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Update: Lights in the sky south of West Seattle = lanterns

December 25, 2009 8:52 pm
|      22 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | WS miscellaneous

8:52 PM: Two notes have come in on this, from Arbor Heights and Shorewood, so we’re posting them just in case anyone else (a) saw this and/or (b) knows what it was. First one was from Scott in Shorewood:

I live in Shorewood and about 7:45 I looked out my window and saw 3 orange/yellow flames in the sky. They kind of floated around for about 5 minutes and then slowly disappeared. Do you have any idea what this was or did anyone else see?

Second, from Matt in Arbor Heights:

My wife and I just saw three strange orange lights over Burien tonight around 7:45 pm. We live in the Arbor Heights area and were out back when we saw three orange lights in a line heading from the south to the west. They grew further and further apart to eventually going all different directions and then just fading away. Very strange. We just wanted to know if anyone else saw this. I tried to capture a video on my phone but nothing can be seen as they were to far away.

Flares? Fireworks? Airport-related? We might never know (though we’re checking around for corroboration and/or reports elsewhere), but at least if you saw them too, you’ll know it wasn’t necessarily a Christmas-night hallucination. 10:03 PM: In comments, Lesley has a theory – flying lanterns. 10:13 PM: And a more direct confirmation.

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22 Replies to "Update: Lights in the sky south of West Seattle = lanterns"

  • Genesse December 25, 2009 (9:11 pm)

    We just saw them in Portland too- we are visiting family.

  • Lesley December 25, 2009 (9:45 pm)

    I have done a little research and I think it could be these:

    http://www.flyingchineselanterns.com/displays.htm

  • WSB December 25, 2009 (9:49 pm)

    You know – we had a report about some of those elsewhere in West Seattle in the past year or two. Searching the archives now to see if I can find that report. Thanks! – TR
    .
    (added)
    Previous report was from a wedding celebration in August 2008.
    https://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=9818
    Although I don’t think that would explain a Portland sighting, unless coincidentally someone did the same thing there!

  • dawsonct December 25, 2009 (9:52 pm)

    That looks pretty cool Lesley. Thanks for the link.

  • Kristin December 25, 2009 (10:05 pm)

    Yep, we saw them and can confirm they are Chinese lanterns! They looked awesome, very magical. My husband (the astronomer) claims they are a frequent source of UFO repostings, ha ha! We saw them float up and over our house, and at least two burned out just as they were heading out of sight to the West.

    • WSB December 25, 2009 (10:12 pm)

      Thanks. Glad to have a mystery solved so quickly. Will think of these the next time “light in the sky” reports come in – although they’re not too frequent, and we’ve heard of meteors, space junk, flares, etc., often enough to NOT suspect UFOs right off the bat!

  • I. Ponder December 25, 2009 (10:06 pm)

    Reindeer! Duh!

  • Brian December 25, 2009 (10:47 pm)

    Aliens!

  • Mike F December 25, 2009 (11:34 pm)

    Yow. Sounds like a fire hazard!

  • Mark Mc December 26, 2009 (4:11 am)

    Hay Guys,
    We saw these lights at about 11:20pm Irish time over the skys of dublin Ireland. Three lights first heading west to east, followed by a fourth about 1min later. took about 2-3min’s to cross over out of sight.

  • Mike December 26, 2009 (9:17 am)

    I’m from Milton Keynes U.K (not far from London)It was approx 8.50pm I spotted 1 orange object that looked like a flame ball followed by a second that I saw a piece of flame fall off. The second followed the same line in a straight line and then went off to the right, then about an hour later I spotted a third travelling from a completetly different direction towards where the other two dissapeared.

  • Mike December 26, 2009 (9:19 am)

    I don’t know what there were, they were traveling very high and Very fast. I thought they could be programmed sattelites that had been destroyed or something.

  • cathyw December 26, 2009 (9:40 am)

    It was the Three Wise Men heading home after helping us celebrate the Christmas holidays. :)

  • John smith December 26, 2009 (9:50 am)

    some people are saying these lights are laterns,

    they are not.

    In the UK a ex-defense minster has said that the lights are UFOs, he ruled out aircraft, flares, military training excersises, and chinese laterns.

    the lights he said are propelled like aircraft, they have been seen flying in formation across most parts of the world.
    Even though he didn’t say UFO or little green men – its clear he was pointing to aliens as he had depleted the rest of the reasoning behind them quite well.

  • cathyw December 26, 2009 (10:02 am)

    Coincidentally, there is, at this moment, a beautiful photo of these lanterns on the “Front Page” of the MSNBC web site: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/ People in the photo are lighting them to commemorate the 5th Anniversary of the Asian tsunami. The image will probably be off the front page in a while, but I’m sure it will be posted somewhere on their page for most of the day if you care to look for it. Re: the August 2008 incident, you can see from the comments that one of the burnt out lanterns landed in my yard. We’re lucky it didn’t start a fire.

  • Wisepunk December 26, 2009 (11:25 am)

    It’s not a streetlamp.

  • dawsonct December 26, 2009 (1:29 pm)

    Not certain how a burned out lantern is going to start a fire.

  • cathyw December 26, 2009 (4:18 pm)

    Actually, I don’t know that it was burned out when it landed. We’re up on a hill and it appeared the lantern had drifted hoizontally over from the beach. My understanding is that these lanterns are miniature versions of hot air balloons and use some kind of live fire as a propellant. Also, it was August and we were in the middle of a drought, so everyone was already concerned about the fire danger.

  • candy t. December 28, 2009 (12:59 pm)

    I watched the lights in questions for well over an hour after midnight on Dec. 26. The lights did not move. I asked my girls if it was a plane, or something shouldn’t the lights be assending or descending. They said it could be a star burning out. But the lights were too low. They remained in the same exact place for as long as I watched them in the south eastern sky in Vancouver Wa. There were at least 4 or 5 lights in a horizontal line, flashing on occasion, but never changing location. I’m just glad someone else observed them too.

  • anubis January 1, 2010 (2:12 am)

    last night 1/1/2010 at 12.01 my husband, daughter and I saw a light bright orange traveling in a straight line, my daughter pointed it out through the fireworks we automatically assumed it was a helicopter as it was traveling steadily.

    within minutes 3 more appeared when we started to take notice on their direction, they were appearing from 2 different directions but were all heading towards one point over the sea before disappearing.

    between 12.01 and 12.55 we saw 12 in total there was no wind or any sound to these lights, I have never seen this before so googled orange lights and found this has been happening all over the UK

    the explanation seems to be chinese laterns, but unless chinese laterns travel in formation and there was no wind last night

  • paul u k January 1, 2010 (5:59 pm)

    Cardiff Wales New Years Eve 12.15 to 12.40 a.m.

    Three of us were out the front lighting off fireworks when we saw the same orange lights we saw on Christmas night.
    There was a procession of them one after the other about 20 travelling about 300 mph 1000ft agl from east to west approx following the M4 corridor along the south wales coast.
    No sounds or flashing lights so most definatley not aircraft and impossible to be Chinese lanterns! Many other people I spoke to today said they saw them and we got it on video and photos. I think I saw the underside of one which flew close by and it appeared flat and circular but i m not sure.

    We have never seen anything weird in the sky before but while out walking last xmas night we saw 3 coming from south then turning east to see this last night I think there is activity building world wide.

    My view is that the governments are now being by passed and contact will be made soon with these peaceful aliens as we are now ready to join the inter gallactic club.:)

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