Two questions, possibly about the same phenomenon. EdOn Tuesday 4 September at about 2030 GMT I noticed what appeared to be a planet in the northern sky. Since this is impossible I looked closely at it. Shortly after I began watching, its brightness dropped from an approximate -2 (about that of
Sirius, the brightest star in the sky) to about +6 (the faintest visible with the naked eye) over the course of a minute or so. What could it have been? For the astronomers out there, the location in the sky was approximately:
right ascension 7,
declination +60.
Mike Ruddock, Evesham, UKAt about 2200 GMT on 4 September, we saw two bright orange/red stationery round objects in the north-western sky. They looked like very bright, Mars-like planets, but appeared three times as wide in the sky. One object was located diagonally below the other, at an angular distance of 2 degrees.
They came towards us very slowly before flying, with increased acceleration, in a south-easterly direction, becoming fainter and smaller. No sound came from them, and they kept the separation distance at all times. The whole spectacle lasted for about 15 minutes.
Our area is regularly visited by aircraft from the air bases at Mildenhall and Lakenheath, so we are no strangers to night-flying exercises. What we found very strange is that, unlike the navigation lights of most aircraft, which are bright white, these were orange/red. Also, there were no flashing lights, which are seen on all civil and military aircraft.
The altitude they were flying at was difficult to judge but we would say about the same as most of the 'regular' night-flying aircraft.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what was going on? Also, have similar objects been observed?
Ithel and Omara Williams, Waterbeach, Cambridge
