknell at an elevation of 83 degrees, approaching from the west and departing in the east at about 10.30pm on Friday.

The next times satellites can be seen above Bracknell are tonight, when a satellite arrives from a west-south-west direction and departs in a southerly direction at 10.24pm.

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I too thought it could be a satellite, but after a bit of research on the Internet it seems that satellites appear not much bigger than a bright star if looked from the ground with naked eyes. It is strange how many people observed similar objects and at first they all think it is an aircraft on fire - this was also my first thought - shape like helicopter but in bright orange flames.. still moving horizontally .. just didn't make any sense really. So there should be some other explanation, I'm sure it was not a satellite... any other ideas?

ZN, Bullbrook, Bracknell
09/07/2010 at 16:21

My wife and I saw two 'UFOs??' at around the same time last Friday night. At first we thought it was an aircraft or helicopter on fire. It appeared to be an irregularly shaped ball of orange flame. It was followed by another approx 30 seconds later. They came from the south east towards us (in Crowthorne), hovered for a few seconds then turned to the east and finally disappeared.

They were definitely not orbiting. They appeared to be flying at the height and speed of a helicopter, one following the other. We would be very interested in finding out what these actually were.